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304th out of 3,221 books
—
13,998 voters
The Forest
“AS ENTERTAINING AS SARUM AND RUTHERFURD’S OTHER SWEEPING NOVEL OF BRITISH HISTORY, LONDON.”
–The Boston Globe
“Engaging . . . A sprawling tome that combines fact with fiction and covers 900 years in the history of New Forest, a 100,000-acre woodland in southern England . . . Rutherfurd sketches the histories of six fictional families, ranging from aristocrats to peasants,...more
–The Boston Globe
“Engaging . . . A sprawling tome that combines fact with fiction and covers 900 years in the history of New Forest, a 100,000-acre woodland in southern England . . . Rutherfurd sketches the histories of six fictional families, ranging from aristocrats to peasants,...more
Paperback, 784 pages
Published
July 3rd 2001
by Ballantine Books
(first published 2000)
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History of the New Forest dating from 11th century to present day, told through the memorable people of the Forest: the Prides, Puckles, Cola the huntsman (Albion family), Furzeys, Tottons, the Seagulls. From medieval hunting forest and abbeys through time of the Armada and the civil war and Georgian and Victorian England up till present day. Lots of social, rural and some political history interwoven into the story of generations of these families.
The format of this book is like all of Rutherford's others: historical fiction. This story takes place in a location that is very near Sarum (the subject of his int'l best selling breakout book), but its emphasis is much different: the focus is on how the forest in this area affects the people that live there and vice versa. You get wafts of the big events (e.g. Queen Elizabeth and her Golden Age, the Spanish inquisition) but everyday details concern how deers and oak trees mature. I love Ruther...more
Whereas
London: The Novel
focuses on, obviously, the city of London,
The Forest
focuses on the development of England as a whole over the centuries. Much of English history concerned the independent hamlets and regions that felt very little connection to the King and to London until the past few hundred years. It was fun to read about the small agrarian communities with their nearby abbeys and giant expanses of forest land. Many things influenced these small communities as England became a mor...more
Few places lie closer to the heart of the nation's heritage than the New Forest. Now, Edward Rutherfurd, weaves its history and legends into compelling fiction. From the mysterious killing of King William Rufus, treachery and witchcraft, smuggling and poaching run through this epic tale of well-born ladies, lowly woodsmen, sailors, merchants and Cistercian monks. The feuds, wars, loyalties and passions of generations reach their climax in a crime that shatters the decorous society of Jane Austen...more
The Forest stars England's New Forest over a thousand years of development. I read it back in 2005, and still remember much of the plot today; in other words, it's a story that stays in a reader's mind. Through everyday conflicts in his characters lives--fighting over a lover, family disputes, making enough money to feed yourself, living under corrupt leaders--Rutherfurd wrote culture and history with a human element. It's fascinating to think of the sheer number of people who have lived and die...more
This is the second Rutherfurd book I have read and it was just wonderful. I learnt so much about the New Forest and its ways and the lives of the people who lived there. I love his books but because they are so huge they take me such a long time to read.
Back Cover Blurb:
Few places lie closer to the heart of the nation's heritage than the New Forest. The author weaves its history and legends into compelling fiction.
From the mysterious killing of King William Rufus, treachery and witchcraft, smugg...more
Back Cover Blurb:
Few places lie closer to the heart of the nation's heritage than the New Forest. The author weaves its history and legends into compelling fiction.
From the mysterious killing of King William Rufus, treachery and witchcraft, smugg...more
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I have never lived in the New Forest, in the south of England, but I have been an occasional visitor for 40 years. Reading this book was a bit like spending time with an old friend. The trouble is, some old friends can be a bit boring and garrulous
The novel describes family life in the forest at various intervals through a period of 1,000 years, and as there was little social mobility in much of that period the same families figure throughout the centuries. The approach reminded me of James Mic...more
The novel describes family life in the forest at various intervals through a period of 1,000 years, and as there was little social mobility in much of that period the same families figure throughout the centuries. The approach reminded me of James Mic...more
This novel is about a region in southern England known as New Forest and covers a 900 year span of time. The book is a series of short stories about people living in this part of England with the stories taking place at intervals about 200 years apart. The first story takes place in the year 1100 and the last one in 2000. The stories are connected by many common surnames that keep reappearing, the same geographic location and in some cases an amulet that is handed down from generation to generat...more
A thousand years of history, family sagas and the life of the New Forest in just one book? It does kind of work, and you also get to learns lots of fascinating stuff about oak trees, the life cycle of deer as well as boats, salt making and lots of other stuff. I did enjoy the experience of being taken through a thousand years, but I did have trouble following some of the families and things did seem a bit disjointed especially as it jumps a couple of hundred years here and there. The Fanny Albio...more
As was the case in the previous Rutherfurd books I have read (Sarum and London) his format does not allow the fictional characters to come alive or have much interest to me. The history is interesting, and some of the chapters have more of it than others. The chapter that had the most interesting history was the one that concerned the Civil War (“Alice”), at least in my reading. I think the problem is the skipping of generations (of the fictional characters) from one chapter to the next. In the...more
The first sentence of this tome is a real stinker. Stopped me in my tracks. Still, I really liked “London” so I ploughed on. No happier by the end of the second paragraph, I flipped to the back to check on the page count. 883. Blimey. Had they let this go to print sans editor? Yet, I really did enjoy “London” so on I plodded.
