From the Bookshelf of CanLit Challenge…

Wild Animals I Have Known

Ernest Thompson Seton

Start date: September 25, 2010

Finish date: October 15, 2010

Discussion: CanLit Challenge 1867-1913

Discussion leader: Ibis3

Why we're reading this: Book #40. The final NCL book (of the current list) originally published in the 19th century. A non-fictio…more
[close] Book #40. The final NCL book (of the current list) originally published in the 19th century. A non-fiction (mostly) collection of anecdotes about animals with original illustrations.

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CanLit Challenge 1867-1913

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What Members Thought

Sep 18, 2010 Pooker rated it liked it

Shelves: canadiana

Except for the gruesome death of Blanca in the first story, Lobo, I did quite enjoy reading these stories. Seton writes with a sing-song, nursery rhyme rhythm and so reading simply flows along.

Although the title of the first story, "Lobo: The King of Carrumpaw" sounded familiar to me, the death of Blanca was so shocking to my adult self that I have to assume I did not read the story as a child. Surely I would have remembered it and been prepared. I did not and was not.

That said, I think that I Except for the gruesome death of Blanca in the first story, Lobo, I did quite enjoy reading these stories. Seton writes with a sing-song, nursery rhyme rhythm and so reading simply flows along.

Although the title of the first story, "Lobo: The King of Carrumpaw" sounded familiar to me, the death of Blanca was so shocking to my adult self that I have to assume I did not read the story as a child. Surely I would have remembered it and been prepared. I did not and was not.

That said, I think that I must have been a rather hard-hearted child or rather more realistic about the likely fates of wild animals. I do not recall being particularly moved or traumatized by the animals' deaths in these stories whether by "natural" design or by human hand. That, I suspect, had to do with the fact that I fished and hunted with my father from a very young age (as did the two eldest of my four younger brothers and sisters). We did not have television and hence did not have Walt Disney until I was about seven or eight years old. As such, I suspect I was less inclined to anthropomorphize animals than Seton has in these "true" stories. I'm fairly certain that my own kids would have been bawling their eyes out by the end of each and every one. As an adult reading them now, I also admit that I became a bit misty eyed several times, so it must be Disney's doing.

I do recall reading as a child "Raggylug", "The Springfield Fox" and "Redruff". As those were animals I would have been quite familiar with (the partridges,in particular) I no doubt related to those stories based on my own experiences with wildlife. For example, I had seen and heard the partridge's behaviour, as we walked with my hunter father through the forest.

Oddly, I do not recall reading "Bingo" even though I had a dog as a child. My adult self quite enjoyed reading that story and, indeed, the humour of it was enhanced by my recollection of my own childhood dog Scamp's antics. Perhaps, I dismissed the story as a child when Bingo's owner apparently had no qualms about giving his dog away!

I do remember the drawings and I think they would have added some authenticity to the stories when I read them as a child. I remember my grandfather doing the same thing when he kept his "log" of camp life every summer at the lake. ...more

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Aug 01, 2010 Ibis3 rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, canadian, nineteenth-century, short-stories, cl-lifetime

There were a couple of stories I liked a lot (my favourite was about Silverspot the crow), but most were very difficult for me to get through. I can't stand deliberate ruthlessness in the treatment of animals, and there were plenty of cruel, relentless humans in the pages of this book. I suppose Seton himself felt as though presenting the stories this way, with a proper respect for the animals' point of view, could change peoples' attitudes toward our furry and feathered relations (in this respe ...more

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Feb 02, 2019 Avonlea Rose marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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