otrops reviewed Green mansions by William Henry Hudson (Oxford world's classics)
Review of 'Green mansions' on 'Storygraph'
2 stars
I expected to enjoy this book. I've read some of [author:Hudson|389792]'s nature writing and thought highly of it. His close observation of plants and animals is impressive. He reports those observations in a way that clearly conveys his love of the subject. His fascination and enthusiasm are contagious.
I first encountered Hudson when I found [book:Hampshire Days|3917194] in our local library. I loved most of that book, but there was one chapter in which Hudson attempts a systematic categorization of the people who live in Hampshire. That chapter was condescending at best and racist at worst. That should have prepared me for what I'd find in Green Mansions, but I put it down to being a symptom of being written 100 years ago and largely forgotten about it.
Green Mansions can be read in two ways, and neither of them is very satisfying.
The first is to read it as …
I expected to enjoy this book. I've read some of [author:Hudson|389792]'s nature writing and thought highly of it. His close observation of plants and animals is impressive. He reports those observations in a way that clearly conveys his love of the subject. His fascination and enthusiasm are contagious.
I first encountered Hudson when I found [book:Hampshire Days|3917194] in our local library. I loved most of that book, but there was one chapter in which Hudson attempts a systematic categorization of the people who live in Hampshire. That chapter was condescending at best and racist at worst. That should have prepared me for what I'd find in Green Mansions, but I put it down to being a symptom of being written 100 years ago and largely forgotten about it.
Green Mansions can be read in two ways, and neither of them is very satisfying.
The first is to read it as an allegory. Hudson is wrestling with two ways in which human beings approach nature: conquest and wonder. His portrayal of wonder is excellent—there are the same closely observed descriptions of nature in action that I've enjoyed in his other writing. His portrayal of conquest is much more problematic. European conquest of nature is portrayed as born of necessity, while the conquest of nature of the so-called "savages" in this book is portrayed as, well, savage. This is one of the key issues that I had with this book, but not the only one.
The second way to read this book is as a straight-forward adventure novel. This way of reading the book is even less satisfying than the first. This is largely because Abel, the protagonist in this adventure, is almost wholly without redeeming qualities. I can imagine that Hudson wrote Abel in this way to appeal to his audience. Green Mansions was immensely popular in its day, so this must have worked. From a modern perspective, however, Abel is little more than an arrogant prick. Abel's relationship with Rima, his love interest in the book, is a disturbing combination of desire and manipulation. In fact, there were times when Abel very much reminded me of Humbert Humbert. His relationship with others in the book is worse. He abandons or outright betrays those who have taken him in and helped him. He repays generosity with selfishness. The one thing he excels at is what would be called "mansplaining" today. By the end of the book he is more of a villain than a hero. But he manages to live with himself by developing a self-serving philosophy that justifies all of the wrongs he has done to others.
I will probably read other books by Hudson. I may even try another one of his attempts at fiction. I can't recommend this book, though. If you'd like to get an insight into the mind of colonial Europeans or into Hudson's own way of seeing the world, you may want to read this. However, it's not a book I'd recommend if you're looking for a book to simply read and enjoy.