After London or Wild England
A fantasy novel. England after a conflagration destroys towns and cities reverts to the wild.
Paperback, 152 pages
Published
November 26th 2005
by Echo Library
(first published January 1st 1983)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
250)
Described by the Observer as a strong candidate for the most beautiful of all Victorian novels, the fact of Jeffries being a nature writer shines through both in his scientific description of post apocalyptic England and the descriptions of the hero's voyages which teem with detail about the birds and landscapes he passes through. The strongest parts of the book are the descriptions of environmental collapse in the first part and Felix's trip through the nightmare landscapes of an extinct London...more
An early scientific postapocalypse, and a strange book. Jefferies was primarily a nature writer, and the first half of the book is dedicated to a biology-first view of succession and speciation in a post-collapse UK. River mouths have silted up, and much of southern England is now a great lake fed by the Thames and Severn; humans have divided into castes more or less based on Victorian classism, so that indigents become the savage aboriginal Bushmen, gypsies remain gypsies while getting more pro...more
Wikipedia's summary pretty much covers my feelings:
After London (1885), can be seen as an early example of "post-apocalyptic fiction": after some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature, and the few survivors to a quasi-medieval way of life. The book has two parts. The first, "The Relapse into Barbarism", is the account by some later historian of the fall of civilization and its consequences, with a loving descri...more
After London (1885), can be seen as an early example of "post-apocalyptic fiction": after some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature, and the few survivors to a quasi-medieval way of life. The book has two parts. The first, "The Relapse into Barbarism", is the account by some later historian of the fall of civilization and its consequences, with a loving descri...more
доволі цікава спроба в жанрі пригодницької пост-апокаліптичної фантастики… цікава найперше тим, що «післялондон» (чи як би краще перекласти?) річарда джефріза написаний у 1885 році! на превеликий жаль, твір створює враження незакінченого: наприкінці сюжетна лінія втрачає деталізацію і раптово обривається так, наче автор втратив інтерес до неї. але загалом — досить цікаве читання.
http://nhw.livejournal.com/28029.html[return][return]This is often described as the first ever post-Holocaust book, published in 1885; some unspecified disaster has overcome civilisation, much of England is flooded and has become a huge lake, and society has reverted to feudalism.[return][return]We start off with a lengthy description of the social and zoological situation; we then turn to our hero, Felix Aquila, a young nobleman whose marvellous physical characteristics are dwelt on lovingly (u...more
B. Zedan
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Folks who like a different kind of post-apocalypse
Shelves:
gutenberg-downloads
Loved the story, which felt like a medieval fantasy at times, though it's set post-apocalypse of some kind. It's one of the "England is the cheese that stands alone" kind of stories. The upper class just leaves the country, leaving the less educated (in sciences and things) and those who can't afford to emigrate. Jefferies doesn't try to explain why. There is some weird narrator separation from the story, which takes place some hundred years after everybody cleared out and some undefin...more
Presently being read to me by a lovely woman from librivox.org (about which I can't say enough nice things) while I work on a big brambly drawing to which it is a perfect soundtrack.
A fun read, and though it lacked some character development or effective story pacing (the end left me hanging a little), the main character Felix is one I can relate to. Many of his fears and insecurities and desires were ones I have faced at one time. And the world he describes is plain fun.
Jeffries was a famous naturalist, and it shows in the brilliant first half of this novel, where he describes the return of England to wilderness after the fall of civilization due to some unexplained environmental and societal collapse. The second half of the novel is much weaker - a coming of age story in a post-apocalypic world. In it, a young, impoverished noble sets out to find his fortune so he can win the hand of his true love. He has adventures and ups downs, but finally wins his fortune ...more
Written in 1888, this book was re-published last year. I first heard it serialized on radio in England and was fascinated by the concept of the once teeming city of London deserted and being re-claimed and overrun by nature. (the concept has been revisited recently in the book "The world after people" ).
I found the descriptions of the first chapters rivetting as the author makes you wonder when, how and why the death of the city and surrounds took place. You are never quit...more
I found the descriptions of the first chapters rivetting as the author makes you wonder when, how and why the death of the city and surrounds took place. You are never quit...more
free online at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13944
Read in e-text version. A very early post-apocalyptic novel in which an unnamed catastrophe has huge environmental consequences and society falls back to the level of feudalism. Told in 2 parts the first and shortest is the strongest writing with its descriptions of the natural world. Oddly reminiscent of J.G. Ballard's The Drowned World.
Actually listening to.
view 1 comment
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
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 north 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 cla...more
More about Richard Jefferies...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
