2000, ISBN: 9780712679992

[ED: Hardcover/gebunden], [PU: Century], Zustand: gut. When readers get into the game of comparing novelists (X writes very like Y, and so on), one writer who absolutely defies compariso… Mehr…

[ED: Hardcover/gebunden], [PU: Century], Zustand: gut. When readers get into the game of comparing novelists (X writes very like Y, and so on), one writer who absolutely defies comparison with his peers is Edward Rutherford. With books such as Sarum and Russka, he created a genre that was virtually his own: the immensely researched, fascinatingly detailed epic narrative in which a sense of place was more profoundly established than in practically any other writer. This has been a hard act to follow and Rutherford has not been a prolific writer. Hopes were high for The Forest and this atmospheric tale of the New Forest is just as accomplished as Rutherford's earlier books. Other writers have tackled the area before but this is surely the definitive chronicle, with all the stories and legends of the place woven into a narrative that has all the power and drama of Thomas Hardy filtered through a very modern sensibility. The elements that Rutherford comprehensively includes in his tale range from the savage forest laws of the Normans and their hunting pursuits to the founding of Beaulieu Abbey by the mercurial King John. Rutherford inextricably involves us with his massive cast of adroitly realised characters, and we are taken along with them as they fear the threat of the Spanish Armada into the heart of this ancient domain, with its flocks of wild deer and horses. As before, Rutherford has the grandest ambitions for his arm-straining volume (coming in at 600 pages): from the novel's opening with a plane flying high above a cathedral in April 2000 to the 15th year of the reign of Queen Victoria, the reader is swept through a whole clutch of narratives involving the life and death struggles of the denizens of the New Forest. Certain characters stand out as particularly well drawn: the canny Brother Adam is a rare example of a virtuous man in literature who doesn't end up being simply bland and anodyne. But Rutherford is equally skilful at dealing with the violence of the Monmouth rebellion and his grasp of the shifting patterns of history has, if possible, deepened from his previous books. For those seeking the breadth and solidity of the great 19th-century novels, here is a latter-day work that will more than fit the bill. And who would have thought that the description of a fight between buck deer could be quite so vivid? Her buck had hit firmer ground and his feet suddenly got a purchase on the grass. His hindquarters shivering, he dug in. She saw the shoulders rise and his neck bear down. And now the interloper was slipping on the wet leaves. Slowly, cautiously, their antlers locked, the two straining bucks began to turn. Now they were both on grass. Suddenly the interloper disengaged. He gave his head a twist. The jagged spike was aiming at the buck's eye. He lunged... Pressestimmen “Not all good things come in small packages. If you like books that are big, Edward Rutherfurd is your man. He writes wonderful sagas, tales that cover centuries, always keeping these long stories lively by telling us about the events and conflicts of people’s lives. Rutherfurd does the painstaking research; the reader has all the fun.” –Seattle Times “Many of the most memorable characters are women–Adela the Norman, bold in the face of injustice; her descendant Alice Albion, almost brave enough to defeat the hatred of the civil war; tough old Adelaide, so loyal to ancient grievances that she can’t let her sweet niece Fanny take hold of love.” –Kansas City Star “The novel covers 10 centuries, tracking a half-dozen or so families and their fates, their fortunes, and intrigues moving the stories along. But the trees have tales to tell, too. As fiction, it works like a charm. . . . English majors will love this, and so will almost anyone else who starts page 1 and follows Puckle, Godwin Pride, Cola the Huntsman and their descendents along Rutherfurd’s twisting road.” –New York Daily News Werbetext A magnificent, sweeping history in which Rutherfurd captures the essence of the English heartland. Synopsis An epic centred on one of the most visited beauty spots in England - the New Forest. Few places are more historically resonant, more mysterious or more friendly. Über den Autor und weitere Mitwirkende Edward Rutherfurd was born in Salisbury, England, and educated at Cambridge University. His first novel, Sarum, was an instant international bestseller. His subsequent novels -- Russka and London -- were also highly acclaimed bestsellers here and abroad. Leseprobe. Abdruck erfolgt mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Rechteinhaber. