The Purple Land - W H Hudson

£17.99

An adventure in Uruguay - the Banda Oriental

With an afterword by Andreas Campomar

The Purple Land tells the story of Richard Lamb, an idealistic young Englishman, who spirits his new wife, Paquita, to Montevideo to escape the vengeance of her Argentine father. Here, he is catapulted into a series of picaresque adventures: horse-stealing, duelling, imprisonment and fighting on the losing side of a civil war, all the while falling serially and unsuitably in love.

Rooted in Hudson’s evocation of the simplicity and dignity of life on the pampas and 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 and warmth of South America.

Eland also publish Far Away and Long Ago by W H Hudson.

‘the best work of gaucho literature.’  Jorge Luis Borges

‘The Purple Land is a very sinister book if read too late in life. It recounts splendid imaginary amorous adventures of a perfect English gentleman in an intensely romantic land.’ Ernest Hemingway

An adventure in Uruguay - the Banda Oriental

With an afterword by Andreas Campomar

The Purple Land tells the story of Richard Lamb, an idealistic young Englishman, who spirits his new wife, Paquita, to Montevideo to escape the vengeance of her Argentine father. Here, he is catapulted into a series of picaresque adventures: horse-stealing, duelling, imprisonment and fighting on the losing side of a civil war, all the while falling serially and unsuitably in love.

Rooted in Hudson’s evocation of the simplicity and dignity of life on the pampas and 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 and warmth of South America.

Eland also publish Far Away and Long Ago by W H Hudson.

‘the best work of gaucho literature.’  Jorge Luis Borges

‘The Purple Land is a very sinister book if read too late in life. It recounts splendid imaginary amorous adventures of a perfect English gentleman in an intensely romantic land.’ Ernest Hemingway

The Purple Land: An adventure in Uruguay - the Banda Oriental
ISBN: 978-1-78060-073-4  
Format: 345pp demi pb
Place: Uruguay

Author Biography

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 now 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.