Green Mansions

When I was in sixth grade, Green Mansions by W.H. Hudson was my favorite book. I fell in love with its poetic, mystical language, the enchanting natural innocence of Rima, the bird-girl of the Amazon jungle, and the haunting, evocative, ultimately tragic storyline. I wanted to be her, and I wanted the story to end differently.


Over at The Prosperity Project, we are exploring archetypes, and this book kept coming to mind. Amazingly, I found it posted on the internet where it can either be downloaded from Gutenberg or read at Ibiblio. How cool is that? It was also made into a movie in 1959.

This is a description of the basic plot:

Green Mansions by W.H. Hudson (1841-1922): An exotic romance set in the dark, mystical green Amazon rainforest of South America, the novel is narrated by a man named Abel who as a young man had lived among the Indians. He tells of Rima, a strange birdlike woman, a creature of the forest, with whom he falls in love, but whom is feared by the superstitious Indians. Through his relationship to her, Abel discovers the greatest joy--and the darkest despair.

And here's an exerpt from Chapter Four: After making a hasty meal at the house, I started, full of pleasing anticipations, for the wood; for how pleasant a place it was to be in! What a wild beauty and fragrance and melodiousness it possessed above all forests, because of that mystery that drew me to it! ....The precious woods and fruits and fragrant gums that would never be trafficked away; its wild animals that man would never persecute; nor would any jealous savage dispute my ownership or pretend that it was part of his hunting-ground.

As I crossed the savannah I played with this fancy; but when I reached the ridgy eminence, to look down once more on my new domain, the fancy changed to a feeling so keen that it pierced to my heart and was like pain in its intensity, causing tears to rush to my eyes. And caring not in that solitude to disguise my feelings from myself, and from the wide heaven that looked down and saw me-- for this is the sweetest thing that solitude has for us, that we are free in it, and no convention holds us-- I dropped on my knees and kissed the stony ground, then casting up my eyes, thanked the Author of my being for the gift of that wild forest, those green mansions where I had found so great a happiness!