Green Mansions

Description

Classic master of natural history writing W. H. Hudson forms an important link between nineteenth-century Romanticism and the twentiethcentury ecological movement. His most famous novel, Green Mansions, now resplendent in a glorious, fullcloth package featuring a foil-stamped cover, a new introduction by Margaret Atwood, and lavish interior illustrations by Keith Henderson, transports readers to the 1920s back-to-nature movement as Hudson captivates them with this timeless, mystical romance. Deep in the virgin forests of southwestern Venezuela, Abel, a man from Europe, seeks refuge from war. In this "green mansion," he encounters the wood nymph Rima, the last survivor of a mysterious aboriginal race. Abel is quickly captivated by her ethereal presence, and love blossoms between them. However, cruelty and sorrow lie in wait on the horizon, and the couple's romance is not fated to last forever. The new critical introduction by Margaret Atwood examines the classic novel in both its historical and modern contexts. Green Mansions offers its readers a poignant meditation on the loss of wilderness, the dream of a return to nature, and the bitter reality of the encounter between savage and civilized man. Hudson's halting, poetic expressions combined with his descriptions of untouched, natural beauty make Green Mansions a powerful a call back to nature.

W. H. Hudson (1841-1922) was a writer, naturalist, ornithologist and founding member of the RSPB. He is the author of such books as Far Away and Long Ago, Hampshire Days, Afoot in England, The Purple Land, and A Shepherd's Life, which helped foster the back-to-nature movement of the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Argentina, in 1874 he settled in England, moving in literary circles with Virginia Woolf and George Bernard Shaw. Margaret Atwood's work has been published in over thirty-five countries and is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid's Tale, her novels include Cat's Eye, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and Oryx and Crake

Delicate enchantment... a literary classic * New York Times * An allegory of eternal love * Variety * Argentina's Thoreau... William Henry Hudson fans the flame of romantic naturalism... His was a voice in the wilderness which, like that of Henry David Thoreau, was actually heard. Were he to be writing today, he'd surely find an audience in the green movement * Christian Science Monitor *