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Bambi
 
by
Felix Salten

Bambi (Bambi #1)

by
4.06 of 5 stars 4.06  ·  rating details  ·  11,942 ratings  ·  219 reviews
Bambi comes into the world in a forest glade, loved by his mother, protected by a thicket. He grows up frolicking in the meadow, befriending butterflies and screech owls, and learning about the dark fear of all the woodland creatures: man. Over time, Bambi seeks out the wisdom of the prince of deer, a magnificent old stag who walks alone through the paths of the forest. Ba...more
Published (first published 1923)
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Kate
Aug 16, 2007 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone except avid hunters
I remember renewing this book from the library for several months in a row in elementary school and re-reading it obsessively. I wanted to pick it up again just to see if I could figure out what it was about the novel that affected me so much. It was really interesting to read it as an adult. I do still hate the Disney version since Salten's is just so much more compelling - and no forest fire. What struck me this time around was the depictions of masculinity and femininity especially in regards...more
Jim
Nov 03, 2008 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Those who like classics they missed & women from Montana
Recommended to Jim by: Walt Disney
Ah Bambi...no, not the Bambi that works at the Rainbow Tavern, down on Sprague Avenue.

This is the REAL Bambi. The horned lord of the forest that later went to work as an actor for Walt Disney and late in life became best buds with Charlton Heston, head of the NRA. Outrageous, but completely true! This is the book that started it all, my friend.

I just read this book a couple of years ago and found it fascinating and horrifying at times, like when Salten describes the humans through the eyes and m...more
Rebecca
One of my most wept over books. Depicts humanity as divorced from grace.

*swears vengence on Disney desecration*
Jennifer
Sep 21, 2007 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Youth 9-13
This is a very different book than the Disney movie.

I realise at the time that the Disney animated movie caused something of a kerfuffle, since Bambi's mom is shot off-screen. In the book, things only start there. The novel, while well-written, is much more violent than one might expect, and is not especially appropriate for many children under 10.

I do not recommend that people run out and buy this novel if their children thought Bambi, Farina, and Thumper were cute, the therapy bills will be a...more
Kate
I loved deer when I was younger, so how could I pass up reading Bambi, even though I had already seen the movie (especially since I got an ancient copy of the book from my uncle)?

I never really understood those people who cried when Bambi's mother died in the movie - it didn't make much of an impression on me. The book was quite a bit more complex than the Disney movie, and had many more sad scenes than the movie. I remember very clearly the character of Gobo, a deer about Bambi's age, who is c...more
Flauschi
Bambi ist ein junges Rehauf dem Weg zum Erwachsenen. Es lernt nicht nur andere Rehe wie Gobo und Faline kennen, sondern auch noch die Hirsche, Hasen, Vögel. Der Wald ist sein zuhause, birgt aber auch lauter Gefahren wie den Fuchs, die Hunde und ganz besonders die Jäger.
Eines Tages stirbt Bambis Mutter bei einem Überfall des Jägers und seitdem zieht es den jungen Bambi durch die Wälder. Zwar gründet er kurz eine Familie mit seiner geliebten Faline, verlässt sie jedoch um daraufhin bei dem Alten z...more
CJ
This is not Disney. This book was incredible. The description was so real, the language not dumbed down for kids. Yes, the animals talked, but it wasn't cutesy, silly talking. It was Watership Down kind of talking. I read this to my five-and-a-half-year-old daughter (I'm trying to give her the original versions of all of the stories before she sees the Disney versions). When the first scary thing happened, I worried that I'd made a horrible mistake. But, although she was upset, she put it all in...more
Shanna Gonzalez
Most of my generation, when they think of Bambi, think of the sentimental Disney movie. But the original book was a serious work. Its one-of-a-kind conception and spectacular writing have earned it classic status as the story of a young deer growing to adulthood in his woodland home. Salten's writing is compelling, and scenes from the story will stay in the mind long after reading, to be often recalled and savored. This Bambi lives a grim and dangerous life, his world filled with blood and fear...more
Julianne
After being told by my mother that this book was "nothing like the Disney version," I came prepared to read something like Watership Down for Children. Surprise! Not really.

