Afoot in England

William Henry HudsonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 445K words
Chapters: 45

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.Afoot in England by W. H. HudsonAuthor: Hudson, W. H. (William Henry), 1841-1922,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Apr 1, 2004

Editor's review

Afoot in England is a collection of essays on the English countryside written from the perspective of a walker, released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain English ebook. Unlike conventional travel guides, it offers no itineraries or lists of sights; rather, at the pace of slow walking, it observes country roads, natural scenery, local people, and everyday scenes, with the precision of a naturalist and the ease of an essayist. Hudson wrote throughout his life about nature and rural life, and this book carries on that sensitivity to land and living things, letting readers sense the atmosphere of early twentieth-century rural England and the pleasures of walking. It suits readers of nature writing and travel essays in the original English, and is equally suited to slow reading in quiet surroundings, rediscovering the details of a walk through the author's eyes. There is no need to hurry; treat it as a field notebook that asks for patience and imagination.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy nature writing and rural essays
Readers interested in the English countryside and walking travel
Literature lovers who wish to practise reading English prose
Readers looking for slow-paced, non-guidebook travel writing

Not a good fit for

Travelers seeking practical routes, transport, and accommodation information
Readers who prefer fast plots or strong narrative drive
Beginners with limited patience for English prose who need line-by-line notes

Reading tips

Read slowly chapter by chapter; after each, recall the scenes and people the author observed, without rushing.
Keep a map or material on English rural geography at hand to build a sense of place as you read.
Keep a notebook and copy out passages about nature and walking to absorb the feel of English prose.
Read in quiet moments, treating the book as a companion to walking observation rather than a travel guide.

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.

FAQ

Is this book a travel guide?

No. It is a collection of essays and observations from the author's walks through the English countryside, focused on scenery, people, and the experience of walking rather than practical information such as routes, transport, and accommodation. If you need a travel guide, look for a guidebook.

Can I understand it without a background in the English countryside?

Yes, though you need some interest in and imagination for the English countryside. The book involves local scenery and nature observation; a map or background material can help, but no specialist geographical knowledge is required.

How difficult is the English?

It is literary prose with unhurried syntax and vocabulary drawn from nature and rural description, making it moderately to fairly difficult overall. Readers with a good foundation in English will better appreciate the prose; beginners can read slowly with a dictionary.

Is it suitable for reading in one sitting?

Not really. The book is slow in pace and built on observation, better read chapter by chapter or dipped into before and after walks and trips. Reading it straight through tends to blur the details; reading in sections better conveys the author's way of observing.

Comments

Find this book

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.