Customer Reviews

The Purple Land

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hemingway alluded to this book in his masterpiece "The Sun Also Rises", claiming that "The Purple Land" is dangerous reading if read too late in life. By this he meant that it entices the reader to want to go to South America, particularly to Uruguay. I found this to be true upon concluding this book myself. The reader vicariously lives through an adventurous, young Englishman, Richard Lamb, in his journeys in Argentina and Uruguay. Discover how he meets his loving wife, his mistresses, and the rebellious banditos who attempt to overthrow the opressive Uruguayan government. Slow at times, nail-biting at others, but the story is not too long. Just right. I highly recommend this as good library material... if you can find it.

If you are a fan of turn-of-the-century literature as I am, you will find this narrative a good read. I had never heard nor read anything about this Hudson fellow until I recently began to read "The Sun Also Rises", which, as you may know, is Ernest Hemingway's first novel. Hemingway nonchalantly mentions Hudson and the travels of Lamb briefly in his story. I was intrigued as I gathered Hemingway himself had read the book and apparently liked it well enough to mention. Or perhaps I am mistaken. Regardless, this book is really as series of tales of adventures in the jungles of South America. You meet the natives, the food, the lifestyle and the beautiful girls (as you might expect; latino woman are notably lovely, in my experience). It should be noted, however, that the author, being a product of his times no doubt, is not particularly sensitive to political correctness.

A window into a time and place where men culture and tools were formed by a harsh natural selection process. The wide open range wild herds of cattle and horses a few men isolated from civilization. Henry Hudson was there, his first impressions are from the viewpoint of an educated Englishman examining barbarians. He then gets immersed in the environment and sees the deeper human experience and the effects of total freedom and self reliance on the character of men

I have just read this book and I think I could place it among the ones I liked the most (together with Gerald Durrell's ones): what I prefered was the poetic that filled the whole book , in the descriptions of landscapes, and people, that poetic you can't find in modern writers.

This is an excellent book if you can find it.

"Dangerous if read too late in life", Hemmingway.