Richard Jefferies | Nature Writer and Mystic
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Andrew Rossabi is president of the Richard Jefferies Society. In August 2023 he gave this highly knowledgeable illustrated lecture about Jefferies.
Andrew begins with a few general remarks about Jefferies, moves on to a potted biography illustrated with excepts from his writings, and winds up by suggesting why Jefferies is still worth reading today, 175 years after his birth.
Andrew touches on many of Jefferies works: Wood Magic, Bevis, Autobiography of my Heart, the Amateur Poacher, the Gamekeeper at Home and many more.
The School of Philosophy and Economic Science offers courses in practical philosophy and economics with justice as well as other subjects. It aims to approach philosophy in a practical way, encouraging students to apply philosophy in their lives. The School also introduces a mindfulness-type exercise leading eventually to mantra meditation.
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#practicalphilosophy #nature #naturelovers #richardjefferies
You may find this relates to open air philosophy, W H Auden, Philip Larkin, nature mysticism, plain English style, nature writers, meditation, natural world, glory of creation, miracle of existence.
Richard Jefferies deserves to be much better known as a writer ahead of his time. Andrew’s talk has brought Jefferies to a new audience and I hope that Jefferies will become part of main stream nature, countryside and spiritual writing once more.
Thanks for this great comment. Yes, he's also an early environmentalist, as you say, long ahead of his time.
Well done, Andrew. A superb insight into Jefferies life and his works. Thank you.
Great to hear from the Richard Jefferies Society here - thanks for your kind comment!
Completely riveting, uplifting and beautifully delivered. A talk of the highest quality and worth 50 minutes of anyone’s time. Thank you!
Thanks so much for this great comment. We're really pleased to hear you watched the whole lecture too 😊
Many Thanks Andrew its given me so much to Chew over and contemplate I feel Enlightened and encouraged to delve deeper into this extraordinary mans works and thoughts More than anything i'm excitedabout the journey i'm about to undertake and for your gentle nudge towards my adventure............
Wonderful! Andrew referred to several of Richard Jefferies' works in the talk. The Story of My Heart is probably best known now.
Thank you. He is not someone I'd ever heard of but I know exactly what he means when he writes of imagining seeing the creation for the first time. Born in South Africa, that's how the English counrtyside appeared to my eyes when first I walked upon it. It still does.
Thanks for this great comment, Dawn. If you're interested to get to know more about Richard Jefferies, we'd recommend The Story of my Heart.
Andrew! That was wonderful, thank you🙏
Jane - thank you so much for this great comment. Glad you enjoyed it.
Impressive insight into a remarkable man
Thanks for watching - yes on both counts!
Thank you for that.
You're very welcome! We were delighted to record Andrew as he's such an expert on Richard Jefferies.
50:24 It would be nice to know the source of the quotation from 'an American vicar'. Whoever it was, I agree with the sentiment expressed (I comment as an English vicar and as a fan of the spiritual aspects of Jefferies' writing). Jefferies was superficially an atheist, but scratch the surface and he was, in my view, deeply spiritual, yearning profoundly for an illimitable something, 'higher than deity' (Story of My Heart, e.g., conclusion of ch.3). And only a few weeks before his passing he wrote on a private notepad, 'Morning. And I found the Beauty, the Nameless ever answering the Soul. I actually found that I (really) believe here [in the presence of the sunrise].' (Notebooks of Richard Jefferies, entry dated 31/5/1887, pub. Grey Walls 1948 ed.)
The Rev. Harry Leigh-Pink, ‘The Religious Classics’, The Living Church, Vol. 153, 9 October 1966 [pp.14-5, 27], p.27.
Ps Great talk, thank you. I saw you give an informative talk in Swindon some years ago. It may have been the 150th anniversary of RJ’s birth, and activities included a tree planting in the presence of relatives of Jefferies from the USA, and a trip to, I think, Barbury Castle (sp ?). Anyhow, your talk then was also tophole, and your restraint in dealing then with an overly-focussed nit-picker was impressive 🙂
Although Jefferies’ fiction writing is perhaps the loosest string to his bow, his two children’s novels are decent, and his 1885 novel ‘After London’ is a pioneering post-apocalyptic work that I taught in a utopia/dystopia university course several times; it has some impressive ideas in it, and is well worth a read.
Thanks for that well-informed recommendation!