Ben Tubbs
Adventures is Richard Jefferies’ earliest extant work of any
length, probably written in his late teens. It is a quest novel of voyage
and adventure, and his first essay in a genre to which he was naturally drawn.
It was probably influenced by the greatest quest story of them all, Homer’s Odyssey, one of Jefferies’ favourite books as a boy.
It is likely
that Jefferies wrote it for his personal amusement and the entertainment of
family and friends. For students of Jefferies, the novel is of interest.
The humour
and Ben’s pranks in the early chapters of the book are juvenile and immature
but fitting for a boy’s story. The descriptions of the slaves on the
slave-ships are racist in the extreme and painful to read. However the later
chapters, that treat Ben’s adventures in America, show some sparks of
Jefferies’ real writing talent. He describes the prairies with great
sensitivity.
The book is
published for the first time (April 2016), in paperback (200pp)and is available
through the Richard Jefferies Society at a cost of £8 plus postage (rrp £12).
Go to:
http://richardjefferiessociety.org. There is an
excellent introduction by Andrew Rossabi and this is worth reading in its own
right.
Ben Tubbs Adventures (Petton Books: Norfolk, 2016). ISBN:
9780956375179.
