Richard Jefferies (1848-1887) is celebrated for his writings about nature and the countryside. However, as a young man he first tried to win fame and fortune through fiction and in the mid-1870s published three novels under the commercial imprint of Tinsley Brothers.
All three books have been re-printed by the Richard Jefferies Society with introductions by Andrew Rossabi and can be bought on this page using credit/debit cards.
Postage rates apply to the UK only. Overseas buyers should make contact first. Surface mail is approximately twice the UK postal rate.
An order form for all the Richard Jefferies Society's publications available by post can be downloaded here.
Most of Richard Jefferies' works can be obtained second-hand at the Jefferies Museum at Coate, through the Society or on Internet book sites such as Abebooks and Amazon.
The Scarlet Shawl
The Scarlet Shawl is the first and the slightest of the three published early novels, but in some ways the most charming. It is a tale of how the young and likeable Nora loses her admirer and would-be lover, Percival. She nearly drifts into a loveless marriage, only to be rescued by luck and her own last remnants of common sense.
There is humour, too, in the character of the hopeless, conceited Wootton who fancies that he will win Nora in marriage, but fears her reaction when she sees him without his cosmetic aids that maintain his youthful appearance.
The novel gathers strength as it proceeds and Jefferies shakes off the awkward self-consciousness that mars the early chapters, and his personality begins to dominate. There are several passages of power and beauty. One can see Jefferies preparing himself to be the great countryside writer that he later becomes.
The Scarlet Shawl (first published in 1874)
ISBN: 978-0-9522813-7-5
Petton Books
Paperback
UK price: £5.99 plus postage £2.00
Restless Human Hearts
Restless Human Hearts is the centrepiece of the triptych, an ambitious three-volume work that anticipates the mature author in many of its themes. Nature and nature mysticism are sharply contrasted with the decadence of fashionable Mayfair society. Brimming with original and often audacious ideas, the novel is also notable for its gallery of women characters – Heloise, who experiences mystical raptures alone on the downs but marries a brutal and debased peer; Georgiana, a feminist intellectual who defies convention by entering on a trial marriage with her lover; and the sin-stained Carlotta, a cross-dressing femme fatale whose nemesis comes in a close encounter with a cobra in a train compartment.
This new edition carries a lively introduction by Andrew Rossabi, past President of The Richard Jefferies Society, who argues for a revaluation of a neglected novel never before re-issued.
The book is published in hardback with no dust-cover as well as in paper-back. The illustration above is taken from the cover of the paper-book.
Restless Human Hearts (first published 1875)
Published in 2008 by Petton Books.
ISBN: 978-0-9522813-3-7
478 pages
UK Price (hard-back) £20 plus post & packaging £2.50
UK Price (soft-back) £8 plus & packing £2.50
World's End
Last and best of the three novels Richard Jefferies published under the Tinsley Bros imprint, World’s End opens with a compelling foundation-myth of the manufacturing city of Stirmingham, whose phenomenal growth is ironically traced back to the activities of a water-rat.
The plot centres on the machinations surrounding the great Baskette claims case, based on a real-life event. From the sulphurous atmosphere of Stirmingham the focus shifts to a lonely village on the downs, where Aymer Malet, an impoverished artist in love with nature and le beau idéal, becomes engaged to Violet Waldron. The scenes of rural life are depicted with much charm and freshness but Stirmingham’s baleful influence impinges in the form of a particularly gruesome murder. The novel has considerable biographical interest in its portrait of the young artist hero. His struggles mirror those of the author, whose fascination with the paranormal is evinced in the eerie trysts of the lonely châtelaine Lady Lechester with a mysterious winged daimon.
World’s End displays Jefferies’ gift for limpid narrative at its best; throws out many original, suggestive and often astonishingly prescient ideas; and contains several passages of intense lyric beauty. This new edition of a novel never before reprinted carries an authoritative introduction by Andrew Rossabi.
World’s End (first published 1877)
Published in 2008 by Petton Books.
ISBN: 978-0-9522813-4-4
UK Price £7.99 plus postage £2.50
Softback, 415 pages
Go to later fiction publications page.
Go to booklet publications page.
Go to research publications page.
Go to pamphlets publications page.
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