"This is the story of certain of the days that I, the scribe Ana, son of Meri, lived through, here upon this earth . . ." "I tell of Merapi—who was named Moon of Israel! — and of her people, the Hebrews, who dwelt for long in Egypt and departed thence—having paid us back in loss and shame for all the good and ill we gave them. " "And now I—the King's Companion, the great scribe, the beloved of the Pharaohs who have lived beneath the sun with me—tell of the war between the gods of Egypt and the god of Israel . . . I write of these matters now when I am very old in the reign of Rameses, before death takes me . . ."
Author
Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and the creator of the Lost World literary genre. His stories, situated at the lighter end of the scale of Victorian literature, continue to be popular and influential. He was also involved in agricultural reform and improvement in the British Empire. His breakout novel was King Solomon's Mines (1885), which was to be the first in a series telling of the multitudinous adventures of its protagonist, Allan Quatermain. Haggard was made a Knight Bachelor in 1912 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1919. He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Conservative candidate for the Eastern division of Norfolk in 1895. The locality of Rider, British Columbia, was named in his memory.
