Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #322598 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
On the third day he asked Zweete how it was that his left hand was white and shriveled, and who were Umslopogaas and Nada, of whom he had let fall some words. Then the old man told him the tale that is set out here. Day by day he told some of it till it was finished. It was the past that spoke to his listener, telling of deeds long forgotten, of deeds that are no more known. And because the history of Nada the Lily and of those with whom her life was intertwined moved him strangely, and in many ways, he has done more, he has printed it that others may judge of it...

Customer Reviews

A splendidly evocative tale of the Zulus at their peak......
I have been searching for an in-print copy of this book for over 30 years since I first read it as a teenager. The book tells the tale of the hero Umslopogaas, the illegitimate son of the great Zulu king and military general, Chaka. It is at once a tale of adventure, romance and tragedy set against the back-drop of the rise of the Zulu nation during and after the reign of Chaka. Haggard includes many details of historical events that took place and his descriptions of the Africa of the Zulus, while sometimes over-blown, are entirely believable. Although the book is entitled 'Nada the Lily', the 'fair one' and the centre of the romantic interest in the novel, it is the whirl of events surrounding the main character Umslopogaas that drives the story. Haggard was clearly a great admirer of these proud and savage people and gives an accurate account of their society and early history, touched with a young man's feeling for the sense of adventure that Haggard must have felt himself during his days in Africa. Although the English used may sound a little strange to the modern reader, this book is an excellent read!

Pity about the mis-prints
Nada the Lily is undoubtably a good read. The story is well told and the book is hard to put down. Like a previous reviewer I too first read it when I was a teenager and for a long time had wanted to read it again. It was not available in my local or regional library so I searched Amazon and was pleased to find it there.
The print version I bought was the "Wildside Adventure" one, published in 2001 by Wildside Press. Regretably this version is strewn with typographic errors which take some of the enjoyment off the read and, at times, I found them very frustrating. There are literally dozens of them throughout the book. Some change the intended meaning of a sentence and a few make it absolute nonsense. I thoroughly recommend the book but suggest that this version is not the one to buy.

Nada the Lily
I was thrilled to be able to obtain a reprint of this book by H. Rider Haggard. However, I was less pleased by the quality of the typing which had obviously been done on a computer but had not been proof read properly. I appreciate that computers have made the production of old books more cost effective but I have several first editions by the same author that are over 100 years old which have, perhaps, one or two typographical errors in the entire volume.