Far Away and Long Ago: A History of My Early Life

William Henry HudsonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.2
Word count
529K words
Chapters
53

Tags

English Originals General Biography Nature ObservationCharacter PortrayalHumanistic CareSpiritual ComfortSlow ReadingMemoirBeautiful Essays

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Far Away and Long Ago: A History of My Early Life by W. H. HudsonAuthor: Hudson, W. H. (William Henry), 1841-1922,Language: English, Class: QL: Science: Zoology, Release Date: Jul 1, 2004

Editor's review

Far Away and Long Ago: A History of My Early Life is W. H. Hudson's memoir of his childhood and youth, classified by Project Gutenberg under zoology, which hints at the book's strong interest in nature observation. Set against a pampas-like rural landscape, it interweaves memories of personal growth with birds, beasts, plants, seasonal change, and family and neighbourhood life, in a calm and nostalgic tone. Its value lies not in dramatic events but in preserving, through keen natural observation and restrained narration, a picture of rural life that has vanished. Readers can take it as a memoir, or as nature writing and a chronicle of local life; it is especially suited to those interested in the relationship between humans and nature and in the writing of childhood experience. Read it slowly, following the author's detailed descriptions of animal behaviour and everyday scenes, to appreciate his powers of observation and emotional restraint; if you expect continuous plot or strong conflict, adjust your expectations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read in scattered chapters, and after each chapter recall the natural scene or character fragment that impressed you most.
  2. Keep pen and paper to note the animals and rural details that appear, reading it as a nature observation notebook.
  3. If the original English feels slow, start with chapters related to animals or childhood games, then decide the order for reading the whole.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53

FAQ

What is this book mainly about? It is the author's recollection of his childhood and youth, focused not on major events but on the rural environment, natural observation, and everyday family and neighbourhood life. Readers can take it as a memoir, nature writing and a record of local life, attending to how the author preserves an experience of personal growth in a calm tone.
Why is it classified under zoology? Project Gutenberg's classification lists it under a zoology-related category, which has to do with the book's many detailed observations of birds, beasts, insects and the natural environment. It is not, however, a systematic zoology textbook but a literary memoir narrative; it should not be required to provide a knowledge system like a popular-science reference book.
Is it suitable for reading in one sitting? Its pace is slow, and it excels in fragmentary recollection and natural description; reading it straight through in one sitting is tiring. It is better to read in scattered chapters, focusing on one or two scenes or characters each time and reflecting briefly afterwards, which allows you to appreciate the author's detailed observation and the restraint of his nostalgia.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

William Henry Hudson Author · British · 1841–1922

W. H. Hudson (William Henry Hudson, 1841–1922) was a British writer, naturalist and ornithologist. Born near Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1841, he spent his childhood on the Pampas and retained a lifelong attachment to the natural world of South America. He moved to England in 1869 and became a British citizen in 1900, and thereafter he long observed and wrote about the birds and landscapes of the English countryside. His writing blends naturalist observation with literary craft. His representative works, including Green Mansions, The Purple Land and Far Away and Long Ago, mostly take nature and the South American jungle as their subjects, while A Shepherd's Life, Birds in London and The Naturalist in La Plata record his close attention to rural life and birds. Sixteen of his works are held here, including novels, reminiscences and nature essays, written in a clear and highly personal style.