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

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 Cassell & Co is a British book publishing house, founded in 1848 by John Cassell (1817–1865), which became in the 1890s an international publishing group company. In 1995, Cassell & Co acquired Pinter Publishers. In December 1998, Cassell & ...

, London, 7 September 1906."Benita_[The_Spirit_of_Bambatse
_at_[visualhaggard.org.html" ;"title="he Spirit of Bambatse">"Benita [The Spirit of Bambatse
at [visualhaggard.org">he Spirit of Bambatse">"Benita [The Spirit of Bambatse
at [visualhaggard.org Cassell reissued the title in 1920 and 1926. Subsequent British editions were published by Chariot Books in 1952 and Macdonald & Co. in 1965. An ebook edition was issued by

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

in March 2006. The first U.S. edition was published by Longman, 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. The significance of the collection was recognized by its republication (also as ''The Spirit of Bambatse'') by the

Newcastle Publishing Company The Newcastle Publishing Company was a Southern California-based small trade paperback publisher founded by bookstore owner Al Saunders, active from July 1971 through October 1992, under the editorial direction of Robert Reginald and Douglas Men ...

as the twenty-second volume of the

Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library The Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library was a series of trade paperback books published in the United States by the Newcastle Publishing Company between 1973 and 1980. Presumably under the inspiration of the earlier example set by the Ballantine A ...

series in October, 1979. The Newcastle edition was reissued by Wildside Press in February 2001. 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).

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 Everett Franklin Bleiler (April 30, 1920 – June 13, 2010) was an American editor, bibliographer, and scholar of science fiction, detective fiction, and fantasy literature. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he co-edited the first "year's best" s ...

described ''Benita'' as "a good adventure story, but without the power or depth of Haggard's other work."

Notes

External links

Complete book
at

* Novels by H. Rider Haggard 1906 British novels 1906 fantasy novels {{1900s-fantasy-novel-stub