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2.83 AVERAGE
2.83 AVERAGE
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I read this for university and would not have come across it otherwise. I'm glad I have read it. The book has an interesting premise i.e England/ the Earth being reclaimed by nature. From what I can gather from reading, Jeffries gives no reason for this happening. Although, I won't lie, I skimmed probably too much of the book after realising that Jeffries has an uncanny ability to labour the point. I'm talking pages of description that I did not feel added to the movement of the plot. But here's the thing, the book is meant to be a factual recounting of Felix's journey so I can't even knock it. All I can say is that reading it was a slog. Particularly, the reams of scene-setting for I would say literally, the first half of the book(!!!) gave the impression that the story which reveals Felix's motivations for his journey i.e his love for Aurora, his desire to set up a new kingdom for him and her, was the book's afterthought; or that Jeffries only really thought about this story during the writing process. I mean nothing wrong with that either really but it makes for an unbelievable read and one where I am sort of sitting there reading it like hmmm ok. What I'm saying is, Felix didn't feel like a completely fully formed character with desires and motivations despite the laborious scene-setting and character explanation in the beginning. There were some brilliant parts of the book that were brilliant because of the central, most interesting premise to the book i.e that the ancient world has fallen and made way for a new world that is ironically reflexive of even more ancient people.
Probably better when first published.
I'd heard of this book due to my interest in post apocalyptic games. To me it had too many details where they were unnecessary, and not nearly enough where the should have been. It's an ok story, but if it were new I'd say it's ending was sequel bait.
I'd heard of this book due to my interest in post apocalyptic games. To me it had too many details where they were unnecessary, and not nearly enough where the should have been. It's an ok story, but if it were new I'd say it's ending was sequel bait.
Not a fan of this one, unfortunately! I found the narrative very disengaging, and the plot a little boring. I liked the idea that nature reclaimed England - that domesticated animals ran free and London was overgrown with weeds - but I found the actual story very dull. The characters had no development, and I was a little bored following only Felix around.
I found the country's relapse into barbarism a little strange - Jefferies put emphasis on class, such as the lower-class being more susceptible to barbarism because they don't have the privilege to be otherwise. Also, I found it quite disheartening that education was virtually none existent. Only the upper classes had education, but they chose to neglect it because it wasn't that important.
An interesting dystopian, especially as I haven't read any from the Victorian period, but not a very interesting story...
I found the country's relapse into barbarism a little strange - Jefferies put emphasis on class, such as the lower-class being more susceptible to barbarism because they don't have the privilege to be otherwise. Also, I found it quite disheartening that education was virtually none existent. Only the upper classes had education, but they chose to neglect it because it wasn't that important.
An interesting dystopian, especially as I haven't read any from the Victorian period, but not a very interesting story...
This was very different from the normal post-apocalyptic fare, and quite refreshing once I'd adapted to the slower pace. It was originally published in 1885, which surprised me, because I probably would have dated it at least 40 years later.
Don't expect a thrilling fast-moving adventure tale with a defined ending. Expect a detailed, immersive encyclopedic picture of the wilderness that took over from a civilisation over 30 years ago, of the animals' adaptations, of the human cultural changes and the understanding that what caused this destruction has probably been lost in the transition to oral history. The first fifth gives the reader a view through the distant lens of time, as if a time lapse camera were panning across the scene.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Don't expect a thrilling fast-moving adventure tale with a defined ending. Expect a detailed, immersive encyclopedic picture of the wilderness that took over from a civilisation over 30 years ago, of the animals' adaptations, of the human cultural changes and the understanding that what caused this destruction has probably been lost in the transition to oral history. The first fifth gives the reader a view through the distant lens of time, as if a time lapse camera were panning across the scene.
Spoiler
What emerges is a quasi-feudal society, where a younger, landless son must set off on a quest to find something of value to win the hand of the woman he loves, finding his understanding of real life somewhat flawed in the process.Disclaimer: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The first section of the novel is a “factual and scientific” account of what happened to the infrastructure of the city of London after British civilization fell due to an unknown catastrophe. It reminded me very much of [b:The World Without Us|248787|The World Without Us|Alan Weisman|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317065220s/248787.jpg|241063], and it was fascinating to see that many of [a:Alan Weisman|79216|Alan Weisman|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1288152289p2/79216.jpg]’s conclusions had been anticipated by Jefferies almost 150 years earlier.