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. The Hunt 1099 The deer started. She trembled for a moment, then listened. A grey-black spring night still lay like a blanket over the sky. Along the edge of the wood, in the damp air, the peaty scent of the heath beyond mingled with the faint mustiness of last year's fallen leaves. It was quiet, as if the whole island of Britain were waiting for something to happen in the silence before the dawn. Then suddenly, a skylark started singing in the dark. Only he had seen the hint of paleness on the horizon. The deer turned her head, not satisfied. Something was approaching. Puckle made his way through the wood. There was no need to move silently. As his feet brushed the leaves or snapped a twig, he might have been mistaken for a badger, wild pig or some other denizen of the Forest. Away on his left, the screech of a tawny owl careened through the dark tunnels and sweeping arches of the oaks. Puckle: was it his father, or his grandfather, or someone further back who had been known by the name of Puckle? Puck: it was one of those strange old names that grew, mysteriously, out of the English landscape. Puck Hill: there were several along the southern shores. Perhaps the name came from that. Or perhaps it was a diminutive: little Puck. Nobody knew. But having got one name, the family had never seemed to bother with any more. Old Puckle, young Puckle, the other Puckle: there was always a certain vagueness about which was which. When he and his family had been kicked out of their hamlet by the servants of the new Norman king, they had wandered across the Forest and finally set up a ramshackle camp by one of the streams that ran down to the River Avon at the Forest's western edge. Recently they had moved several miles south to another stream. Puckle. The name suited him. Thickset, gnarled like an oak, his powerful shoulders stooped forward as though he was pulling some great weight, he often worked with the charcoal burners. Even to the Forest people his comings and goings were mysterious. Sometimes, when the firelight caught his oaken face in its reddish glow, he looked like a goblin. Yet the children would cluster round him when he came to the hamlets to make gates or wattle fences, which he did better than anyone else. They liked his quiet ways. Women found themselves strangely drawn to some deep inner heat they sensed in the woodsman. At his camp by the water, there were always pigeons hanging, and the skin of a hare or some other small creature neatly stretched on pegs; or perhaps the remains of one of the trout who ventured up the little brown streams. Yet the forest animals hardly troubled to avoid him, almost as if they sensed that he was one of them. As he moved through the darkness now, a rough leather jerkin covering his torso, his bare legs thrust into stout leather boots, he might have been a figure from the very dawn of time. The deer remained, head raised. She had wandered a little apart from the rest of the group who were still feeding peacefully in the new spring grasses near the woodland edge. Though deer have good vision, and a highly developed sense of smell, it is on their hearing -- their outer ears being very large in relation to the skull -- that they often rely to detect danger, especially if it is downwind. Deer can pick up even the snap of a twig at huge distances. Already, she could tell that Puckle's footsteps were moving away from her. She was a fallow deer. There were three kinds of deer in the Forest. The great red deer with their russet-brown coats were the ancient princes of the place. Then, in certain corners there were the curious roe deer -- delicate little creatures, hardly bigger than a dog. Recently, however, the Norman conquerors had introduced a new and lovely breed: the elegant fallow deer. She was nearly two years old. Her coat was patchy, prior to changing from its winter mulberry colour to the summer camouflage -- a pale, creamy brown with white spots. Like almost all fallow deer, she had a white rump and a black-fringed white tail. But for some reason nature had made her coat a little paler than was usual. To another deer she would, almost certainly, have been identifiable without this peculiarity: the hindquarter markings of every deer are subtly different from those of every other. Each carries, as it were, a coded marking as individual as a human fingerprint -- and far more visible. She was, therefore, already unique. But nature had added, perhaps for man's pleasure, this paleness as well. She was a pretty animal. This year, at the autumn rutting season, she would find a mate. As long as the hunters did not kill her. Her instincts warned her still to be cautious. She turned her head left and right, listening for other sounds. Then she stared. The dark trees turned into shadows in the distant gloom. A little way off a fallen branch, stripped of its bark, glimmered like a pair of antlers. Behind, a small hazel bush might have been an animal. Things were not always what they seemed in the Forest. Long seconds passed before, satisfied at last, she slowly lowered her head. And now the dawn chorus began. Out on the heather, a stone chat joined in with a whistling chatter from its perch on a gorse bush -- a faint spike of yellow in the darkness. The light was breaking in the eastern sky. Now a warbler tried to interrupt, its chinking trills filling the air; then a blackbird started fluting from the leafy trees. From somewhere behind the blackbird came the sharp drilling of a woodpecker, in two short bursts on a bark drum; moments later, the gentle cooing of a turtle dove. And then, still in the darkness, followed the cuckoo, an echo floating down the woodland edge. Thus each proclaimed its little kingdom before the time of mating in the spring. Over the heath, rising higher and higher, the lark sang louder still, above them all. For he had glimpsed the rising sun. Gebundene Ausgabe: 624 Seiten Verlag: Century Sprache: Englisch ISBN-10: 0712679995 ISBN-13: 978-0712679992 Größe und/oder Gewicht: 23,4 x 16 x 5,6 cm Rezensionen: It's been