W. H. Hudson and the Elusive Paradise PDF
Preview W. H. Hudson and the Elusive Paradise
W. H. HUDSON AND THE ELUSIVE PARADISE W. H. Hudson and the Elusive Paradise David Miller Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-349-20552-3 ISBN 978-1-349-20550-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20550-9 © David Miller 1990 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990 978-0-333-46812-8 All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 First Published in the United States of America in 1990 ISBN 978-0-312-03698-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Miller, David, 1950-- W. H. Hudson and the elusive paradise I David Miller. p. em. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-312-03698-0 1. Hudson, W. H. (William Henry), 1841-1922-Criticismand interpretation, 2. Paradise in literature.!. Title. PR60 15.U23Z691990 828'.809-dc20 89-10674 CIP This book is dedicated to Cid Corman and Robert Hampson Contents List of Abbreviations ix Preface X Introduction 1 Part One 1 Experience and Understanding 25 2 ·'The Supernatural in All Natural Things' 37 3 'A Marvellous Small Paradise' 45 4 'Negative' Epiphany 52 5 Imagination 57 6 Symbolic Meaning 61 7 Personal Being and Immortality 70 8 Ideological Perspectives 75 Part Two 9 Hudson's Fiction 87 10 Approaches to the Fiction-I 95 11 Approaches to the Fiction-II 102 12 The Purple Land 106 13 A Crystal Age 115 14 ElOmbu 124 vii viii Contents 15 Green Mansions 136 16 Dead Man's Plack and An Old Thorn 164 Conclusion 173 Notes 176 Select Bibliography 203 Index 207 List of Abbreviations Adventures Among Birds AAB Birds and Man BM The Book of a Naturalist BN A Crystal Age CA Dead Man's Plack and An Old Thorn DMP '::1 Ombu EO Far Away and Long Ago FALA Green Mansions GM f-lampshire Days HD A Hind in Richmond Park HRP The Land's End LE Letters from W. H. Hudson to Edward Garnett LWHH Men, Books and Birds MBB Nature in Downland ND The Purple Land PL A Traveller in Little Things TLT ix Preface My decision to write about W. H. Hudson grew from a long-term admiration for his writing, and from the conviction that an approach centring upon the symbolic aspects of his work would reveal the nature of his achievement more clearly than any previous account. Hudson's fiction and non-fiction share the same fundamental symbolism: that of the elusive Paradise. Through attention to the concrete details of the world, in certain moments at least, Hudson apprehends an invisible or supernatural dimension. These moments might appropriately be termed epiphanic. What I shall call 'affirmative' epiphany affirms the earthly by revealing the divine through or within it; it is either directly paradisiac, or assimilable to a vision of the earthly Paradise. In contrast to the 'affirmative' epiphany, there is also 'negative' epiphany which opens up a chasm of terror and dread. Violence, affliction, and human submersion in evil are among the things that play into the notion of 'negative' epiphany. In Hudson's fiction there are also indications that evil is written into the network of chance and natural law; so that the 'darkness' or evil disclosed by 'negative' epiphany can be seen as ontologically prior to the actions of the human will. The paradisial endures as a fractured and elusive aspect of experience, constantly threatened by contingency, violence, or evil. I shall also be discussing the way in which, for Hudson, rationalistic and mechanistic ideologies (especially Darwinism) formed an obstacle to consistent belief in the spiritual. In order to redress the tendency to concentrate on Hudson first and foremost as a nature writer, I have given priority to his fiction, which develops the mythopoeic or symbolic aspects of his vision to a greater extent and for this reason involves a deeper or more profound expression of that vision. I have organised my account into two main divisions. In Part One I use examples from Hudson's non-fictional works; this is to present a case for the symbolic aspects of Hudson's work in terms of the non-fiction-where they are less obvious. In Part Two I will show how these concerns are pursued at greater depth in the fiction. X Preface xi This study of W. H. Hudson was originally undertaken as a PhD dissertation at London University (Royal Holloway College). During the period of writing the thesis, many people helped me with various kinds of encouragement, support, and advice: of these, I should particularly like to thank Cid Corman, Robert Hampson, Doreen Maitre, Florence Miller, Peter Skerratt, Elizabeth Welch, Gadi Hollander, Martin Mitchell, David Menzies, Mark Beech, James Crouch, John Levy, Marius Kociejowski, and Wendy Saloman. Quotations from Robert Hamilton: W. H. Hudson: The Vision of Earth are reprinted by permission of J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. DAVID MILLER
The list of books you might like
