"The Story of My Heart"

[Klenchblaize]

Note sure if this should be under any "other Chatter" but given Bushcraft is as much about a state of mind as it is the grip upon your favourite axe here goes anyway:

I've just finished reading, some 40 years too late I fear, an unbelievable book by Richard Jefferies entitled "The Story of My Heart". Like Jefferies I simply cannot find the words to convey the soul-stretching impact this little book has had on me other than it must rank as a classic and equal to Henry David Thoreau's "Walden". Whilst you will not find RJ chopping down trees by any kind of "pool" it comes closer, in my humble opinion, in providing insight into why "our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake" than the man who wrote these words.

Definitely a non instructional book worth throwing into your kit bag for that next trip to the woods but be warned you may not return the same person!

Cheers

 

[Tadpole]

Note sure if this should be under any "other Chatter" but given Bushcraft is as much about a state of mind as it is the grip upon your favourite axe here goes anyway:

I've just finished reading, some 40 years too late I fear, an unbelievable book by Richard Jefferies entitled "The Story of My Heart". Like Jefferies I simply cannot find the words to convey the soul-stretching impact this little book has had on me other than it must rank as a classic and equal to Henry David Thoreau's "Walden". Whilst you will not find RJ chopping down trees by any kind of "pool" it comes closer, in my humble opinion, in providing insight into why "our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake" than the man who wrote these words.

Definitely a non instructional book worth throwing into your kit bag for that next trip to the woods but be warned you may not return the same person!

Cheers

I've never managed to read more than the first four chapters of this book before throwing it away. it is I fear just a mawkish collection of sentimental prose written by someone who has little or no idea about that which he was writing. In the same vein that some Victorian anthropomorphised animal with human feelings, Jefferies gave achient man aspirations and ideal more suited to a middle class Victorian gentleman of modest mean.

 

[sandbender]

"...it is I fear just a mawkish collection of sentimental prose written by someone who has little or no idea about that which he was writing..."

You didn't like it then?

It is available at the Gutenberg project for anyone who wants to flick through and discover if it is their kind of thing.

 

[jimford]

"The Story of My Heart" is not typical of Jefferies writing. His finely observed essays on Victorian country life in Wiltshire are superb.

Jim

 

[steve a]

"The Story of My Heart" is not typical of Jefferies writing. His finely observed essays on Victorian country life in Wiltshire are superb.

Jim

Totally agree with that, his writing are a pleasure to read

 

[Tadpole]

Totally agree with that, his writing are a pleasure to read

Can you recommend something that will not make me hurl, both the book and my lunch

 

[steve a]

I think you may have already formed an opinion on his writings, but maybe you would like Hodge and his masters or Round about a great estate, failing that The life of the fields may suit.

 

[jimford]

The life of the fields may suit.

Seconded!

"The Life of the Fields" is very readable and full of descriptions of the life of Victorian country people, some of it quite surprising.

Jim

 

[lamper]

You didn't like it then?

It is available at the Gutenberg project for anyone who wants to flick through and discover if it is their kind of thing.

Amazing!

All another great app for the iPhone/iTouch crew is called Stanza (PC available as well).

Download hundreds of free books to your phone! Including this one!

 

[Klenchblaize]

I've never managed to read more than the first four chapters of this book before throwing it away. it is I fear just a mawkish collection of sentimental prose written by someone who has little or no idea about that which he was writing. In the same vein that some Victorian anthropomorphised animal with human feelings, Jefferies gave achient man aspirations and ideal more suited to a middle class Victorian gentleman of modest mean.

Throughout the book Jeffries acknowledges his inability to put into words that which is the torch upon his soul so it is implicit that he didn't know what he was writing about! The book represents Jefferies' journey in pursuit of something higher than deity and, notwithstanding Victorian sensibilities; something he is at pains to cast off in all it's guises throughout each chapter, manages (for this reader at least) to part the ether of time like a finely honed Woodlore and at once expose the barren ravines of a 21st century soul.

In summary I assert that one may spend a lifetime at the alter of Christianity or any other religion and still not glimpse the possibilities that this "mawkish collection of sentimental prose" has the power to inspire.

Each to his own though of course!

Cheers

 

[Tony]

I'm not sure where this should go but it's a great thread, thanks for posting it up. I like the threads that aren't our usual stuff

 

[jimford]

part the ether of time like a finely honed Woodlore and at once expose the barren ravines of a 21st century soul.

I feel like that sometimes - I put it down to indigestion!

Pass me my coat, someone.

;^)

Jim

 

[Klenchblaize]

I'm not sure where this should go ......

Maybe so but much of his prose was conceived beneath either a dappled woodland canopy or the searing light born of a sea-foam-green sea so bushcrafty at a push?? Certainly given of a tad more validity than the latest high-tech gusset reinforced backwoods pants review!

I'll get my coat too if you like!

Cheers

 

[jimford]

Maybe so but much of his prose was conceived beneath either a dappled woodland canopy or the searing light born of a sea-foam-green sea so bushcrafty at a push?? Certainly given of a tad more validity than the latest high-tech gusset reinforced backwoods pants review!

As the Raincloud of Eternity eclipses the Sun dappled woodland glade of Time .....

Sounds like something out of ISIHAC!

Jim

 

[Tadpole]

As the Raincloud of Eternity eclipses the Sun dappled woodland glade of Time .....

Sounds like something out of ISIHAC!

Jim

Or someone who is paid by the word

 

[Klenchblaize]

If but I were paid by the word I would wish it to be for stuff like this:

"I deny altogether that idleness is an evil, or that it produces evil, and I am well aware why the interested are so bitter against idleness - namely, because it gives time for thought, and if men had time to think their reign would come to an end. Idleness - that is, the absence of the necessity to work for subsistence - is a great good. I hope succeeding generations will be able to be idle. I hope that nine-tenths of their time will be leisure time; that they may enjoy their days, and the earth, and the beauty of this beautiful world; that they may rest by the sea and dream; that they may dance and sing and eat and drink. I will work towards that end with all me heart." (Chapter 11)

Not exactly Watt Tyler but someway from a lack of concern for the wellbeing of the Victorian "common man" I suggest.

And one I would have loved to recite to my local pub Landlord in the days when he shouted "last orders"!

"Time has never existed, and never will; it is a purely an artificial arrangement. It is eternity now, it always was eternity, and always will be. By no possible means could I get into time if I tried. I am in eternity now and must there remain. Haste not, be at rest, this Now is eternity." (Chapter 3)

Then there is a passage for Stovie that whilst not lost on me either was clearly not on the radar of those drafting the "1969 Wildlife & Countryside Act"!

"To shoot with a gun is nothing; a mere touch discharges it. Give me a bow, that I may enjoy the delight of feeling myself draw the string and the strong wood bending, that I may see the rush of the arrow, and the broad head bury itself deep in the shaggy hide. Give me an iron mace that I may crush the savage beast and hammer him down. A spar to thrust through with, so that I may feel the long blade enter and the push of the shaft. The unwearied strength of Ninus to hunt unceasingly in the fierce sun. Still I should desire greater strength and a stouter bow, wilder creatures to combat. The intense life of the senses, there is never enough for them." (Chapter 7)

Might just have to try this archery malarkey at the Game Fair tomorrow!

Cheers

 

[falcon]

Cracking stuff..... The Gamekeeper at Home and The Amateur Poacher are two more classics. And some of the essays, including the one where he describes in detail ife in a summer woodland are outstanding. The incessant hum of insect life in a wood was "the engine room of summer..." It's ages since I read it...about time I looked him out again. Then again....there's also "Bevis...the story of a Boy"....