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Rating: 
Summary: This book stays in your heart and mind your entire life.
Review: (Like the other reviewers that have read this book) I read this book when I was in jr. high. It has stayed in my mind and heart all these years (approx 35 yrs). It is amazing that others have been touched by this story as I have been. I think I shall read it again now that I have found it.
Rating:
Summary: I've been haunted by this book since I was twelve.
Review: I read the Classic Comic version of this book many times when I was a kid. I've only now just read the original and found it's haunting beauty lingered in my mind for the last 2 weeks. The description of Abels mental travails at the end of the book is a particularly memorable and inspired.
Rating:
Summary: A beautifully told tale
Review: JB Priestly wrote a book about time ('Man and Time') and in it he referred to a WH Hudson novel called 'A Crystal Age'. His couple of paragraphs about 'A Crystal Age' stimulated my interest but nowhere could I find the novel he referred to. However, I did find 'Green Mansions' and I have read it several times. It is a beautiful novel with an undertone of darkness (is death the darkness that we all live with during the beauty of life?). Perhaps 'Green Mansions' disappointed me a little after triggering my romantic nerve. I did, however, keep exploring the writings of WH Hudson - 'Long Ago and Far Away', 'The Purple Land', 'Idle Days in Patagonia' and the wonderful 'A Shepherd's Life'. On a recent trip to the States I visited a small specialist bookshop where it was suggested I might be able to get access to 'A Crystal Age' through abebooks.com. This was great advice. I have just finished reading 'A Crystal Age' and I concur with JB Priestley's assessment. 'A Crystal Age' is worth the effort of pursuing - it is a surprising first-person utopian novel in which Hudson's love of nature does not render him oblivious to the fact that there are downsides in all worlds - all imaginable worlds. Just like the dark shadows in 'Green Mansions'. The end of 'A Crystal Age' is so surprising - I believe very few readers would see what is coming - I certainly didn't as I rushed on towards it. There is a certain illogic to the ending, but there is also something that haunts me continuously. I hope the illogic has not been a contributing factor in this novel's failure to be reprinted. But why else has it not been picked up - I am sure there is a market. 'A Crystal Age' is a stronger less romantic novel than 'Green Mansions', but it is also exceptional for many reasons. I don't hesitate in recommending 'Green Mansions' but I also urge readers to pursue 'A Crystal Age' - it is only a matter of time before I will be re-reading it myself. As for publishers who are looking for books from the past to reprint - give 'A Crystal Age' a look.
Rating: 
Summary: The green fields of WH Hudson
Review: JB Priestly wrote a book about time ('Man and Time') and in it he referred to a WH Hudson novel called 'A Crystal Age'. His couple of paragraphs about 'A Crystal Age' stimulated my interest but nowhere could I find the novel he referred to. However, I did find 'Green Mansions' and I have read it several times. It is a beautiful novel with an undertone of darkness (is death the darkness that we all live with during the beauty of life?). Perhaps 'Green Mansions' disappointed me a little after triggering my romantic nerve. I did, however, keep exploring the writings of WH Hudson - 'Long Ago and Far Away', 'The Purple Land', 'Idle Days in Patagonia' and the wonderful 'A Shepherd's Life'. On a recent trip to the States I visited a small specialist bookshop where it was suggested I might be able to get access to 'A Crystal Age' through abebooks.com. This was great advice. I have just finished reading 'A Crystal Age' and I concur with JB Priestley's assessment. 'A Crystal Age' is worth the effort of pursuing - it is a surprising first-person utopian novel in which Hudson's love of nature does not render him oblivious to the fact that there are downsides in all worlds - all imaginable worlds. Just like the dark shadows in 'Green Mansions'. The end of 'A Crystal Age' is so surprising - I believe very few readers would see what is coming - I certainly didn't as I rushed on towards it. There is a certain illogic to the ending, but there is also something that haunts me continuously. I hope the illogic has not been a contributing factor in this novel's failure to be reprinted. But why else has it not been picked up - I am sure there is a market. 'A Crystal Age' is a stronger less romantic novel than 'Green Mansions', but it is also exceptional for many reasons. I don't hesitate in recommending 'Green Mansions' but I also urge readers to pursue 'A Crystal Age' - it is only a matter of time before I will be re-reading it myself. As for publishers who are looking for books from the past to reprint - give 'A Crystal Age' a look.
