Green Mansions

Green Mansions is a novel by the British writer and naturalist William Henry Hudson, published in 1904 with the subtitle "A Romance of the Tropical Forest." Set in Venezuela in the 1870s, the story follows Abel, a young man who flees Caracas after a failed coup and makes his way into the primordial forests of Guiana, where he takes refuge in an Indian village. He hears of the feared "Daughter of Didi" said to dwell in the woods, and is repeatedly drawn to a mysterious song that resembles birdsong yet is almost human. After several attempts, he finally encounters Rima, a jungle girl who can commune with birds and beasts and clothes herself in spiderwebs. Raised by an old man named Nuflo, Rima knows nothing of her origins, remembering only that her mother came from a distant place called "Riolama." Abel falls in love with this forest sprite and joins her and Nuflo on a journey to find Mount Riolama; along the way Nuflo reveals events from seventeen years earlier, and the story of Rima's mother and her tragedy is gradually uncovered. With a naturalist's delicate touch, the novel evokes the lushness and mystery of the tropical rainforest, and through the clash between civilization and the primitive, and between humanity and nature, tells of a love destined never to be fulfilled.