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sexual imperative in the novels of Sir Henry Rider Haggard
The book represents a detailed consideration of the development of the theme of the sexual imperative primarily through the prism of ten of Haggard's novels, a largely unexplored area of his fiction, but also in certain of his contemporary romances. The book fills an important gap in Haggard scholarship which has traditionally tended to focus upon his early romances and to center on their political and psychological resonances, and to contribute to wider current debates on Victorian and turn of the century literature. It explores the relationship between Haggard's fictional rendition of this theme and aspects of his personal history and it proposes that his preoccupation with it constitutes in significant part an outworking of deeply personal sexual and emotional issues. The book relates Haggard's fiction to the literary and social context in which he wrote. It contends that although his treatment of this theme is not nearly as adventurous as that of some of his literary contemporaries his repeated consideration of what he regarded as the most important human driver lends his fiction a strength and integrity which has not been fully recognized.
The Sexual Imperative -- The Origins of Haggard's Fictional Writing -- The Early Novels (1884-1895): Youthful Anger -- The New Woman, Female Self-Sacrifice and Spirituality (1887-1901) -- Spiritual Love and Sexual Renunciation (1899-1908) -- The Final Fiction: Spiritual Consolation and the Dictates of the Sexual Imperative (1909-30) -- Summation: A Personal Odyssey.
Includes bibliographical references and index.