- Paperback: 228 pages
- Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; New edition edition (17 Feb 1983)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0192813587
- ISBN-13: 978-0192813589
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,734,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Life of the Fields
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Product Description
Product Description
This Victorian masterpiece is a sensitively written collection of press articles about the countryside in all its seasons, complete with tips on poaching fish and a lament on the industrialization of the land.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like W.H. Hudson (with whom Jefferies is usually, and with reason, grouped), Richard Jefferies was arguably the greatest writer on the natural world that the British Isles ever produced. While he was a peerless naturalist in the formal scientific sense, one can only understand Jefferies's work if one counts him as a poet and, far and away above all else, a pantheistic nature mystic. For Jefferies, the experience of communion with Nature (with a capital N) was a matter of religion---a religion that has nothing to do with God or gods, creeds, churches and the rest of it (Jefferies was an unbeliever by any tolerably orthodox standards), but the primal religion of the individual human being confronting the Cosmos as revealed through the natural world. 'The Life of the Fields,' for instance, is a collection of essays that put this world under the microscope of the human soul. It's such a pity that space forbids even a brief taste of Jefferies' rapturous, Nature-intoxicated style, although perhaps titles such as 'The Pageant of Summer' (arguably his finest piece in this collection), 'Meadow Thoughts,' 'Sea, Sky and Down' and 'January in the Sussex Woods' give a foretaste of what Jefferies was about in all his writings. if you have ever taken a walk in the open countryside and felt the innate beauty and mystery inherent therein, Wordsworth's "presence that disturbs me with a sense of joy, whose light is the light of setting suns" (as this reviewer certainly has), then Jefferies is the man who you will recognise as having missed so far in your life. These days writers such as Jefferies and Hudson are not only unread but practically entirely unknown except to a few (almost a select few, I nearly said) who have been fortunate enough to stumble across him and open their minds to such wonders, and I have to say that Amazon have to be congratulated for keeping these largely undiscovered treasures alive for future generations to discover.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like many short lives, the life of Richard Jefferies burnt very brightly. He was born in a farmhouse in Coate on the outskirts of Swindon in 1848 and died in 1887. Swindon happens to be where I was born, which is something I usually tend to keep quiet about! I have always been proud of the achievements of my fellow Wiltshireman, even though he lived and died many years before I was born. Jefferies was a hugely talented writer of great individuality. He was a naturalist, ardent conservationist, philosopher, novelist and reporter. He took a fascinated interest in the world around him and would happily sit in a tree for many hours observing nature. I have a feeling locals would have considered him somewhat eccentric! But he has left us with a varied and wonderful canon of work, from the delightful children's books "Bevis" and "Wood Magic" to his haunting little autobiography "The Story of My Heart", which Monty Don recently voted one of his top ten books.
This volume consists of a number of essays first published in 1884 as articles for newspapers and magazines. They cover interests that are surprising in their variety. Most impressive for me was "Sea, Sky and Down", where Jefferies gives perhaps the finest descriptions of the glories of sunsets that I have ever read. I have watched some breathtaking sunsets around the world, but would never be able to find the right words to describe such a natural wonder. Jefferies achieves the impossible and finds the words that such beauty demands. His powers of observation are so acute that even the humble fish in the brook is not ignored, and he observes the reaction of fish to the variety of noises they encounter in their watery domain. I found "The Hovering of the Kestrel" particularly interesting. In this essay he describes the way Buzzards effortlessly rise high into the skies on thermals. Something I have watched on many occasions! Today we understand how thermals work and such sights are taken for granted. But to the observer who lay on the sward of the Wiltshire downs many years ago watching such a phenomenon, it must have appeared as if a miracle. Modern science has sadly rendered such miracles to the common place.
Having read W H Hudson with whom Jefferies has been compared, I honestly feel that Jefferies is the more talented and readable of the two. He deserves the accolade of being the very finest writer about the British countryside. His writing is as fresh today as the day it was first written. He still captivates us with the joy of our rural heritage. Through his writing his flame still burns brightly. There is a small museum in the farmhouse where Jefferies was born. It is open every Wednesday of the month from 10-4 pm and from May to September it is also open on the third and fourth Sunday of the month from 2-5 pm. Entry is free. Jefferies is a rather forgotten author these days, but talent like his will always rise to the surface for future generations to appreciate. It is like some of the classics from the ancient world that will never date. If you have never read his work then this is a good volume to start with.
"The wonder of the world, the beauty and the power, the shapes of things, their colours, lights and shades, these I saw. Look ye also while life lasts".
This volume consists of a number of essays first published in 1884 as articles for newspapers and magazines. They cover interests that are surprising in their variety. Most impressive for me was "Sea, Sky and Down", where Jefferies gives perhaps the finest descriptions of the glories of sunsets that I have ever read. I have watched some breathtaking sunsets around the world, but would never be able to find the right words to describe such a natural wonder. Jefferies achieves the impossible and finds the words that such beauty demands. His powers of observation are so acute that even the humble fish in the brook is not ignored, and he observes the reaction of fish to the variety of noises they encounter in their watery domain. I found "The Hovering of the Kestrel" particularly interesting. In this essay he describes the way Buzzards effortlessly rise high into the skies on thermals. Something I have watched on many occasions! Today we understand how thermals work and such sights are taken for granted. But to the observer who lay on the sward of the Wiltshire downs many years ago watching such a phenomenon, it must have appeared as if a miracle. Modern science has sadly rendered such miracles to the common place.
Having read W H Hudson with whom Jefferies has been compared, I honestly feel that Jefferies is the more talented and readable of the two. He deserves the accolade of being the very finest writer about the British countryside. His writing is as fresh today as the day it was first written. He still captivates us with the joy of our rural heritage. Through his writing his flame still burns brightly. There is a small museum in the farmhouse where Jefferies was born. It is open every Wednesday of the month from 10-4 pm and from May to September it is also open on the third and fourth Sunday of the month from 2-5 pm. Entry is free. Jefferies is a rather forgotten author these days, but talent like his will always rise to the surface for future generations to appreciate. It is like some of the classics from the ancient world that will never date. If you have never read his work then this is a good volume to start with.
"The wonder of the world, the beauty and the power, the shapes of things, their colours, lights and shades, these I saw. Look ye also while life lasts".
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