Rating: 
Summary: Hmmm, i seem to disagrreee
Review: My mother having read this book sometime before I was born in the 50's, was so moved that she named me after Rima. When I was 12 I read it for the first time, and after moving many times the book was lost. I have always wanted to re-read it as an adult feeling that there was quite a bit more I would appreciate now. I am delighted to have located this novel, and will be thrilled not to have to explain to my friends once more where my name originated. I will just loan them the book!
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, mystical story of adventure and love
Review: The main male charachter has reason to leave civilization and travels far into South American jungles, meets with native tribes, and finds one which takes him in. They all seem happy with him until his curiosity gets the best of him, and he goes to a 'forbiden forest' so feared by this tribe he becomes ostricised for having been there. In the second part of this book he befriends a mysterious girl who lives in the forest and seems more farie than human. He finds himself doing things for her which he would have never thought he would do for another person. This is a clasic love story, intriguing, beautiful, and tragic. This was one of my first introductions to the classics of lliterature, and prompted me to find and read more of classic literature which has greatly enriched the scope of my reading experiences.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, mystical story of adventure and love
Review: The main male charachter has reason to leave civilization and travels far into South American jungles, meets with native tribes, and finds one which takes him in. They all seem happy with him until his curiosity gets the best of him, and he goes to a 'forbiden forest' so feared by this tribe he becomes ostricised for having been there. In the second part of this book he befriends a mysterious girl who lives in the forest and seems more farie than human. He finds himself doing things for her which he would have never thought he would do for another person. This is a clasic love story, intriguing, beautiful, and tragic. This was one of my first introductions to the classics of lliterature, and prompted me to find and read more of classic literature which has greatly enriched the scope of my reading experiences.
Rating:
Summary: A Victorian Romantic
Review: We read this book for a class that I took on Victorian naturalism, and it was probably one of the books we studied that I liked the most. Although Hudson is an accomplished scientist in his own right, he weaves that expertise together with a mysterious, romantic story about a daring explorer traveling through unknown lands. A few of his characters are rather fantastical, true, but somehow Hudson makes sure you are along for the ride. Hudson's love of ornithology and respect for the wild places of the world can be found on almost every page. The book is a quick read, too, but you'll still be thinking about it once you've read it.
Rating:
Summary: Romance versus Superiority
Review: William Henry Hudson's novel Green Mansions is an exotic romance that takes place in the South American rainforest. The novel is written from the perspective of Abel, a young man who had to leave the city he was living in for political reasons. During his time in the rainforest he meets Rima, who he describes as a bird-like girl, and her grandfather Nuflo. Despite these two, Abel mainly interacts with the Indians with whom he was living before he met Rima and Nuflo. The Indians are mostly referred to as savages.
Green Mansions mainly focuses on the intimation of love and death, and the romanticism of nature versus the disturbing influences of civilization. However, Abel does not see any living creature during his stay in the rainforest as equal to him. He thinks of himself as superior to the Indians, Nuflo, and to Rima as well. He bases his sense of superiority on a better education, a greater intelligence, as well as a better physical condition. This sense of superiority is kept throughout the novel. However, his arrogance is one way to deal with his insecurity about many situations. Abel only seems to feel secure if he sees himself as superior to everybody else. This is the reason why he defines superiority based on the situation. Sometimes superiority is referred to as greater intelligence and in other cases as physical superiority. The way he uses superiority depends on the way it is easier for him to define himself as superior.
Rating:
Summary: Romance versus Superiority
Review: William Henry Hudson's novel Green Mansions is an exotic romance that takes place in the South American rainforest. The novel is written from the perspective of Abel, a young man who had to leave the city he was living in for political reasons. During his time in the rainforest he meets Rima, who he describes as a bird-like girl, and her grandfather Nuflo. Despite these two, Abel mainly interacts with the Indians with whom he was living before he met Rima and Nuflo. The Indians are mostly referred to as savages.
Green Mansions mainly focuses on the intimation of love and death, and the romanticism of nature versus the disturbing influences of civilization. However, Abel does not see any living creature during his stay in the rainforest as equal to him. He thinks of himself as superior to the Indians, Nuflo, and to Rima as well. He bases his sense of superiority on a better education, a greater intelligence, as well as a better physical condition. This sense of superiority is kept throughout the novel. However, his arrogance is one way to deal with his insecurity about many situations. Abel only seems to feel secure if he sees himself as superior to everybody else. This is the reason why he defines superiority based on the situation. Sometimes superiority is referred to as greater intelligence and in other cases as physical superiority. The way he uses superiority depends on the way it is easier for him to define himself as superior.
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