Green Mansions

Abel, a Venezuelan revolutionary, flees into the South American jungle. While hiding among a local indigenous tribe, he falls in love with Rima, a mystical, bird-like wood-nymph who communicates in song. Their doomed love highlights the tragic clash between man and nature.

Abel, a disillusioned and failed revolutionary, escapes Caracas into the untamed, gold-rich hinterlands of the Guyana jungle in Venezuela. He takes refuge with the local Riolama Indians. While living with the tribe, Abel hears rumors of a daughter of the Didi, a haunting, ethereal creature who lives in a forbidden forest that the indigenous people refuse to enter out of fear.

Drawn by curiosity, Abel explores the woods and discovers Rima, a beautiful, half-human girl show more who speaks a strange, bird-like language and possesses a deep, magical connection to the surrounding flora and fauna. Despite initial friction, the two fall deeply in love.

Rima's people were wiped out, and she longs to travel to the distant land of her mother's ancestors. During an arduous journey, Abel and Rima get separated. Abel returns to the forest to find that the superstitious Indians have tracked Rima to a massive tree and burned her alive. show less

Perhaps Green Mansions provides more promise than it delivers, especially towards the end, where it grasps for a philosophy that it never adequately expresses or attains. It's an enchanting book, nevertheless, that leads you to think that an idyllic state with nature might offer salvation. Yet serpents are afoot in this Eden. It cannot survive unspoiled. Bleakness dominates; sorrow pervades the land. But as its hero, Abel, nears the end of his journey, his delirium leads him to a transmogrification of spirit and soul. All made possible through his encounter with the mysterious Rima, a woodland nymph whose spirit Abel literally carries with him for the rest of his life.

The writing style of Green Mansions is surprisingly fresh. It has a show more modern feel to it, although composed at the turn of the last century. This goes hand in hand, however, with a storyline that is pure romance and fantasy, where reality intrudes just barely at the book's beginning. Its belief in the power of the "natural being," the person unsullied by contact with civilization, to live harmoniously with nature, provided the more carnivorous qualities of human nature can be diminished, was just plausible when the novel was written, in 1904. Today, it might be more likely regarded as an impossible illusion. show less

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. She is unspoiled and wild like the animals among whom she lives. She knows neither the evil nor guile common to most civilized humans. This gives her supernatural stature in the eyes of the worldly Abel, who falls passionately in love with her.

Hudson based Rima and her lost tribe on persistent rumors about a tribe show more 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. With qualities of a striking and original sort it has an enchantment; its pages are haunted by an unearthly perception of beauty and a wonderment that stirs the imagination. The story is one of people who are almost in an original state of nature, a romantic, if flawed, view (perhaps inspired by Rousseau) 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 inspired a statue of Rima that you can find in Kensington Garden, London. It is a book I found to be truly enthralling and full of romantic magic making it a great read. show less

Well that was disappointing. This is a sort of supernatural romance, kinda, maybe preternatural would be more apt. Anyway its about a man who finds a forest in Guyana said by locals to be haunted. I can't say much more about it without spoiling the story, especially since there is so little plot.
I was really into it at first burning quickly through the first 9 or so chapters. It seemed really compelling, but after a while i realized the reason i was reading so quickly, was because of the thin plot. I felt compelled to read a lot because that was the only way to get any sense of accomplishment story-wise as so little was actually happening.
Overall its well written but far too verbose and i was disappointed with it after a good start. show more
Also the romance in it became a little uncomfortable for me at times. Modern sci-fi often points out the dubious morality of Kirk's romances in the 70's Star-Trek show and those opinions came into my mind several times during this read. show less

Green Mansions is a sort of fantasy romance set in the jungles of South America. The author, W. H. Hudson, was a naturalist early in his life, doing research in the flora and fauna of the frontier near his birthplace in Argentina. His parents were British and Irish. After he settled in England in 1874, he began organizing and reporting on his research findings. He also wrote a number of books reporting on and extolling the English countryside.

His background as a naturalist is evident throughout Green Mansions, as he describes the terrain and flora of his jungle setting, as well as its birds and wildlife.

