Far away and long ago: A history of my early life [Hardcover]

W. H Hudson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1937

[F]or at some period of a man¿s life¿at all events of some lives¿in some rare state of the mind it is all at once revealed to him as by a miracle that nothing is ever blotted out.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

As W. H. Hudson lay sick in bed in England when he was nearly eighty years old, his entire childhood returned to him so vividly that he could write in exact detail about these long-forgotten memories - starting with his earliest memories of the house in which he was born and finishing with the disastrous close of his childhood idyll at age fifteen when typhus struck.Far Away and Long Ago is told with such passion and candor that the grassy plains of Argentina, the gauchos, the birds and wildlife emerge from the pages. Not only great natural history, Far Away and Long ago is one of the most magical childhood memoirs ever written. (5 1/2 X 8 1/4, 352 pages)

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 332 pages
• Publisher: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd (1937)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00088QBK2
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,333,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple pleasures are the best, November 2, 2000

By 

Leona Malo (The Golden State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Far Away and Long Ago (Paperback)

"When I hear people say they have not found the world and life so agreeable or interesting as to be in love with it...I am apt to think they have never been properly alive nor seen with clear vision the world they think so meanly of...".

The author says it all. I picked up this book in a little Gloucester bookshop a few years ago, but I've finally just had a chance to read it in its entirety. What a Joy! It reminded me that the stresses and travails we encounter in our daily lives are so trivial at best, compared to the world we pass by everyday. The author's recollection of his boyhood on the Argentinian pampas and his adventures with snakes and birds and vizcachas made his words come alive, and I felt I was there with him. A treasure and one I would read to kids who have the gift of spirit in them, and to remind them that all of what he wrote is disappearing.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A neglected masterpiece, January 16, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Lawrence, Kansas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Far Away and Long Ago (Paperback)

We badly need to have this book once more available. Full of insights into the meaning of human life in nature, it also chronicles the passing of a virgin landscape in S.America with the coming of a predatory civilization. Hudson came of age with little schooling but endless hours of observing life (especially birds) and reading. His friends in England, where he went in his 30s, often wondered why he was habitually sad. This profound reminiscence explains why.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Childhood in the Pampas, December 18, 2002

By 

Fano Marco (Rome Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Far Away and Long Ago (Paperback)

Hudson is a wonderful writer, and this is a first hand account of his childhood in gaucho land, with invaluable glimpses of Buenos Aires at the setting of Rosas dictatorship and after.