''Red Eve'' is a historical novel with fantasy elements, by British writer H. Rider Haggard, set in the reign of

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

. ''Red Eve'' depicts the

Battle of Crécy The Battle of Crécy took place on 26 August 1346 in northern France between a French army commanded by King PhilipVI and an English army led by King EdwardIII. The French attacked the English while they were traversing northern France du ...

and the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

, and also features a supernatural personification of

Death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

called Murgh.

Reception

Discussing ''Red Eve'',

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 ...

stated "While the personalities are still stereotyped, the tendency to be sententious is not as obtrusive as usual, and the narrative is relatively brisk. The introduction of Murgh as a symbol is successful." Pamela Cleaver called ''Red Eve'' a "stirring tale" and said "the incidents...keep one reading until the end". However, Cleaver criticised the novel's characterisation, saying that that novel's principals were "all stock characters."

Darrell Schweitzer Darrell Charles Schweitzer (born August 27, 1952) is an American writer, editor, and critic in the field of speculative fiction. Much of his focus has been on dark fantasy and horror fiction, horror, although he does also work in science fictio ...

described ''Red Eve'' as "a later novel of particular interest", saying it began as a "costume romance", but became a

weird fiction Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction originating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Weird fiction either eschews or radically reinterprets ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and other traditional antagonists of supernatural horr ...

novel with the "introduction of the character Murgh, a personification of the Black Death."Schweiter, Darrell. "Haggard, Rider", in Cardin, Matt, ''Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories that Speak to Our Deepest Fears'' Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2017. (pgs. 407-408)

References

External links

Complete book
at

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, 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 ...

1911 British novels Novels about the Black Death Fiction set in the 1340s Hundred Years' War literature Novels by H. Rider Haggard English historical novels English fantasy novels Weird fiction novels {{1910s-specf-novel-stub