Benita: An African Romance
Cover of 1st edition
AuthorH. Rider Haggard
IllustratorGordon Browne
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
PublisherCassell & Company
Publication date
1906
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pagesvi, 334 pages

Benita: An African Romance (alternatively titled The Spirit of Bambatse) is a novel by H. Rider Haggard.[1]

Publication history

The novel was first published in serial form in Cassell's Magazine in the December 1905 through May 1906 issues; the first hardcover edition followed from Cassell & Company, London, 7 September 1906.[2][3] Cassell reissued the title in 1920 and 1926. Subsequent British editions were published by Chariot Books in 1952[3] and Macdonald & Co. in 1965.[2] An ebook edition was issued by Project Gutenberg in March 2006.[3]

The first U.S. edition was published by Longmans, Green and Co. in 1906 under the alternate title The Spirit of Bambatse, A Romance, which was Haggard's preferred title and was used for most later American editions.[2][3] The significance of the collection was recognized by its republication (also as The Spirit of Bambatse) by the Newcastle Publishing Company as the twenty-second volume of the Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library series in October, 1979. The Newcastle edition was reissued by Wildside Press in February 2001.[3][4]

The novel has also been gathered together with Haggard's Ayesha: The Return of She (1905) into the omnibus collection Ayesha: The Return of She / Benita: An African Romance (New Orchard, 1989).[3]

Plot

In an adventure mingling romance and the supernatural, the clairvoyant heroine Benita assists in a hunt for a lost Portuguese treasure buried in the Transvaal.

Reception

E. F. Bleiler described Benita as "a good adventure story, but without the power or depth of Haggard's other work."[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ "RIDER HAGGARD'S LATEST". The Register. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 8 September 1906. p. 9. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "Benita [The Spirit of Bambatse" at [visualhaggard.org].
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Benita: An African Romance title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  4. ↑ The Spirit of Bambatse title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  5. ↑ Bleiler, Everett F. (1990). The Guide to Supernatural Fiction. Kent State: Kent State University Press. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-87338-288-5.


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