A Forest World

by Felix Salten

The forest is a whole different world…Felix Salten’s classic story of wild and tame animals coming together is brought vividly to life in this refreshed edition, ideal for collecting.

To the animals of Lodge Farm, the woods are a forbidden place filled with danger and uncertainty. For the wild animals in the forest, the farm is just as frightening, because Man lives there. The two worlds are next to one another, but couldn’t be further apart.

When the groups, tame and wild, begin to interact, each begins to question how life would be different on the other side. Manni the donkey ventures into the forest for an adventure, while a doe and her two fawns seek the safety of the barn when poachers threaten them in the woods. Will the animals choose to stay in their new lives? Or will the call of home be too great?

Genres: Animals, Classics, Fiction, Chapter Books, Childrens

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

There is more than one author with this Name.

Felix Salten was an Austrian writer. He was born Siegmund Salzmann in Budapest, Hungary. When he was three weeks old, his family moved to Vienna, Austria. Many Jews were immigrating into the city in the late 19th century because Vienna had finally granted full citizenship to Jews in 1867.

When his father went bankrupt, Felix had to quit school and begin working in an insurance agency. He also began submitting poems and book reviews to journals. He became part of the Young Vienna movement (Jung Wien) and soon received work as a full-time art and theater critic in the Vienna press. In 1901 he founded Vienna's first, short-lived literary cabaret. In 1900 he published his first collection of short stories. He was soon publishing, on an average, one book a year, of plays, short stories, novels, travel books, and essay collections. He also wrote for nearly all the major newspapers of Vienna. He wrote film scripts and librettos for operettas. In 1927 he became president of the Austrian P.E.N. club. (acronym of the International Association of Poets and Playwrights, Essayists and Editors, and Novelists)

His most famous work is Bambi, which he wrote in 1923. It was translated into English in 1928 and became a Book-of-the-Month Club hit. In 1933, he sold the film rights to Sidney Franklin for $1,000, who later transferred the rights to the Walt Disney studios. Disney released its movie based on Bambi in 1942.

Life in Austria became perilous for a prominent Jew in the 1930s. Adolf Hitler had Salten's books banned in 1936. Two years later (1938), after Austria had become part of Germany, Salten moved to Zurich, Switzerland, where he lived until his death.

He was married to the actress Ottilie Metzl, and had two children: Paul and Anna-Katherina. He wrote another book based on the character Bambi, titled Bambi's Children: The Story of a Forest Family, 1939. His stories "Perri" and "The Hound of Florence" inspired the Disney films Perri and The Shaggy Dog.

Salten is considered to be the author of the erotic novel Josephine Mutzenbacher, the fictional autobiography of a Vienna prostitute, which was published in 1906.

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I hoped. What I liked about it were the descriptions of the flora and fauna of the European forest the book is set in and the changes that occur with the seasons. What I found distracting was the humanization of the animals; giving them human thoughts.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very sad for me and I will never forget Manni the donkey and Tambo the stag!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for "Little World Apart", but after reading the description here it appears to be the same book.

Whilst this book is quite an easy-read, it touches on many of the philosophies that I have personally pondered over, especially with regards to nature and man's relationship with nature. I think people of all ages can get something out of it. On top of that, some of the language is beautiful and the characterisations are done really well.

The only criticism I have echoes what has already been said; there is no solid storyline, it is more of an account of the lives of this community of wild and domestic animals. Whilst I appreciate that some books benefit from this type of format, in this case I think a more rigid plot would have been beneficial and made it a 5 star book for me as it felt quite loose and fragmented, and by the end there was a slightly underwhelming feeling. However, overall it was an enjoyable read and retains a place on my shelf.

[Kirsti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm an odd book. Certainly very easy to read, but very little happens. It is simply a fictional account of everyday activities performed by animals living in the forest, and their tamer counterparts living with humans. The characters don't really grow or change, just live. It was oddly sedate.

I've always wanted to read Bambi, and figured anything by the same author might be as good. I hope Bambi is good still, although I base that on a Disney film that would have taken liberties. If you're looking for thrilling life or death animal struggles, such as Watership Down or The Animals of Farthing Wood, then this probably isn't for you. I'd even call it boring, save for a few small snatches of conversation and situations. I still mowed straight through it, and leave it with good feelings, so I don't want to give it a lower rating. Three stars for now, maybe read Bambi in the future?