slow going with 'The Forest', but some of it could be intentional. Edward Rutherfurd's latest offering is truly something to read and savor. This book (there's no other way to describe it) is composed of eight stories (and an epilouge) that vary in length and follow generations of families--everyone from gentry to poor commoners who've been on the land since the beginning. Contrary to some of his other work, I was captivated in all of the stories. Most are no more than 50 or 60 pages long, so the form of the plot is quick-paced and literal. Longer stories (the longest being 'Albion Park') cover larger blocks of time and can be excruciatingly slow. You keep waiting to come upon some action, while Rutherfurd is sweetly biding his time with his wonderful descriptions. However, if you try to hurry through any of the stories, you'll find yourself lost and confused because you missed a precious detail. Rutherfurd's storytelling is unmatched. The climax of the plot can fill your stomach with butterflies. He also manages to skirt the "big" events in England's history, never directly putting his characters in a traumatic and dramatic period. (The closest he comes is the Spanish Armada.) He effectively describes everyday life for people and animals of the New Forest. 'The Forest' is most similar to 'Russka: The Story of Russia' to me. Both use a more saga-like form, careful to show the outcomes of the families as well as the setting. It is also the only English book of his I've been able to read (I couldn't bear trudging through 'London', which has been prasied as his best work). I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Rutherfurd's work or is interested in a historical fiction/saga-like epic. === Well, Edward Rutherfurd has done it again! Somehow, he is able to take an area of land and give us a history lesson about it--without boring us to death. He also has an incredible talent for covering a large span of time, yet he is still able to be detailed in his telling and make us care about his characters. "The Forest" is no exception. He teaches us English history while giving us stories that intertwine throughout the timeline. We learn the background of both obscure and well-known relics, and are shown ways that people earned their surnames. One of the things I really appreciate about this author is that he's realistic--sometimes the good guys don't win, and every once in a while, a bad guy gets away with an evil deed. Be sure though, that in Rutherfurd's books, the ancestors will pay! If you liked "Sarum" and "London," be sure that you won't be disappointed with this one. I don't often buy hardback books, but I was confident that Edward Rutherfurd wouldn't let me down, and he didn't. === a subject not often treated in history: the forest and it's inhabitan'ts . Entertaining. Great Story telling and highly recommandable === ... in the style of London and Sarum. Will begin reading Russka later this summer. I write this review in the hope that the author will read this. Being somewhat of a Francophile, I hope one of his next efforts might be centered somewhere in France, perhaps Paris or an alternative region. === The New Forest has played a central role in the history of England starting with William using it as a hunting "spa". It is in the New Forest where William's son Rufus is killed under strange circumstances. Throughout the remainder of the millennium, this area has been on center stage almost as much as London has. Even in the present, the locale serves as an example of the modern day debate between development with easy access vs. environmental protection by pushing to name it a national park. In between much happens to members of the English Who's Who to include Austen, Drake, and Nelson, etc. Edward Rutherfurd is considered one of the giants of fictionalized history that provides a story telling account centering on real events and people. His latest work THE FOREST will show his talent to educate his audience with a well-written account that spans a thousand years of English history. Though some sections will overwhelm the reader with its vast historical tidbits, sub-genre fans will enjoy this book as much as Mr. Rutherfurd's previous, DE, [SC: 6.20], leichte Gebrauchsspuren, privates Angebot, 23,4 x 16 x 5,6 cm, 624, [GW: 1025g], [PU: London], Banküberweisung, PayPal, Internationaler Versand, [CT: Englischsprachige Bücher / Fantasy (englisch)]<

2000, ISBN: 0712679995

[EAN: 9780712679992], Gebraucht, sehr guter Zustand, [SC: 2.41], [PU: Cornerstone, United Kingdom, London], EDWARD RUTHERFURD THE FOREST, An epic centred on one of the most visited beauty… Mehr…

[EAN: 9780712679992], Gebraucht, sehr guter Zustand, [SC: 2.41], [PU: Cornerstone, United Kingdom, London], EDWARD RUTHERFURD THE FOREST, An epic centred on one of the most visited beauty spots in England - the New Forest. Few places are more historically resonant, more mysterious or more friendly. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged., Books<

2000, ISBN: 9780712679992

Century, 04/06/2000. Hardcover. Used; Good. **WE SHIP WITHIN 24 HRS FROM LONDON, UK, 98% OF OUR ORDERS ARE RECEIVED WITHIN 7-10 DAYS. We believe you will be completely satisfied with ou… Mehr…

Century, 04/06/2000. Hardcover. Used; Good. **WE SHIP WITHIN 24 HRS FROM LONDON, UK, 98% OF OUR ORDERS ARE RECEIVED WITHIN 7-10 DAYS. We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! Greener Books., Century, 04/06/2000, 2.5<