Allan's Wife

Allan's Wife tells how Quatermain met English squire turned missionary Thomas Carson and Stella in the South African wilderness. Quatermain falls in love with and marries Stella but their union ends tragically after Stella is kidnapped by her sister-servant, the Baboon-Woman Hendrika.

In December 1889, Spencer Blackett, London, published the earliest non-pirated version of AW in Allan's Wife & Other Tales. AW&OT compiles Haggard's new novella, AW, with several of Haggard’s previously serialized novellas including "Hunter Quatermain's Story" (published and illustrated in the charitable anthology In a Good Cause, 1885), "A Tale of Three Lions" (serialized and illustrated in Atalanta Magazine, October through December 1887), and "Long Odds" (serialized but unillustrated in Macmillan's Magazine, February 1886). Illustrators Charles Kerr and Maurice Greiffenhagen both contributed to AW’s 34 illustrations. Kerr executed three full-page illustrations, while Greiffenhagen contributed five. Interestingly, the majority of illustrations in this book are supplemental lithographic prints integrated into the text. AW&OT has twelve in-text illustrations, eight chapter-head illustrations, four chapter-end illustrations, twelve chapter-head embellishments, thirteen decorative first letters, and thirteen embellished chapter-ends. These illustrations were used in subsequent editions of AW&OT including the edition published by Griffith, Farran, Okeden, and Welsh, London, in 1891. The Silver Library edition from 1895 published by Longmans, Green, and Co., London, uses these illustrations, as does Canadian publisher William Bryce, Toronto, in the 1889 edition (although this edition is missing chapter beginning and end embellishments). Frank F. Lovell & Co., New York, published the 1st US Edition in 1889. In 1890 Tauchnitz of Leipzig published a copyright edition. Whatmore records a 16-page pamphlet produced in 1889 by Haggard's literary agent A. P. Watt containing extracts from AW. Macdonald & Co., London, published an edition of AW illustrated by Hookway Cowles in January 1951, 1st thus, with a 3rd imprint appearing in November 1963.

Further Reading

Haggard, H. Rider. “Hunter Quatermain’s Story.” In a Good Cause. Ed. Margaret S. Tyssen Amhearst. London: Wells, Gardner, Darton, & Co., 1885. 211-237.

Pocock, Tom. Rider Haggard and the Lost Empire. London: Weidenfeld and Nicoloson, 1993. 76.

Whatmore, D.E.. H Rider Haggard: A Bibliography. Westport, CT: Meckler Publishing Co., 1987. F11, 19-21.