Books with author Richard Jefferies

Published in 1885, it describes the ecological repercussions of some unspecified disaster, and posits a return to barbarism. England's lost towns have spewed out their mice and rats, pets and domestic animals have perished or reverted to a few wild breeds, and the overgrown countryside is now populated by lurking savages: Bushmen, Romanies and "foot gypsies." Descendants of the "ancients" live an embattled existence in settlements around a great inland lake, but little of the old civilisation remains: "There are few books, and still fewer to read them; and these are all in manuscript, for though the way to print is not lost, it is not employed since no one wants books" (Chaper 4). Although Jefferies did not foresee the space age, his novel is pioneering in another way, as an inspiration for the post-apocalyptic genre of science fiction.

John Richard Jefferies was a 19th century English nature writer, noted for his depiction of English rural life in essays, books of natural history, and novels. His childhood on a small Wiltshire farm had a great influence on him and provides the background to all his major works of fiction. Hodge and his Masters is a collection of essays first published in the Standard.

John Richard Jefferies (6 November 1848 – 14 August 1887) was an English nature writer, noted for his depiction of English rural life in essays, books of natural history, and novels. His childhood on a small Wiltshire farm had a great influence on him and provides the background to all his major works of fiction. For all that, these show a remarkable diversity, including Bevis (1882), a classic children's book, and After London (1885), an early work of science fiction. For much of his adult life, he suffered from tuberculosis, and his struggles with the illness and with poverty also play a role in his writing. Jefferies valued and cultivated an intensity of feeling in his experience of the world around him, a cultivation that he describes in detail in The Story of My Heart (1883). This work, an introspective depiction of his thoughts and feelings on the world, gained him the reputation of a nature mystic at the time. But it is his success in conveying his awareness of nature and people within it, both in his fiction and in essay collections such as The Amateur Poacher (1879) and Round About a Great Estate (1880), that has drawn most admirers. Walter Besant wrote of his reaction on first reading Jefferies: "Why, we must have been blind all our lives; here were the most wonderful things possible going on under our very noses, but we saw them not."[1]

John Richard Jefferies was an English nature writer, essayist and journalist. He wrote fiction mainly based on farming and rural life. From early in life he showed a great love of the countryside, but was temperamentally unsuited to follow his father as a farmer, and in 1866 he found employment as a newspaper reporter for the North Wiltshire Herald and the Swindon Advertiser. In late 1877 he moved to Surbiton to be nearer the hub of literary England. His new surroundings defined him, as a country writer. Articles drawing on Jefferies' Wiltshire experiences were snapped up by the Pall Mall Gazette, to be followed by similar collections of essays, like Round About a Great Estate (1880). About this time he wrote his extraordinary autobiography, The Story of My Heart: An Autobiography (1883).

But the rapid progress of education in the villages and outlying districts is the element which is most worthy of thoughtful consideration. On the one hand, it may perhaps cause a powerful demand for corresponding privileges; and on the other, counteract the tendency to unreasonable expectations. In any case, it is a fact that cannot be ignored. Meantime, all I claim for the following sketches is that they are written in a fair and impartial spirit.

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Richard Jefferies (1848-1887) was a nature writer, noted for his depiction of English rural life in essays, books of natural history, and novels. His childhood growing up on a rural farm in England had a great influence on his fiction writings. Jefferies spent most of his life battling T B and poverty. Jeffries was fascinated with what nature could be if left alone. His love for the English rural areas is strong in his writing. The Amateur Poacher is an excellent example of Jefferies's awareness of the value of nature and the people within it. The preface reads "The following pages are arranged somewhat in the order of time, beginning with the first gun, and attempts at shooting. Then come the fields, the first hills, and woods explored, often without a gun, or any thought of destruction: and next the poachers, and other odd characters observed at their work. Perhaps the idea of shooting with a matchlock, or wheel-lock, might, if put in practice, at least afford some little novelty." The table of contents includes The first gun, The old punt: a curious 'turnpike', Tree-shooting: a fishing expedition, Egg-time: a 'gip'-trap, Woodland twilight: traitors on the gibbet, Lurcher-land: 'the park', Oby, and his system: the moucher's calendar, Churchyard pheasants: before the bench, Luke, the rabbit-contractor: the brook path. Farmer Willum's place: snipe-shooting, Ferreting: a rabbit-hunter, and A winter night: old tricks: pheasant-stalking: matchlock versus breech-loader: conclusion.