The Visual Haggard

(Posted for Erica)
The visual Haggard is a digital archive intended to preserve novelist H. Rider Haggard's illustrations. I guess this guy was big on illustrations in his novels because there are atleast over 50 images. I even fooled around with the site and discovered some interesting illustrations. There are so many that it's crazy to think Haggard had the time to write all these novels and to get illustrators to create these images to go along with it back in the day. Some images are really graphic. One in particular was an illustration showing a dwarf jumping straight into the air with sharp knives coming in his direction. I can only assume that could be one crazy hell of a story. Another image was a gladiator type of man standing on the boat surrounded by dark lifeless bodies hanging off and on a ship. Although some of these images are disturbing, it's pretty cool that there are images that go along with the novels. This leads me to think that Haggard has a pretty creative mind. There are over 50 illustrations that go along with the texts and every single image seems like there is a bizarre plot behind it. Out of curiousity I researched Haggard and his work. Haggard has been praised for his literary skill and sheer imaginitive power. Through the images I already praise the guy. Also a fun fact I read is that Haggard created the character Allan Quatermain in one of his works and that character became the template for Indiana Jones. What a bad ass! Anyways, many readers have a hard time visualizing what they read. This is a problem especially for me when I read these old British literature texts because I am not use to it. This digital archive is a great way for readers to understand Haggard's texts a little bit better. The website also includes brief summaries of the novels. For instance, I looked at this week's reading She and the visual haggard displayed a brief summary of the plot and detailed information about when the novel was published. There is also a picture displayed that was probably included in the original text of the book. The picture is of the sherd of amenartas which was locked in Leo's fathers iron box and lead Leo, Holly, and their servant on their adventure to eastern Africa. They follow the directions on the sherd of amenartas, but from looking at the image I barely see any real directions. To me, it looks like gibberish. The only real words I can point out are "The Earth and She" which doesn't really help. Maybe it is written in a different old foreign language, but it's pretty weird to see this and make sense of what the characters followed in the story. I also discovered that there is a blog on the website. I guess this blog allows any reader to write any comments they want. This is interesting because most sites don’t have an option for readers to express their thoughts. Also weird because it is a site to preserve and share Haggard’s illustrations, I guess people still have a lot to say on the matter.