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Allan's Wife — cover
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Aeneas Press edition Victorian First published 1889

Allan's Wife

by H. Rider Haggard 1856–1925

The book, and the century it came out of.

How Quatermain married: a girl he knew as a child, found again in the veld after her father’s trek has come to grief, a Boer neighbour who wants her, and a baboon-woman on the hillside who wants something else. Haggard went to South Africa at nineteen and helped raise the Union Jack over the Transvaal; this 1889 novella fills in the wife Quatermain mentions once, in a sentence, in King Solomon’s Mines. Illustrated with 40 full-page plates — paintings by de Tournemine, Bierstadt and Saleh among them.

My Dear Macumazahn, It was your native name which I borrowed at the christening of that Allan who has become as well known to me as any other friend I have.
The first sentence of Allan's Wife
A note on this edition

Allan's Wife, by H. Rider Haggard, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 144 pages
Reading time
about 3 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486234897
The plates

40 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

African elephants, Charles de Tournemine
African elephants Charles de Tournemine 1867
Storm Over Hudson Valley, Frederic Edwin Church
Storm Over Hudson Valley Frederic Edwin Church 1867
View of Göschenen, Joseph Niklaus Bütler
View of Göschenen Joseph Niklaus Bütler 1867
Paysage de Provence. Vue de Saint-Saturnin-les-Apt., Paul Guigou
Paysage de Provence. Vue de Saint-Saturnin-les-Apt Paul Guigou 1867
Moonlight Champigny, Charles-François Daubigny
Moonlight Champigny Charles-François Daubigny 1867
Sunset over the Golden Horn, Ivan Aivazovsky
Sunset over the Golden Horn Ivan Aivazovsky 1866
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Allan's Wife as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Allan's Wife as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Allan's Wife, first published 1889, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Adventure & the Sea shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486234897, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Allan's Wife?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. H. Rider Haggard's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 144 pages, which is roughly about 3 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
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Allan's Wife
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