Purple Land
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€22.99
The Purple Land is a romantic novel set in the war torn borderlands of Uruguay, the Banda Oriental. The story of Richard Lamb, an idealistic young Englishman, it begins with his abduction of Paquita and their escape from the vengeance of her Argentine father. Finding refuge in Montevideo, he is catapulted into a series of picaresque adventures: horse-stealing, duelling, escaping prison, and fighting on the losing side of a civil war, all the while falling constantly and unsuitably in love. Rooted in Hudson s evocation of the simplicity and dignity of life on the pampas as well as his masterful depiction of its wildlife and landscape, The Purple Land is the first modern `road novel . It is also a narrative of transformation, the Creolisation of an Englishman, redeemed by the heightened exuberance, energy, warmth and innate humanity of South America.
William Henry Hudson (1841 1922) was born in Argentina to parents (themselves of Irish and English origin) who had first tried their hand at farming in America before migrating further south. His novels and short stories have inspired many film and theatrical adaptations, but he is know best known as a visionary nature writer who first evoked the concept of a living Earth. Far Away and Long Ago (also published by Eland) the nature-and-bird-filled memory of his childhood on the pampas is his most acclaimed work. There are towns and streets named after him in Argentina and he is the elusive subject of a dozen biographies.