Bevis - Jefferies, Richard

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Résumé :
This volume presents Richard Jeffries' 1882 novel, Bevis. It is comprised of three interlinked stories. The first of these witnesses Bevis and his friend discover and explore the 'New Sea' and its surroundings. The following story sees two gangs of boys re-enact the Battle of Pharsalia with Bevis and Caesar. The final part of the text concerns itself with the various adventures that Bevis and Mark have when they sail to a little island in the middle of a lake - that they name ''New Formosa''. These heart-warming stories are evocative of a well-spent childhood, and are full of exuberance, ingenuity, imagination and inventiveness. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now, in an affordable, high-quality, modern edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned biography of the author.

Biographie:
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 Wiltshire farm had a great influence on him and provides the background to all his major works of fiction. Jefferies's corpus of writings covers a range of genres and topics, including Bevis (1882), a classic children's book, and After London (1885), a work of science fiction. For much of his adult life he suffered from tuberculosis, and his struggles with the illness and with poverty also play a role in his writing. Jefferies valued and cultivated an intensity of feeling in his experience of the world around him, a cultivation that he describes in detail in The Story of My Heart (1883). This work, an introspective depiction of his thoughts and feelings about the world, gained him the reputation of a nature mystic at the time, but it is his success in conveying his awareness of nature and people within it, both in his fiction and in essay collections such as The Amateur Poacher (1879) and Round About a Great Estate (1880), that has drawn most admirers. Walter Besant wrote of his reaction on first reading Jefferies: Why, we must have been blind all our lives; here were the most wonderful things possible going on under our very noses, but we saw them not.

Sommaire:
Richard Jefferies was an English writer, renowned for his nature writing and his insightful portrayal of rural life in England. Born on November 6, 1848, in Coate Water, near Swindon, his childhood spent on a small farm in Wiltshire profoundly influenced his works. These experiences served as the foundation for many of his major literary contributions, including essays, books on natural history, and novels. Jefferies writing often reflects the beauty and complexity of the natural world, as well as the relationship between humans and their environment. His works, such as The Gamekeeper and Bevis, explore these themes in depth, offering vivid depictions of English landscapes and rural customs. Jefferies personal life was marked by his marriage to Jessie Baden in 1874, with whom he had a family. Despite his early death at the age of 38 in 1887 from tuberculosis, his influence on nature writing remains significant. Jefferies' ability to convey the majesty of nature and the quiet rhythms of rural life has left a lasting legacy in English literature. His reflections on nature, life, and the changing countryside continue to resonate with readers and environmental writers today....