Henry Rider Haggard, the sixth son of William and Ella Haggard, was born at Bradenham Hall, Norfolk, England on June 20, 1856. His father was a flamboyant lawyer and country squire who ruled his household strictly.

His eccentricity as a lawyer earned him considerable local notoriety, and his abusive treatment of his tenants and servants made him infamous throughout the county.

Though his father's short temper often made home life difficult, Haggard's gentle mother compensated somewhat for her husband's volatile behavior. Ella Haggard was a published poet, and she encouraged her son's interest in reading. Haggard read with relish such works as the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers. Haggard loved adventure tales of all types, and his childhood reading anticipated the exciting fiction which he himself would write years later.

Young Haggard was not considered a promising student...