Wood Magic (1881) and Bevis (1882) are novels by Richard Jefferies that focus on the character of Bevis, a young boy living on a farm. Although the books share characters and setting, they differ greatly in the fictional rules of the world portrayed: in Wood Magic, animals and plants can talk to Bevis and to each other, while Bevis is a "realistic" portrayal of the adventures of a young boy. Jefferies may have been inspired to turn to childhood as a subject by his experience of fatherhood – his son Harold had been born in 1875; but it was his own memories of childhood on a Wiltshire farm that provided much of the material.
Background edit
Orion, who seems to be based on Jefferies' younger brother, prepares us for Mark, whom Thomas also sees as based on Jefferies' brother. [1]
In a letter written in December 1876 to Oswald Crawfurd, editor of the New Quarterly, he wrote:[2]
There is at Coate a reservoir … of some 80 acres of water. I think I could write a book on that great pond. I mapped it, and laid down the shallows and sand-banks, when I was a schoolboy, and I learnt how to manage a sailing boat on it, even the mussels slowly crawling on the bottom, I believe, have taught me something.
Wood Magic edit
Jefferies seems to have been drawn to the theme of childhood by his son, Harold (Richard Harold Jefferies), who was five years old in 1880, when Jefferies started work on Wood Magic. The book is "Inscribed to Harold"; and Jefferies' notebook entry for April 28, 1880 notes "H. dropped his flowers and reached for the butterfly", recalled in a description of Bevis chasing a butterfly in chapter 1.[3]
The subtitle A Fable indicates one of the models for the book. Jefferies had originally intended to add Without a Moral to the subtitle.[4]
Although it is hard to imagine a child audience for the book, it was taken by its first reviewers as a work of children's literature, and criticised as such.[5]
The attitude of the creatures and of natural forces like the wind and the brook towards Bevis is much like that of a doting parent. They regularly address him as "dearest", giving a strong impression of sentimentality.[6] In its depiction of the struggle of nature through a child's involvement, it can be seen as a forerunner to Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book.[7]
Bevis edit
It served as the model for the genre of "holiday adventure" stories, in particular for Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons.[8]
References edit
- Carpenter, Humphrey Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of Children's Literature. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985. ISBN 0395352932
- Hardyment, Christina, Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk. London: Francis Lincoln, (ed. 2) 2006. ISBN 071122692X
- Hunt, Peter, Children's Literature. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. ISBN 0631211403
- Keith, W. J., Richard Jefferies: A Critical Study. London: University of Toronto Press and Oxford University Press 1965
- Looker, Samuel J. and Crichton Porteous, Richard Jefferies, Man of the Fields. London: John Baker, 1965
- Miller, George and Hugoe Matthews Richard Jefferies, A bibliographical study. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1993. ISBN 0859679187
- Thomas, Edward Richard Jefferies: His Life and Work. London: Hutchinson, 1909
Footnotes edit
- ^ Thomas (1909), 164, "The boy Mark is his younger brother, Harry Jefferies, a robust and daring boy, who afterwards went to America and stayed there." Keith (1965), 71 "Orion is an early portrait of Mark."
- ^ Looker and Porteous (1965), 29.
- ^ Miller and Matthews (1993), 238-9.
- ^ Miller and Matthews (1993), 241.
- ^ Miller and Matthews (1993), 241-2.
- ^ Carpenter (1985), 112; Hunt (2001), 145, speaks of its "treacly beautiful-mystic-child dialogue".
- ^ Carpenter (1985), 111.
- ^ Carpenter (1985), 114; Hunt (2001), 117; 146. Ransome knew Bevis and cited it in a list of books about lakes that might interest a reader of Swallows and Amazons: Hardyment (2006), 240.