Got through it all in the end. “The Forest” is a collection of stories, encompassing the 11th century to the dawn of the 21st, involving generations of families - peasant to...more
Got through it all in the end. “The Forest” is a collection of stories, encompassing the 11th century to the dawn of the 21st, involving generations of families - peasant to...more
I really enjoyed this, especially after reading Rutherfurd's Dublin series, which, while good, was nowhere near as enjoyable as Sarum or London. The Forest is much more like Sarum, possibly due to its rural setting, and, perhaps because of this I found it once again focussed more on the characters and their relationships over the centuries, which I believe is Rutherfurd's magic. Not quite as strong as Sarum and London, but certainly interesting and enjoyable ... Rutherfurd is great at making sto...more
Edward Rutherford really makes history come to life much as James Michner did. I had bought this book years ago after really enjoying his "Sarum" and "London" which were both excellent. I never got around to reading it because of its time committment (since I cannot put his books down after starting them) until taking a recent vacation . His books are all long but not tedious. They all span centuries of time in the specific locale but he includes maps and family trees to show how the different p...more
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I did not like this as well as Sarum or London. Rutherford uses the same formula -- following a series of families through the centuries, binding them to a particular place and to each other. This time it is the New Forest that encompasses the Prides, the Tottens, the Puckles and the Furzeys. The author was a little too smitten with the forest itself - with the practice of "enclosure", with pollarding, and with the verdurers and the other organizations that manage the forest. The stories were in...more
The Forest was not like Sarum, London, or The Dublin Saga in my eyes. It was very different although every bit as engaging. I suppose that could be because The Forest is a different sort of place in England than Sarum or London and it is certainly altogether different from Dublin, Ireland. While I appreciate the artistry involved in the parallels drawn between the story of the fallow deer and that of Adela de la Roche, as well as between the oak tree and Clement Albion, I found that to be somewh...more
This is my favorite of the ones about England. It spans a large area with a lot of folklore, witchcraft, and strong females.
I enjoyed this epic novel that spans approximately 1000 years of the New Forest in England. The story begins in 1099 around the time of the Norman Conquest and ends in 2000. There are numerous stories that follow the families through the generations and lead the reader into it all. The author tends to drone on a bit about Forest topics instead of the individual characters but, for the most part, I was intrigued and interested. I did not care too much for the way some stories did not wrap up unti...more
I discovered this gem at my local Half-Price Books. I had just finished The Princes of Ireland, one of his more recent books, and, even though I knew nothing about the area in which he was writing, it was hard not to fall in love with the characters. For once, Rutherford deviates from tales of the British upper crust to the forest folk: farmers, charcoal makers and even monks, and I found this to be far more interesting than the upper-government workings many of his books tend to take. If you're...more
quote:
'The grey-black spring night still lay like a blanket over the sky. It was quiet, as if the whole New Forest was waiting for something to happen in the silence before the dawn. She stared out across Beaulieu Heath. And then, suddenly, a skylark started singing in the dark."
Of all the works by Rutherfurd this is the last one that I've read. And it was yet again amazing. I may even think I enjoyed this one the most. Because this one spawns not a city but an area that speaks to ones mind. It...more
'The grey-black spring night still lay like a blanket over the sky. It was quiet, as if the whole New Forest was waiting for something to happen in the silence before the dawn. She stared out across Beaulieu Heath. And then, suddenly, a skylark started singing in the dark."
Of all the works by Rutherfurd this is the last one that I've read. And it was yet again amazing. I may even think I enjoyed this one the most. Because this one spawns not a city but an area that speaks to ones mind. It...more
Another Rutherfurd historical novel set very near the "Sarum" site, but with surprisingly little interaction between the fictional families in that 1986 book and the 2000 book. "The Forest" is set in and around the New Forest between Salisbury and the English Channel, following eight fictional families from the 1099 death of William II Rufus in the New Forest to the end of the 20th century. There is a good deal more interaction with real historical figures in this book than there was in "Sarum,"...more
Similar to his books Sarum and London, this is a sprawling historical novel of a particular area of Great Britain, in this case the New Forest. The fortunes of various families rise and fall and the families connect through nearly a thousand years of English history, and the reader painlessly learns quite a bit. I had always known of the existence of something called the New Forest, but didn't really have a clear idea of its geography until I read this book. Rutherfurd has James Michener listed...more
The Forest took a long time to stroll through. No reflection on how much I enjoyed it, just my approach to it! There was no rush in the story so no rush in the reading perhaps.
I love the New Forest (the place itself) & spent a lot of time there in my youth, so many of the locations/themes are familiar; this added an extra dimension to the book, but without it I may have enjoyed it less. At times it seemed to struggle for common threads to keep the ‘Forest’ involved.
