13 h 7 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a promise draws you across cold mountains toward a love that refuses to end with death?
In H. Rider Haggard’s Ayesha, the Return of She, Horace Holly and Leo Vincey cannot find peace in England. Years after their encounter with the queen known as She, they set out across Central Asia. Leo believes Ayesha will return to him. Holly follows out of loyalty, though doubt travels with him.
Their search leads into high, cold country, through danger and strange rites. Atene, a mountain queen with ambitions of her own, becomes entangled in their quest. At its heart stands Ayesha: proud, intelligent and dangerous, bound to Leo by a love she believes reaches beyond a single life. What does keeping such a promise demand?
What you’ll discover
- A hard road east Follow Holly and Leo into Central Asia, where mountains give their search a harsh physical edge.
- A queen beyond forgetting Meet Ayesha, whose pride and intelligence make her devotion as dangerous as it is powerful.
- Loyalty tested by doubt See the quest through Holly’s plain-spoken account, as friendship carries him beyond what reason can explain.
- Ambition in the mountains Encounter Atene, a queen whose own desires become entangled with the travellers’ search.
- The cost of forever Explore destiny, enduring love, and the price of wanting more than one life can give.
Who will love it
For readers who love Victorian and Edwardian adventure, lost worlds and romance with a touch of the supernatural, and anyone drawn to ancient mysteries, mountain quests and love that claims to outlast death.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two men cannot forget a queen
- The road leads east into the mountains
- Love, rivalry and a fate already written
- What the story is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Horace HollyA learned, plain-spoken scholar who tells the story and follows his friend out of loyalty, though he doubts what they are chasing.
- Leo VinceyHolly's young friend, who is driven by a deep belief that the queen he met in Kor will return to him.
- AyeshaThe proud, long-lived queen known as She, whose love for Leo is meant to outlast death and time.
- AteneA queen of the mountain country with her own ambitions, who becomes entangled with the travellers and their quest.
Formats and delivery
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- Audiobook
- 13 h 7 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 4 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Read and hear Ayesha, the Return of She in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Ayesha, the Return of She
by H. Rider Haggard · 1905
Holly and Leo search Central Asia for a queen who promised to return, facing danger and tests of love and belief.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Ayesha, the Return of She is an adventure novel by H. Rider Haggard, published in 1905.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two men cannot forget a queen
The novel picks up about twenty years after the end of She. Holly and Leo Vincey have returned to England, but neither man is at peace. What they saw in the hidden land of Kor has marked them both.
Holly is the narrator, and he is a cautious, self-mocking man who prefers books to wonders. Leo is younger and more driven. He believes that the woman they met in Kor, Ayesha, who is called She Who Must Be Obeyed, has not gone from the world for good. She had promised that she would return.
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What is Ayesha, the Return of She about?
It is a sequel to She. Horace Holly and Leo Vincey travel into Central Asia searching for Ayesha, the queen they met years before, and face danger, rival rulers and tests of love and belief.
Do I need to read She before Ayesha?
It is best to read She first. Ayesha builds directly on that story, its characters and the promise made in it, so the sequel is richer if you already know them.
Who is Ayesha in the book?
Ayesha is the immortal queen from She, also called She Who Must Be Obeyed. She is powerful, clever and feared, and she is bound by love to Leo Vincey.
The author
H. Rider Haggard
1856–1925 · English adventure novelist
Henry Rider Haggard (1856–1925) was an English novelist. He was born in Norfolk, lived in southern Africa from 1875 to 1881, and later settled in Norfolk. He wrote King Solomon’s Mines (1885), She (1887), and Beatrice (1890). He also wrote about agriculture and rural life. He died in London.
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