[Rikke Grave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say that a lot of action takes place in this adorable easy read novel. Yet I find it a pleasant and interesting read. It's not every day one stumbles upon a story like this. Without saying too much, the story basically explains the life of the forrest and it's creatures, but with a hint of how their daily life amongst each other works ^^ Sometimes we ought to read for the message behind the words and the story, than for the action and the story itself ^^

[Juliko · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's no surprise by now that I'm a huge fan of Felix Salten's body of work. Thus far, I've read the following books by him: Bambi A Life In The Woods, the sequel to that, Bambi's Children, Fifteen Rabbits, a tiny bit of The Hound of Florence, and the subject of today's review, A Forest World. Published in 1942, the story focuses on various animals living in very different worlds. The barn animals that live on a farm don't go anywhere near the forest beyond their gates, and the animals of the forest consider the farm to be just as scary. Two worlds are literally right next to each other, but couldn't be further apart. Gradually, creatures from both sides begin to interact, bringing the once distant worlds a little bit closer. It's a story about expanding one's horizons and learning what makes life in the barn and the forest so different from one another.

Unlike Bambi, which has a central main character, A Forest World focuses much more on a scattered ensemble cast and doesn't necessarily have a true main character. One could argue that Manni, the donkey who lives at the barn, is the main protagonist, as he has the most page time in the entire novel, but just as many other characters get their turn in the spotlight, like Perri the squirrel (Who would later get her own book), Tambo the stag, Genina the mother doe and her two fawns, and so on. Also unlike Bambi, which depicts humans as being mysterious and dangerous, A Forest World does feature humans who are shown on screen, namely a forest ranger, Peter, his wife Babette, and Martin, their sort-of adopted son, who care about the animals in both the barn and the forest, with Martin in particular being the biggest link between the two settings. Not only do Martin and Peter genuinely care for the barn animals, they also make sure the forest animals don't go hungry during the winter, protect them from poachers, and in Peter's case, only kill elderly or genuinely dangerous animals. So if you wanted to see a Salten book where humans are portrayed much more sympathetically, this is the book for you...as far as I know. I haven't read the entirety of Salten's work, so take my statement with a grain of salt.

I've gushed about Salten's prose in the past, and here it's the same as ever. Lush with detailed descriptions and evocative prose that really make you feel like you're a part of the forest, bringing every piece of nature to life. I honestly don't have much else to say about it on that front, as it's just good all around! Of course, the talking trees and leaves make their return, and having read some of his other books, which also contain similar scenes, I think it's safe to say that Salten likes shoving in scenes where trees and leaves talk to each other. I'm still kind of meh on it, but the chapters in question can be skipped if you're not into that. Now, the translation for Forest World is very similar to the one used for Bambi. I don't know if they were translated by the same person or not, and any information I tried to find didn't confirm anything. I did find that Forest World was translated by one Paul Milton, and the person who did the original English translation for Bambi was done by Whitaker Chambers, a friend of Max Schuster (Co-founder of Simon & Schuster), but the copy of Bambi I have, which is a more modern release, doesn't list a translator, so I have nothing to confirm whether his translation was used again or not. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!

Also unlike Bambi, A Forest World doesn't necessarily have an overarching plot. It does explore the idea of freedom as a running theme, along with how different life in the forest is to life in the barn, but many of the chapters are fairly episodic in nature. One chapter deals with the cow Lisa's anxieties about her baby and her fear of humans taking it away from her, another set of chapters deal with poachers threatening the forest animals, some chapters detail Tambo's life and his relationship with a doe, Debina, and so on. But like most of Salten's work, A Forest World isn't afraid to go dark or drastically change the status quo. It doesn't shy away from the dangers the forest animals face, like predators and poachers, but it also shows that farm life for the barn animals comes with its own set of problems. One thing I definitely appreciate about this book is that it's not afraid to give its characters huge flaws and have them make bad decisions that have serious, long-lasting consequences. I won't spoil anything, but the book basically kills off a very important character and in a way that you'd never see coming. Everyone's actions are realistic and true to life, and true to their overall character, but Salten is also careful to at least give his characters sympathetic and likeable traits when need be...with some exceptions. That said, there are a lot of characters to keep track of, with some of them only appearing for two chapters and never again, but it's easy to tell who's who from their actions and the point of view switches between chapters, so I never felt lost when reading it.

