The Purple Land
William Henry Hudson
Paperback
(CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, July 12, 2016)
Being the Narrative of Richard Lamb's Adventures in South America, as Told by Himself. "'The Purple Land,' is, like 'Green Mansions,' a story of adventure in South America; unlike the latter, however, it partakes so little of fairyland and is, ostensibly, so thoroughgoing a chronicle of real life that when first published it was reviewed in several instances under the classification 'Books of travel and geography.'...The reader follows the ragged hero through one adventure after another with an interest that intensifies as the latter nears the utterly simple goal toward which he is traveling amid perils of wilderness, of lawless settlement, and the typical South American revolution that is here portrayed with an intimate truthfulness rare among writers essaying the subject." -The New York Times "One of his earliest books was a narrative of 'one Richard Lamb's adventures in the Banda Oriental, in South America, as told by himself,' and it was called 'The purple land that England lost,' this allusive title referring to the blood that had been shed on the soil of Uruguay and to the fact that it might easily at one time have become a part of the British empire." -Boston Transcript "It is full of action, full of life and color, full of strange, picturesque people, and it is written with artistic simplicity and great charm." -Independent "In the book is all the rare perception of natural life and beauty, so exquisitely recorded 'Green Mansions.' There is humor, too, which "Green Mansions' lacked....Crass realistic love encounters - seemingly inevitable in a wild country - Hudson treats with the most consummate tact." -The New Republic "It is one of the choicest things of our latter-day literature." -James M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan "He did not write for effect, but to tell what really interested him. "The Purple Land' and 'Far Away and Long Ago' are full of his knowledge of the horsemen of the plains and include even talks with old men who remembered the British expedition to Uruguay in 1807." -The Outlook "There are, undoubtedly, a number of actual travel experiences woven in the delicate web of Mr. Hudson's narrative; but it is no more a 'book of travel' for that reason than the adventures of 'Don Quixote' or 'Gil Blas.' This South American story, indeed, reveals a delightful kinship with both these chronicles of old Spain. As with them humor and wisdom are charmingly blended throughout its pages. There are episodes filled with simple pathos, others that rock with laughter." -The New York Times Book Review "Lamb himself is a most attractive and versatile personage; chivalrous, sympathetic, susceptible, and impulsive; a blend of the poet, the fighting man, and the humorist; a great lover of nature, and, learned (like Mr. Hudson) in all the lore of trees and birds, snakes and insects; just the sort of hero, in short, who is bound by the gypsy strain in his temperament to meet adventure half-way, and by his adaptability, resourcefulness, and tact to extricate himself from the most perilous and compromising situations....Extraordinary charm. A more romantic recital of adventure would be difficult to imagine." -Spectator