She

A Cambridge scholar, Horace Holly, raises his ward Leo Vincey, and on Leo's twenty-fifth birthday they open a box containing an ancient potsherd and a family legend. Following it to the east coast of Africa, they reach a hidden kingdom ruled by Ayesha, a queen who has lived for two thousand years, waiting for the return of the man she loved, and whom her people call She-who-must-be-obeyed.

Published in 1886 and 1887, She was one of the best-selling novels of its time and influenced fantasy writers for generations; its queen bears the Arabic name Ayesha. Like King Solomon's Mines, it reflects the imperial attitudes of H. Rider Haggard's age, but its themes of immortality, love and power still fascinate.