However, I was fascinated...more
I love the New Forest (the place itself) & spent a lot of time there in my youth, so many of the locations/themes are familiar; this added an extra dimension to the book, but without it I may have enjoyed it less. At times it seemed to struggle for common threads to keep the ‘Forest’ involved.
However, I was fascinated...more
I've read Edward Rutherfurd before and was mightily impressed with that previous tome. This one, while still meticulously researched, was just not quite as good. It still had a lot of details, but unfortunately it also had a lot of chances for allowing the reader to get lost in those details.
The Forest deals with a period of almost a thousand years in the history of the New Forest of England. Through these times, Rutherfurd weaves the tale of several inhabitants of the area and their descendants...more
The Forest deals with a period of almost a thousand years in the history of the New Forest of England. Through these times, Rutherfurd weaves the tale of several inhabitants of the area and their descendants...more
Feb 26, 2011
Sarah S.
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Sarah by:
Julia H.
Shelves:
book-club
A fine piece of historical fiction, following the history and timeline of six (fictional) families over a period of about 900 years, from the year 1100 to the year 2000, living in the forest of southern England. Rutherford's description of the Forest would make anyone reading it long to live there. It's fantastic how each section of the book intertwines with the others, how things seemingly left unresolved become clear much later in the book, which is sometimes hundreds of years later in the sto...more
May 24, 2012
rabbitprincess
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
others; I hope you like it more than I did
Shelves:
bought-secondhand,
2012
(abandoned)
I've been plodding along this forest trail for over a month, with no end in sight. This book is the story of England's New Forest in Hampshire and follows the usual Rutherfurd format of tracing multiple families through the generations over the centuries, while incorporating actual famous historical personages. It covers about 900 years, from William Rufus's time to the early 2000s.
You definitely have to be in the right mood for that sort of thing, and I thought I was when I started....more
I've been plodding along this forest trail for over a month, with no end in sight. This book is the story of England's New Forest in Hampshire and follows the usual Rutherfurd format of tracing multiple families through the generations over the centuries, while incorporating actual famous historical personages. It covers about 900 years, from William Rufus's time to the early 2000s.
You definitely have to be in the right mood for that sort of thing, and I thought I was when I started....more
Feb 08, 2013
Lana.
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-fiction,
thought-provoking
A historic-fictional account of England's New Forest region from C11 to "present day" (the late 1990s).
The area's history is revealed through a number of interwinding stories (presented in chronological order) featuring a number of families, landmarks, and, particularly in the first, deer.
"It's kind of like deer porn..." Paul gave me a "You've got to be kidding" look. But I wasn't.
Having heard good things about the author, I decided to continue on (despite the weirdly graphic beginning). A fe...more
The area's history is revealed through a number of interwinding stories (presented in chronological order) featuring a number of families, landmarks, and, particularly in the first, deer.
"It's kind of like deer porn..." Paul gave me a "You've got to be kidding" look. But I wasn't.
Having heard good things about the author, I decided to continue on (despite the weirdly graphic beginning). A fe...more
Jul 16, 2010
Michelle
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
History Lovers, Those who enjoy an intricate story
Set in southern England's New Forest, The Forest traces the lives of people from different Forest families throughout 1000 years. Each section of the book encounters a new time period with a new generation of people, who are the descendants of those from previous sections. Armed with a map and a family tree in the front of the book, it illustrates how history can be forgotten by following generations, but also each little mark we make in the world can be lasting.
I really enjoyed this book. It w...more
I really enjoyed this book. It w...more
It is rare when I read a book, that I wish for it to end for other reasons that I want to find out what happens to the characters I have come to know and like. This book, however, I just wished to end so I could get it over with and move on to something better.
The book is composed of several short stories taking place in and around the New Forrest, telling stories about the people living there and following various families as they evolve through the span of the novel (some 900 years).
This idea...more
The book is composed of several short stories taking place in and around the New Forrest, telling stories about the people living there and following various families as they evolve through the span of the novel (some 900 years).
This idea...more
Enjoyable sweeping epic-y account of life in the New Forest (coastal south of England) through many generations of a few representative, plausibly interconnected families. Flawed by a very weak tie-in to the present, which could have been omitted with no loss of story. Odd personification of wildlife, but as one thread of the plot it's not too obtrusive - or is at least less obtrusive than Rutherfurd's overfrequent use of favorite adverbs. He could use an aggressive editor.
Mar 16, 2012
AliceAnn
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to AliceAnn by:
Sue
Shelves:
recommended,
historical-fiction
I enjoyed this book. There were parts where I got bogged down, but on the whole I liked it. I have to agree about the weak ending; it's as if the author reached a word limit and just ended the story. Also something I discovered - the Large Print copy of the book, which is much easier on the eyes than the normal-sized print version, does not include the family geneology page. It made it confusing to figure out which people were related to others, although it felt like everybody in the Forest was...more
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Francis Edward Wintle, best known under his pen name Edward Rutherfurd, was born in the cathedral city of Salisbury. Educated locally, and at the universities of Cambridge, and Stanford, California, he worked in political research, bookselling and publishing. After numerous attempts to write books and plays, he finally abandoned his career in the book trade in 1983, and returned to his childhood h...more
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