This book actually was very like the Disney movie, as I remember it (and it's been quite a few years). It begins with Bambi's birth in a meadow and continues by cataloging his discoveries and experiences one by one: meeting a squirrel, conversing with a screech owl, meeting Aunt Ena and cousin Faline. There's no Bashful or Th...more
Sherry
The message of the book seems to be that animals have thoughts, feelings and their own families, and humans never honor them; instead they slaughter them. The story is compelling, and must have been a unique book for its time. Bambi was a cousin of Faline, and did not grow up to marry her and have twins, rather, Faline was a twin to Gobo. Gobo was foolish and trusted man, which brought him to his end, eventually. With luck and some wisdom, and advice from his father, Bambi survived.
Shawn Thrasher
In Bambi, many things die. Many, many, many things. Pheasants die. A ferret kills a squirrel. Deer die. A fox kills a pheasant. A fox kills a duck. Some ravens peck a baby hare to death. A man kills a fox. Bambi's mother dies. A deer named Gobo dies. A man dies. Even some leaves die, and they talk to one another about it before they do so. It's a gruesome book. It's like a slasher movie about deer. There is also some muted sex scenes too, although it's deer sex, and who really wants to read in d...more
Claire
Don't get me wrong, I still love the Disney movie. It will always be one of my all-time favorites, but this book...this book...it just blows my mind. It takes subjects that were only touched on in the movie (The Circle of Life, dealing with loss, the passing of time, falling in and out of love, growing up in a dangerous world, loss of innocence, Nature Red in Tooth & Claw, Man's role in Nature), and takes them to a whole new level of beauty and terror. Characters we loved in the movie (Thump...more
Kelly

There is something in the Northern air of Europe that spins tragedy, of this I am most certain (take a gander at Larssen, Hoeg...etc). Salten was given to me on a sensitive day, and instead of making it worse, he made it better. Yes. I am too far gone. So far as to crack jokes in a resturaunt where the nearby table was just served venison, rare, with a light bisque.
Loraine
I read two different editions of Salten's Bambi, the first a Pocket Edition published in 1942. The statement after the foreword, which is written by John Galsworthy, added the ephemera of time to my reading: [In order to cooperate with the government's war effort, this book has been made in strict conformity with WPB regulations restricting the use of certain materials.] The accession date of the second book is 1988, and is a hard cover copy with beautiful drawings by Kurt Wiese, a German by bir...more
Hannah Crowther
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Marta Peterson
Oh Bambi. I can only say good things about this book. It tells the story of the lives of forest animals through the eyes of a deer. Children would like the book but I would say it is mostly for adults; it has some pretty gruesome scenes (after all life is not easy for hunted animals) and there are themes that children would not grasp.

Unlike the Disney movie, the book has more depth to its characters as well as more characters in general (Faline even has a twin brother named Gobo), and there is...more
Kimberly
Once again I had to find a book to read for a BOTM selection in one of the online book groups I participate in on Goodreads You'll love this one...!! A book club & more. The November BOTM was if we could not or did not want to read the two selected books we could read any other book that met the criteria for "Books to Movies". I originally had another book planned but seeing as though I just read Bambi yesterday there wasn't enough time for me to read my original choice of Tsotsi by Athol Fu...more
Drew Graham
Every time I watch the Disney version of this story, I'm surprised all over again to discover that it's based on a book. I decided it was time to read it. This and the animated retelling are pretty similar in tone and plot, but there are some decided differences with the presentation of the characters. Mother's constant serenity is replaced with occasional sharpness and impatience with her precocious, curious fawn, and don't expect to see the adorable sidekicks Thumper and Flower, and notably ab...more
Amber Anderson
This book-Felix Salten's original-is very dear to me. No pun intended. It is the beautiful, and ultimately unforgettable story of Bambi, his family, and his friends, and their interactions with, and death by, humans. Felix Salten wrote this book for an adult audience. I read it as an adult, but I suggest it wholeheartedly to older children and adults alike. The language of older editions (I think in recent years it may have been altered) portrays profound grief, but it also beautifully illustrat...more
Marilyn
We listened to the abridged version because that's what our library has. It basically parallels the Disney movie with an interesting exception. Faline has a twin brother Gobel who gets captured in the meadow as a fawn. Gobel shows up again in the forest as an adult. He doesn't act like a deer. He doesn't watch his surroundings or smell for danger and he's fattened up. There's a happy reunion where he tells the others how man captured him and took him to a safe place where children pet him and th...more
Michael
I picked the book because I had never read Bambi as a child, and I was quite surprised. It's marvelous how the narrator can keep the reader engrossed in the goings on of a rather passive deer from birth until adulthood. The details in the descriptions of nature are evocative; the story is simple, and unlike the Walt Disney version, the anthropomorphic animals are not as often cute, although Bambi's aunt did sound like a Viennese busybody. What really is remarkable is the horror throughout the no...more
Cindy Winder delong
I guess the author would be happier if the deer overpopulated the forest and died long slow painful deaths from disease and hunger when they have decimated the forest with their high numbers. The forest would become un-inhabitable so the deer would venture across roads causing injury to themselves and humans in car accidents while they search desperately for a new home. Car accidents that may cause them to suffer until death takes them.
OR - We could allow safety-trained, law abiding citizens to...more
John
Illustrating a deep understanding of both the pain associated with growing up and the inherent loneliness of remarkable individuals, Bambi makes a wonderful novel for kids and adults alike. Its animal characters and their dealings will appeal to children, but its themes (which, by the way, never shy away from the darker side of life) will resonate deeply with adults. Bambi's slow realization of what it means to take on a role of responsibility for others, a role that requires him to sacrifice hi...more
Melanti
I love how wildlife was portrayed. I was dreading the cutesy, Disney style animal chatter, but while all animals do talk, the manner in which they talk is wonderful in portraying how the animals act.

