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The Village in the Jungle
This novel, set in Ceylon, follows the lives of a handful of villagers hacking out a fragile existence in a jungle where indiscriminate growth, indifferent fate and malevolent neighbours constantly threaten to overwhelm them.
237 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1913
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About the author
Leonard Woolf
134 books63 followersLeonard Sidney Woolf was a noted British political theorist, author, publisher (The Hogarth Press), and civil servant, but perhaps best-known as husband to author Virginia Woolf.
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August 1, 2024There’s been a ferocious heat-wave where I live, with temperatures reaching degrees unheard of for decades. In a kind of sympathetic mirroring of such torrid days, my reading path took me from one blistering hot village in a jungle to another, from George Orwell’s Kyautada to Leonard Woolf’s Beddagama - in the heart of Ceylon, now Srilanka.
Both books were written in the early decades of the twentieth century and both are based on experiences gained by the authors while working as government agents in colonial outposts. Both authors show an awareness, unusual for the time, of the problems of British Imperialism. But the two books couldn’t be more different in how the themes are dealt with. Most people are familiar with Orwell’s Burmese Days, set around the lives of a tiny white community in Kyautada in Burma and written in the tradition of Forster’s A Passage to India, or Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, that is, almost entirely from the perspective of the coloniser.
Fewer readers have heard of Woolf’s tale of Sinhalese village life, told entirely from the point of view of the local villagers, and in a voice that sounds more like oral history than a written account by an outsider. The Village in the Jungle is a particularly poetic telling, full of careful but beautiful word choices and a nice emphasis on the rhythm of the sentences. Many Sinhalese words are used, the author feeling no need to translate them, and those, along with the local names for the people and the places, add to the beauty and authenticity of the reading experience.
The book begins with a tribute to the jungle, to its animal life and its deities, the jungle as a place to be respected and feared:
All jungles are evil, but no jungle is more evil than that which lay about the village of Beddagama. If you climb one of the bare rocks that jut out of it, you will see the jungle stretched out below you for mile upon mile on all sides. It looks like a bare sea, over which the pitiless hot wind perpetually sends waves unbroken, except where the bare rocks, rising above it, show like dark smudges against the grey-green leaves...It was a strange world, a world of bare and brutal facts, of superstition, of grotesque imagination; a world of trees and the perpetual twilight of their shade; a world of hunger and fear and devils, where a man was helpless before the unseen and unintelligible powers surrounding him.
And so the scene is set, and the reader anticipates danger from the jungle, but before very long, it is people, and not only the village people themselves but those who come from outside, who prove to be the real danger.
The book raises a lot of questions about the laws of human society and the contrast with the laws of the jungle. It also questions whether a people can always live in their own place, never stepping outside of it, resistant to all change.
Woolf doesn’t offer any opinions, keeping to the facts of his story so that we, the readers, are forced to analyse the happenings of the tale for ourselves and to draw our own conclusions if we can. The skill he shows in creating a story that could pass for a genuine folktale is very admirable; I don’t know of any writer who has managed that feat before or since.
Leonard Woolf was married to Virginia Woolf, to whom he dedicated this story of jungle life: I’ve given you all the little that I’ve to give; you’ve given me all, that for me is all there is. So now I just give back what you have given - if there is anything to give in this.
According to Christopher Ondaatje, who wrote the afterword to this edition, Woolf, after writing this book and a small volume of short stories, gave up the idea of pursuing a career as a fiction writer, preferring to write more lucrative political and journalistic pamphlets which he published in the Hogarth Press, founded with his wife in 1917, as well as a five-part biography which he wrote in the sixties. Ondaatje concludes the afterword in this way: His own writings were inevitable overshadowed by the writer acknowledged to have been one of the two great modern innovators of the novel in English.
Ah, Joyce. My books often nod to each other from across the room.
