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Aeneas Press edition Edwardian

The Wizard

by H. Rider Haggard 1856–1925

The book, and the century it came out of.

A missionary goes alone to a Zulu-speaking people whose king answers to a witch-doctor of real power, and offers a demonstration: his god against theirs. Haggard went to South Africa at nineteen and helped raise the Union Jack over the Transvaal; the striking thing about this 1896 novel is that the wizard is not a fraud and the missionary is not a fool, and the book will not say which of them is right. Illustrated with 42 full-page plates — paintings by Gude and Cappelen among them.

A note on this edition

The Wizard, 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 176 pages
Reading time
about 4 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486001307
The plates

42 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.

Høyfjellslandskap Med Opptrekkende Uvær, Hans Gude
Høyfjellslandskap Med Opptrekkende Uvær Hans Gude 1848
Landscape with a distant view of Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, and the river Wharfe, David Cox
Landscape with a distant view of Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, and the river Wharfe David Cox 1848
Scotch Highlands, Robert Seldon Duncanson
Scotch Highlands Robert Seldon Duncanson 1848
Berglandschap, Louis-Auguste Lapito
Berglandschap Louis-Auguste Lapito 1848
Blokhusene (Martinus Rørbye), Martinus Rørbye
Blokhusene (Martinus Rørbye) Martinus Rørbye 1848
Catechisating in a Norwegian country Church, Adolph Tidemand
Catechisating in a Norwegian country Church Adolph Tidemand 1847
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 The Wizard as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Wizard as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Wizard, 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, 9785486001307, 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 The Wizard?
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 176 pages, which is roughly about 4 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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The Wizard
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