I also loved the short chapter with the conversation between the falling leaves.

Disney, as usual, glosses over the more disturbing aspects of this book. I know they got lots of criticism for the death of Bambi's mother but what happened to Gobo is far more disturbing and they left out his character...more
Joanna
The imagery in this gorgeous novel is so rich that it's remained in my mental and spiritual hard drive for over four decades. However, since Bambi abandons Faline to save himself, I threw the book across the room and cried for days at the tender age of eleven. I asked my mother how such a horrible thing could be written of and she responded gently that the author was trying to capture the true nature of animal behavior. To such reasoning I countered that he shouldn't have given them human charac...more
Dionisia
Apr 03, 2009 Dionisia rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: older children, fearless adults
The differences between this book and Disney's animated version are many. As others have already mentioned, this is definitely a darker tale. I thought the beginning was slow, but by the first appearance of the fall season I was hooked. I hope that other adults will not shy away from giving this children's classic a try. You will not be disappointed.

Now that the story is over I find myself still mulling over the conversation between the two leaves. I have great respect for Salten's ability to ev...more
Amberae
I recently found this in the store, and had to read it since bambi was my favorite movie when I was five.

I was relieved when I found it was nothing like the film. The characters were more complex, and the situations more real. The path from youthful questioning innocence, to wary, stone worn adulthood is depicted well.

Inanimate characters also make poignant statements, that the deer and other creatures of the forest were unable to make.

It reflects misconceptions we have as humans if we are not...more
Frank Stein

A perfect gem of a book. Salten conjures up a whole world with seeming ease, and ably conveys the sense of both concrete reality and universality. At first I was concerned that this book would keep the childish, almost infantile, perspective people associate with the movie, but this is the story of an entire life, one which misses none of the real moments. From Bambi's love affair with Faline, to his life-and-death struggles with other bucks, to his aging and retreat into the forest, the book gi...more
Jennifer
I read this as a kid and LOVED it. I recently read it again to my kids... and didn't enjoy it as much as I remembered. Although, they seemed to. It was a little too "anti-hunting" for my taste. But it did have some good ideas about moderation, and insights about mistreating the wilderness.
A little too graphic for my kids age (5 & 8), so I had to skip a few details while I read. Lots of ranting descriptions about the forest and it's wildlife... I could see the kids eyes glaze over now and t...more
Maribeth Hudzik
A story of a baby deer born into a thicket. Salten's classic is sure to keep you turning the pages of Bambi until the end. This book was originally written as a environmental warning to humans. The message: Don't be cruel to animals or to the environment. The story also has a bit of a thriller theme to it. I felt as the reader that I was on edge the entire time because danger just seems to come out of no where in this book, often followed by a tragic and horrifying death. This is not the kid sto...more
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Bambi (Paperback)
Bambi (Hardcover)
Bambi: A Life in the Woods (Hardcover)
Bambi: A Life in the Woods (Paperback)
Bambi (Hardcover)

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Felix Salten was an Austrian writer. He was born Siegmund Salzmann in Budapest, Hungary. When he was three weeks old, his family moved to Vienna, Austria. Many Jews were immigrating into the city in the late 19th century because Vienna had finally granted full citizenship to Jews in 1867.

When his father went bankrupt, Felix had to quit school and begin working in an insurance agency. He also began...more
More about Felix Salten...
Bambi's Children Fifteen Rabbits Perri The Memoirs of Josephine Mutzenbacher Bambi (Disney Bambi)

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