Table Of ContentW. H. HUDSON AND THE ELUSIVE PARADISE
W. H. Hudson and
the Elusive Paradise
David Miller
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-20552-3 ISBN 978-1-349-20550-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20550-9
© David Miller 1990
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990 978-0-333-46812-8
All rights reserved. For information, write:
Scholarly and Reference Division,
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
First Published in the United States of America in 1990
ISBN 978-0-312-03698-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Miller, David, 1950--
W. H. Hudson and the elusive paradise I David Miller.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-312-03698-0
1. Hudson, W. H. (William Henry), 1841-1922-Criticismand
interpretation, 2. Paradise in literature.!. Title.
PR60 15.U23Z691990
828'.809-dc20 89-10674
CIP
This book is dedicated
to Cid Corman
and Robert Hampson
Contents
List of Abbreviations ix
Preface
X
Introduction 1
Part One
1 Experience and Understanding 25
2 ·'The Supernatural in All Natural Things' 37
3 'A Marvellous Small Paradise' 45
4 'Negative' Epiphany 52
5 Imagination 57
6 Symbolic Meaning 61
7 Personal Being and Immortality 70
8 Ideological Perspectives 75
Part Two
9 Hudson's Fiction 87
10 Approaches to the Fiction-I 95
11 Approaches to the Fiction-II 102
12 The Purple Land 106
13 A Crystal Age 115
14 ElOmbu 124
vii
viii Contents
15 Green Mansions 136
16 Dead Man's Plack and An Old Thorn 164
Conclusion 173
Notes 176
Select Bibliography 203
Index 207
List of Abbreviations
Adventures Among Birds AAB
Birds and Man BM
The Book of a Naturalist BN
A Crystal Age CA
Dead Man's Plack and An Old Thorn DMP
'::1 Ombu EO
Far Away and Long Ago FALA
Green Mansions GM
f-lampshire Days HD
A Hind in Richmond Park HRP
The Land's End LE
Letters from W. H. Hudson to Edward Garnett LWHH
Men, Books and Birds MBB
Nature in Downland ND
The Purple Land PL
A Traveller in Little Things TLT
ix
Preface
My decision to write about W. H. Hudson grew from a long-term
admiration for his writing, and from the conviction that an
approach centring upon the symbolic aspects of his work would
reveal the nature of his achievement more clearly than any previous
account.
Hudson's fiction and non-fiction share the same fundamental
symbolism: that of the elusive Paradise. Through attention to the
concrete details of the world, in certain moments at least, Hudson
apprehends an invisible or supernatural dimension. These
moments might appropriately be termed epiphanic. What I shall
call 'affirmative' epiphany affirms the earthly by revealing the
divine through or within it; it is either directly paradisiac, or
assimilable to a vision of the earthly Paradise. In contrast to the
'affirmative' epiphany, there is also 'negative' epiphany which
opens up a chasm of terror and dread. Violence, affliction, and
human submersion in evil are among the things that play into the
notion of 'negative' epiphany. In Hudson's fiction there are also
indications that evil is written into the network of chance and
natural law; so that the 'darkness' or evil disclosed by 'negative'
epiphany can be seen as ontologically prior to the actions of the
human will. The paradisial endures as a fractured and elusive
aspect of experience, constantly threatened by contingency,
violence, or evil. I shall also be discussing the way in which, for
Hudson, rationalistic and mechanistic ideologies (especially
Darwinism) formed an obstacle to consistent belief in the spiritual.
In order to redress the tendency to concentrate on Hudson first
and foremost as a nature writer, I have given priority to his fiction,
which develops the mythopoeic or symbolic aspects of his vision to
a greater extent and for this reason involves a deeper or more
profound expression of that vision. I have organised my account
into two main divisions. In Part One I use examples from Hudson's
non-fictional works; this is to present a case for the symbolic
aspects of Hudson's work in terms of the non-fiction-where they
are less obvious. In Part Two I will show how these concerns are
pursued at greater depth in the fiction.
X
Preface xi
This study of W. H. Hudson was originally undertaken as a PhD
dissertation at London University (Royal Holloway College).
During the period of writing the thesis, many people helped me
with various kinds of encouragement, support, and advice: of
these, I should particularly like to thank Cid Corman, Robert
Hampson, Doreen Maitre, Florence Miller, Peter Skerratt, Elizabeth
Welch, Gadi Hollander, Martin Mitchell, David Menzies, Mark
Beech, James Crouch, John Levy, Marius Kociejowski, and Wendy
Saloman.
Quotations from Robert Hamilton: W. H. Hudson: The Vision of
Earth are reprinted by permission of J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
DAVID MILLER