Now, there is a reason why I don't rate this book higher. While I do like a majority of the characters in this book, there are plenty of others who just don't do it for me, or could have benefitted from being better written. To put it bluntly, the only characters I didn't like in this book were, ironically, the deer characters, which is weird for me to say because deer are my favorite animals! Particularly, the characters of Tambo, Genina, and Arilla were the weakest members of the ensemble, with the latter two being because they are solely defined by their desires and motivations...and said desires are not only extremely shallow, they also read as downright misogynistic if you stop to think about it. Get this: Arilla's first mate was violent and abusive, and was shot by Peter because of how dangerous he was. Arilla refuses to mate with any other stags unless they have the same kind of personality as her first mate. Chapter 20 reveals that Arilla actually wants to be tyrannized, dominated, and abused by violent stags, because she believes that it's an act they put up to hide the fact that they actually want to be loved. That's...extremely unhealthy, especially from a human perspective. I don't know if this is intentional on Salten's part, or if it's the way it's translated, but this reads to me like it's trying to romanticize domestic abuse, and I don't think I need to go into how bad that is, because everybody and their dog knows that domestic/spousal abuse is not okay in any fashion, and it should never be portrayed as such. However, Genina's character and motivations aren't much better. She doesn't feel complete without children to raise, and when her first set of fawns grow up and leave her, with her son outright spurning her because he can't stand her treating him like a child, Genina is beside herself and has two more fawns to fill the void. Now, there's nothing wrong with wanting to raise kids and become parents. However, Genina doesn't have much personality beyond loving her kids too much and not wanting to let go of being a mother. Her naivete and the fact that the narrative explicitly refers to her second set of fawns as substitutes for her first ones cement the fact that she has a very rose tinted view of motherhood and hasn't learned anything from how she reacted to her first fawns growning up. When I said their motivations read as misogynistic, I wasn't kidding, as the book does seem to imply that girls absolutely need men in their lives--particularly need them to domineer over them and treat them like punching bags--and to have children or else they have nothing going for them, which is a very stupid, narrow-minded view to have. Imagine how these scenarios would go if they were human beings. More than that, the book doesn't actually show them learning from their mistakes and bettering themselves in the long run, so I can't bring myself to sympathize with Genina and Arilla in any way.

Adding onto this, it often seems like Salten can't seem to figure out what he wants to do with Tambo. First he's depicted as shy and skittish, but next he's brutal, dominant, and entitled, and later is so wishy-washy you just want to smack him across the head and tell him to stop acting so entitled. His mate, Debina, is at first devoted to him, but then completely spurns him because he wants to keep a harem of does when mating season comes along. So yeah. I love deer as animals, and Bambi is my favorite book of all time, but Salten really dropped the ball for his deer characters in A Forest World. I liked every character in this book except for the deer characters, which really says a lot!

That's really all I have to say on this one. I really wish I could like this book more than I do, and had it done away with some of the more questionable elements described above, it might have gone higher up my favorite books list. But for what it is, it's still a pretty nice read for anyone looking for a relaxing but still riveting time killer.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty charming account of the cycle of life in a forest, juxtaposed with the domesticated animals of a nearby farm. Many relationships are explored throughout the book: mating patterns, mothers and children, fathers and children, creators with other creatures, different behaviors and ranks within a species as well as with close relatives, wild animals with tamed animals, predators with prey, wild animals with humans, tame animals with humans, humans with each other. It read as descriptively as the Burgess Bird and Animal books, with more narrative. The prose is sumptuous when it comes to describing the forest surroundings, painting word pictures that are vivid and beautifully rendered. The main human protagonist is a young man who, other than the older caretaker couple who have raised him (what happened to his parents is never explained) and also care for the forest animals, spurns human contact after having been bullied and scorned by people for his physical appearance of a humpback. He prefers to ‘live’ in watch of the forest world, closely observing all the creatures therein, and gaining a reputation among most of them as being safe and trustworthy on account of his care and quiet. He finds very complete contentedness within this world, feeling them his close friends. The book begins and ends on the same note, detailing his supreme joy found in observing the wonders of creation. This book is easily read as a standalone, with only Perri the Red squirrel appearing intermittently throughout the story, mostly as a nosy messenger. Animals do talk with each other throughout, but never with humans, as in Perri (or Bambi’s Children, I can’t remember which).

