Green Mansions (1904)

Rated: B+ ( )

Early 20th-Century romance between a European-South American and an indigenous jungle girl.

I very much enjoyed the lush, evocative writing, but I found the outdated attitude about the indigenous people grating. Fortunately, the language and plot were enough to carry me through to the end.

This book reads well on many different levels. Many are the references to other literature and the prose is very lyrical and deep. Highly recommend. ( )

I got my copy from the store I work at because it was in too rough of shape to sell at full price and I didn't buy it to read. I bought it for the PHENOMINAL artwork. The plates are gorgeous, almost too lush. Get THIS edition. ( )

When I began to reread Green Mansions recently I instantly remembered why it impressed me so much. More than most other authors Hudson is able to instill the sense of wonder through his protagonist Abel who, while living by the Orinoco river in Venezuela, is drawn to the forest lands by strange bird-like singing. There he discovers a young girl named Rima and it is her story that takes up much of the remainder of the novel. Hudson based Rima and her lost tribe on persistent rumors about a tribe of white people who lived in the mountains. Temple paintings often showed light-skinned people, and Spanish Conquistadors were at first thought to be gods. I first read this novel when I was in high school and the memory of its' evocative and lyrical prose has lingered over the intervening decades. The story is one of people who are almost in an original state of nature, a romantic, if flawed, view that suggests their world may be better than civilization.
Green Mansions is one of the few novels ever to become an undisputed classic during the author's lifetime. It is a book I found to be truly enthralling and full of romantic magic making it a great read. ( )