The Purple Land: An Adventure in Uruguay - the Banda Oriental

(Paperback)

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The Purple Land is a romantic novel set in the wartorn borderlands of Uruguay, the Banda Oriental. The story of Richard Lamb, an idealistic young Englishman, it begins with his abduction of Paquita and their escape from the vengeance of her Argentine father. Finding refuge in Montevideo, he is catapulted into a series of picaresque adventures: horsestealing, duelling, escaping prison and fighting on the losing side of a civil war, all the while falling constantly and unsuitably in love.

'The Purple Landis 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 best work of gaucho literature.' Jorge Luis Borges

Author Bio

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 know 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.