Mahatma and the Hare: A Dream Story

by H. Rider Haggard

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Genres: Classics, Philosophy, Fantasy, Animals

164 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1911

About the 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.

Reviews

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Mahatma and the Hare" was first published in book form in 1911, and is one of H. Rider Haggard's rarer titles. The idea for this short novel came to Haggard, he states in the book's preface, after he had read a newspaper account of a hare that had swum out to sea to avoid being captured by pursuing hounds. In Haggard's story, the self-called mahatma--a spiritual man who is able, when asleep, to view "The Great White Road" on which the souls of those recently departed enter heaven--encounters the hare of the title after that animal's death. The hare tells the mahatma of the hardships and cruelties of his recent life: of how his entire family had been hunted to extinction; of his narrow escapes from hunters, greyhounds, and other hunting dogs; and, finally, of how he met his end. The hare also gets to debate the issue of animal rights with his chief hunter/enemy, near the book's end. This hunter is given time to plead his case, but Haggard's sympathies (and the reader's) are certainly with the poor, oppressed hare. This is a book that animal-rights activists will just adore, not to mention those readers who loved Richard Adams' "Watership Down." It is simply but beautifully written by Mr. Haggard; his only piece of fiction from the period 1910-11. Haggard, who himself had been an ardent hunter all his life, supposedly gave up the sport after writing this book. But strangely, despite Rider's future abstinence from hunting after this time, he continued to write of this sport in his future novels, especially those dealing with Allan Quatermain. But then again, Quatermain's profession WAS big-game hunting.

"The Mahatma and the Hare" is short enough to be easily read in one or two sittings and, with its fablelike quality, is even suitable for the kiddies. Although it shares many of the concerns found in other Haggard novels (spiritualism, afterlife, game hunting), the presentation here is quite different. The author is decidedly trying to alter readers' outlooks and morals with this book, but somehow, the light, simple tone prevents things from getting too preachy.
This may be a harder Haggard title to find in its original form, but the copy that I recently read, from Ayer Publishers, is a reprint edition that came out in 2000. It is a facsimile copy of the original Longmans, Green edition, and includes a dozen beautiful illustrations by W.T. Horton and H.M. Brock. For those not willing to shell out major bucks for a first edition, the Ayer volume is a great deal. The book is a real charmer, and I do recommend it.

[Trounin · Rating 3 out of 5]

В цепочке перерождений случается и такое — встретились двое, не раз имевшие знакомство прежде. Они помнят, что с ними происходило в прошлых жизнях. Как теперь иметь отношение друг с другом, вести философские беседы? Особенно зная, по чьей вине приходилось умирать. Райдер Хаггард решил поднять важную тему, касающуюся необходимости понимать суть происходящих на планете процессов. Человечеству нужно отказаться от немотивированной агрессии, выражающейся в качестве охоты, не связанной с необходимостью добычи пропитания. Следует исключить из допустимого спортивную охоту, нисколько не оправдываемую, как к ней не относись и какие свидетельства для оправдания не приводи.

(c) Trounin

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is subtitled, A dream story and was written in 1911 after Haggard read a newspaper story about a hare hunt, like fox hunting?, the hare, fleeing from hounds, ran into the ocean in an effort to get away. The basic outlines of the story came to Haggard in a dream that night. It is a fantasy containing many of the elements found in other Haggard novels: spiritualism, afterlife, reincarnation, game hunting along with being a bit existential. The heart of the story is a hare recounting his life in constant peril from people hunting for sport and his after death encounter with the man responsible and their conversation regarding the merits of sport hunting.

[Upendra Awasthi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brutal humanity needs compassion

Eyeopener for mankind. How cruel and incompassionate we are for others!? How inconsiderate we are in justify ourselves!? Thought provoking and life changing small book. I highly recommend and put it at Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher.
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[Kristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

A curious story about a hare, hunting, souls and the morality of killing animals for sport.

[Matt Kelland · Rating 4 out of 5]

An afterlife fantasy about animal welfare and the morality of hunting.