Spoilers—

Content considerations consist of regular, realistic depictions of forest creatures killing other forest creatures in varying degrees of graphicness, usually as food sources with the exception of: Shah the cat’s storyline at the end (he is attacked in tandem by an owl and a fox, but lives), the mercy killings of deer that had become too maliciously violent on their own kind (done by Peter with a rifle), an account of a poacher and his traps (Peter confronts the poacher at gunpoint and turns him in to the police), and the storyline concerning Manni the donkey (in which the stallion lets his temper flare too far and kicks Manni in the throat—eventually he succumbs to his injuries). Mating rituals are detailed diplomatically throughout the book as seasons roll by, nothing graphic is detailed but there is mention of the deer ‘harems’, and various does express their desire to be ‘mastered’ and ‘domineered’ by a stag. One doe particularly reveals that she cannot love a stag *unless* he abuses and neglects her—to which her listening companion plainly states they cannot ever be friends because their views are so opposite.

[Stephen A. Roddewig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I owe much to Bambi, a Life in the Woods. I read it in early high school and it changed my entire philosophy on writing. Especially in contrast to the Disney film that, I can confidently say, is quite loosely based on the book. The book is harsh, unblinking in its acknowledgement of the equal parts wonder and danger of the natural world.

I recall a starkly different tone in the sequel Bambi's Children. Almost Disney-fied, you could say. There was still death and destruction, wonder and mystery. But the brutality of the first book was lost. And according to the Wikipedia page, quite intentionally. Salten never meant these to be children's books. The American publishing house that handled the German-English translation disagreed with passing up on potential sales like that.

And here is another situation where I wonder if this book has also suffered at the hands of the translator. Not that I disliked it, but the magic wasn't there like the previous books. Or perhaps I'm now acutely aware that there is no conventional plot in a Salten tale. In Bambi and its sequel, it's less obvious because we follow a central character/characters. In A Forest World, it's more a series of vignettes unified around recurring characters. Who is the main protagonist? Who's to say?

Or maybe my real gripe is that a book titled A Forest World spends an awful lot of time, you know, not in the forest? Not that humans don't play a role in the other books, but between the barn and the game warden, we don't spend as much time in that titular natural space as one would expect.

Still, the coming of spring scene in one of the final chapters was breathtaking. A much needed reminder of what drew me to this author in the first place. He is a master of describing the natural world. Just wish we'd seen more of that in this book.

[Lara Vehar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was okay.. there isn't much of a plot - it's a dual chapter book - part of it is written from the POV of various deer living in the forest- and part of it is written from the POV of the animals living at the warden's house. We meet Tambo, the new majestic stag and his mate Debina and later their kid, we meet Genina and her kids who have to temporarily move in with domestic animals after they start fearing for their lives because of the poachers and we meet the domestic animals, two horses, a wise and good natured donkey who is accidentally killed by one of the horses and a cow and her calf. I did really enjoy the descriptions of the forst again but I wasn't a huge fan of the personalities animals get - they seem way too human and feel human emotions. But other than that the book was pretty decent and easy read. It's a relaxing book about different animals leading their lives and enjoying living in the wild and on the farm.

[Robin Craig Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good read if you like nature writing, which the author performs beautifully. I mostly read books that have a strong connection with the elements and like this one, the story naturally emerges from its environment.

Action and adventure isn’t always necessary if you just want to curl up, relax, and have a quiet read. That’s not to say this story doesn’t have its conflicts, but the surrounding woodlands and countryside and changing weather does help to soothe the journey.

In a well written anthropomorphic tale, there’s always a moral message to be gleaned.

Good bedtime reading ... I’m all for pleasant dreams. Sleep well.

[Gillie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, but I didn't like it how the author made Manni's death Devil's fault. I did, however, like the lesson Devil learned after that. I am sorry about the ending with Tambo and Debina. I think I will like Little Tambo better though. Other than that, I think it was a great book, just as wonderful as his other books. Felix Salten really opens up a window to a whole nother world, and I can become totally immersed in it.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd little book, but very interesting. Characters, both human and animal, were quite interesting. I would definitely recommend it.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was really enjoyable and very well-written children's animal chapter book. It had really beautiful illustrations, really good characters, really nice adventure, really well done drama and a very interesting storyline. In my opinion, It's going to be one of my favorite Felix Salten children's books that I've ever read in my entire life. I really recommend this book to both children and adults.

[Debi · Rating 5 out of 5]

My absolute favorite of all Felix Salten's book.

[Mellanie C]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13104029