The story revolves around the wanderings of Abel de Argensola, a Venezuelan. When a plot against the government, of which he is a show more part, is thwarted, he slips into the jungle, ostensibly to document the flora and fauna, as well as the culture of the Indians, but really to avoid retribution. Travelling alone, Abel meets Indians, wins their trust, and is soon sharing life with them. He learns that a particular area of the jungle is strictly avoided by the Indians because it home to and guarded by "the daughter of Didi," a mystical girl who speaks to the birds and animals in a lilting, musical voice. Two Indians, hunting together in that jungle, saw this creature, and one shot a poison dart at her. It hit his companion, killing him. The shooter swore the creature caught the dart and threw it back at the hunters. Hence, the Indians fear her powers and stay clear of "her turf."

Abel, of course, ventures boldly into that jungle, hears and sees the creature and is enchanted. Before too long, he actually meets her, learns her name—Rima—and meets her "grandfather," an elderly, white-bearded Venezuelan named Nuflo. The time Abel spends in Rima's forest riles the Indians, who now distrust him.

Rima speaks repeatedly of her mother and the region where she died. To win her favor, Abel persuades Nuflo to lead him and Rima back to the mountain where he rescued the pregnant mother. After the rescue, Nuflo had carried her to a village with a priest, where Rima was born. The mother, who is never named, cares for her daughter and teaches her to communicate with the birds and beasts. Ultimately, she fades and dies. Nuflo and Rima travel to the area in which Abel has found them. With Nuflo persuaded, the arduous trek is made. In their absence, the Indians discover they can hunt with impunity in the forbidden forest.

And it's downhill from there.

Green Mansions is very much a book of its time—1904. The patient pace, the flowery descriptions, the slow, drawn out dialogue. To me, it started slowly, built up some momentum, than tailed deliberately to a conclusion. I read it a long time ago (like 50 years) and got caught up in the mystical Rima. To an old coot, Rima doesn't have the same appeal. I still liked it, but… Give it three. show less

I feel ambivalent about this book. I did finish it, and on the whole I'm glad I read it, but I'm not sure I'd say I liked it--it holds on to three stars by its toe nails. It's considered a minor classic, and it was a favorite book of someone I knew in high school. How many classics are loved and read (unassigned) by teenagers? It was a favorite of novelist John Galsworthy as well, who provided the introduction in the Project Gutenberg edition I downloaded--he ranks Hudson with Tolstoy and called him his favorite living author (the book was published in 1904).

The "green mansions" of the title is the Venezuelan Amazon rainforest. And Hudson was not only a respected novelist in his day, but a naturalist--and it shows. His descriptions of show more the rainforest, his depiction of his heroine Rima, who embodies nature, was the most appealing side of the book. I wouldn't particularly call myself a nature lover--and certainly no environmentalist, but even I wasn't immune to how he painted everything from the canopy of trees to a moth or spider. Lyrical--vivid--it was all that. So was Rima--one of the most original and memorable heroines I've read in literature. She's described as "bird-like" and so mystically in tune with nature she gains her raiment from a spider's silk and can cuddle up to a coral snake with impunity. The area's tribe won't hunt in her domain, which is under her protection--they fear her as something supernatural. That's the good part of the book, and a big reason I kept turning the pages was to read more of Rima and find out what happened to her.

Then there's Abel. Abel is our narrator and hero--and boy, did I ever despise him. I'm far from politically correct--and I can make allowances for the times--remember, this was published in 1904. The problematic racial aspects of Gone With the Wind don't keep me from loving the book and film--ditto Kipling. So when I say Abel continually annoyed and repelled me with his attitude toward the indigenous inhabitants (which he called "savages") that says a lot. I'm not sure in the end if this really reflects Hudson's own attitudes or just how he depicted a character--because in the end I found Abel so despicable, so arrogant, I'm not so sure I am supposed to be on this side--although I think yes. In the end this is the first person narrator through which all the events are filtered, and he's framed as telling all this to his friend, who is flattering about his character. I can only tell you that if Rima is the reason I kept reading, Abel was the reason I was tempted to stop reading. If you can tolerate the character though, and some admittedly florid writing (1904 remember) as Abel goes into raptures about Rima's beauty--well, especially if you love nature, you might find yourself happy you took the journey. show less

I loved WH Hudson's "Purple Land." This flight of fancy , though, was unutterably turgid rubbish.
When 23 year old Abel is involved in a political coup, he flees retribution to the most distant parts of southern Venezuela.
Living with Indians, exploring the local forests, he encounters the girl/ wood nymph Rima....a magical, saintly, otherworldly creature of an unpleasingly fey, irrational and unknowable demeanour.
Oof...by golly it dragged on...