The second section follows a more traditional narrative structure and tells the story of Felix Aquila, a young nobleman in the medieval society that has arisen in Britain hundreds of years after the fall of civilization. Due to the many dangers that lurk in the wilderness, people have taken to living in walled encampments and rarely venturing beyond their borders, but Felix, much like Katniss Everdeen in [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337857402s/2767052.jpg|2792775], is a hunter and regularly escapes over the walls surrounding his family’s fort. One day he decides to build a boat and explore as much of the great inland sea as he can, and the rest of the story details his adventures on this journey.
This book is not without its flaws, most notably that it ends abruptly without much of a resolution, but it is definitely worth reading, both as a source of many of the ideas for later post-apocalyptic fiction and as a gripping adventure story in its own right.
The second section follows a more traditional narrative structure and tells the story of Felix Aquila, a young nobleman in the medieval society that has arisen in Britain hundreds of years after the fall of civilization. Due to the many dangers that lurk in the wilderness, people have taken to living in walled encampments and rarely venturing beyond their borders, but Felix, much like Katniss Everdeen in [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337857402s/2767052.jpg|2792775], is a hunter and regularly escapes over the walls surrounding his family’s fort. One day he decides to build a boat and explore as much of the great inland sea as he can, and the rest of the story details his adventures on this journey.
This book is not without its flaws, most notably that it ends abruptly without much of a resolution, but it is definitely worth reading, both as a source of many of the ideas for later post-apocalyptic fiction and as a gripping adventure story in its own right.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The method of world-building in this novel was very different than what I've generally experienced in post-apocalyptic/fantasy novels. Instead of burdening the story with clumsy explanations from characters or contrived plot devices that introduce new aspects of the world only when needed (cough*cough*JKRowling*cough), Jefferies just tells the reader about his world upfront. The first section of the novel, "The Return to Barbarism", is the literary equivalent to a nature documentary about a foreign landscape. With lovely attention to detail, this section of tedious description and explanation is made vibrant and compelling.
I wish the same could be said of the rest of the novel. The second section, "Wild England", is an adventure story set in the world that the reader is now acquainted with. It's a typical adventure story of a moody, privileged male protagonist who goes on a quest to seek his fortunes and runs into varied and assorted obstacles. The artful descriptions fall flat in this section of the book and the plot drags along by inches. The protagonist is unsympathetic and the plot seems aimless. The only exciting portion of the story was the discovery of what has become of London and that segment of the book over-corrects and swings into incongruous surrealism. I wasn't bothered by the abrupt ending because I did not feel invested in the adventure.
I recommend reading the first part slowly and savoring the detailed descriptions. They really are beautiful. But then feel free to write your own fanfiction set in Jefferies carefully constructed world, because the story he supplied really isn't that interesting.
I wish the same could be said of the rest of the novel. The second section, "Wild England", is an adventure story set in the world that the reader is now acquainted with. It's a typical adventure story of a moody, privileged male protagonist who goes on a quest to seek his fortunes and runs into varied and assorted obstacles. The artful descriptions fall flat in this section of the book and the plot drags along by inches. The protagonist is unsympathetic and the plot seems aimless. The only exciting portion of the story was the discovery of what has become of London and that segment of the book over-corrects and swings into incongruous surrealism. I wasn't bothered by the abrupt ending because I did not feel invested in the adventure.
I recommend reading the first part slowly and savoring the detailed descriptions. They really are beautiful. But then feel free to write your own fanfiction set in Jefferies carefully constructed world, because the story he supplied really isn't that interesting.
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 (unlike his supposed female love interest, of whom all we are told is that she is beautiful); he runs away from home, fights in a war, discovers the poisonous ruins of London; and is adopted as their king by the shepherd tribes of the south-east in their perennial war against the gipsies/Romany.[return][return]The book ends really abruptly with Felix tramping back to his home to reclaim his love. The descriptions of the landscape, vegetation and natural world are fantastic, but there's really very little plot. Still, a classic of proto-science fiction.
The history of the world was interesting, but I couldn't get invested in the second part of the book.
After London, a post-apocalyptic novel written in 1885, begins with a long description of how the English countryside reasserts itself, and subsequently evolves, following the unspecified disaster that has befallen England's cities and driven out most of its human population. There follows a rather mundane story of Sir Felix, a nobleman in the feudalistic society that arises following the fall. In the final part of the book Sir Felix goes questing, and the pace of the story picks up a little, as well as touching some more on the nature of the apocalypse.
As a story, it's nothing very special, but I really enjoyed Jefferies' descriptions of nature, and of the prolific bird, tree and plant-life in this new England.
As a story, it's nothing very special, but I really enjoyed Jefferies' descriptions of nature, and of the prolific bird, tree and plant-life in this new England.