Both books were written in the early decades of the twentieth century and both are based on experiences gained by the authors while working as government agents in colonial outposts. Both authors show an awareness, unusual for the time, of the problems of British Imperialism. But the two books couldn’t be more different in how the themes are dealt with. Most people are familiar with Orwell’s Burmese Days, set around the lives of a tiny white community in Kyautada in Burma and written in the tradition of Forster’s A Passage to India, or Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, that is, almost entirely from the perspective of the coloniser.
Fewer readers have heard of Woolf’s tale of Sinhalese village life, told entirely from the point of view of the local villagers, and in a voice that sounds more like oral history than a written account by an outsider. The Village in the Jungle is a particularly poetic telling, full of careful but beautiful word choices and a nice emphasis on the rhythm of the sentences. Many Sinhalese words are used, the author feeling no need to translate them, and those, along with the local names for the people and the places, add to the beauty and authenticity of the reading experience.
The book begins with a tribute to the jungle, to its animal life and its deities, the jungle as a place to be respected and feared:
All jungles are evil, but no jungle is more evil than that which lay about the village of Beddagama. If you climb one of the bare rocks that jut out of it, you will see the jungle stretched out below you for mile upon mile on all sides. It looks like a bare sea, over which the pitiless hot wind perpetually sends waves unbroken, except where the bare rocks, rising above it, show like dark smudges against the grey-green leaves...It was a strange world, a world of bare and brutal facts, of superstition, of grotesque imagination; a world of trees and the perpetual twilight of their shade; a world of hunger and fear and devils, where a man was helpless before the unseen and unintelligible powers surrounding him.
And so the scene is set, and the reader anticipates danger from the jungle, but before very long, it is people, and not only the village people themselves but those who come from outside, who prove to be the real danger.
The book raises a lot of questions about the laws of human society and the contrast with the laws of the jungle. It also questions whether a people can always live in their own place, never stepping outside of it, resistant to all change.
Woolf doesn’t offer any opinions, keeping to the facts of his story so that we, the readers, are forced to analyse the happenings of the tale for ourselves and to draw our own conclusions if we can. The skill he shows in creating a story that could pass for a genuine folktale is very admirable; I don’t know of any writer who has managed that feat before or since.
Leonard Woolf was married to Virginia Woolf, to whom he dedicated this story of jungle life: I’ve given you all the little that I’ve to give; you’ve given me all, that for me is all there is. So now I just give back what you have given - if there is anything to give in this.
According to Christopher Ondaatje, who wrote the afterword to this edition, Woolf, after writing this book and a small volume of short stories, gave up the idea of pursuing a career as a fiction writer, preferring to write more lucrative political and journalistic pamphlets which he published in the Hogarth Press, founded with his wife in 1917, as well as a five-part biography which he wrote in the sixties. Ondaatje concludes the afterword in this way: His own writings were inevitable overshadowed by the writer acknowledged to have been one of the two great modern innovators of the novel in English.
Ah, Joyce. My books often nod to each other from across the room.
March 15, 2024
A 1913 novel, little known in the UK today but apparently still well-known in Sri Lanka. In writing the book Woolf drew on his experiences as a colonial administrator in Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was then called. The story is about a Sinhalese village, and it was very unusual for a British writer of the period to tell a story from the native perspective. Nowadays that would probably be regarded as politically unacceptable for different reasons. I’ll say though, that Woolf gives the impression of having a good understanding of Sinhalese customs and beliefs, at least to someone like me, who is ignorant of the subject.
The village of the title is called Beddagama, which Woolf says means simply Jungle Village. Its inhabitants are desperately poor, even by the standards of the time and place. They suffer continuous malnutrition and disease, and the jungle is constantly seeking ways to destroy the village. In the novel the jungle is a living thing, not just in the sense it is made up of plants and animals, but a single entity, that seems to act consciously.
All jungles are evil, but no jungle is more evil than that which lay about the village of Beddagama.
Something of that evil seems to have transmitted itself to the villagers, most of whom are self-serving and manipulative. The story centres around a man called Silindu, who spends little time tending to his fields and who prefers going into the jungle to hunt. He has two daughters who accompany him on his trips, to the consternation of the other villagers. Silindu and his daughters are therefore non-conformist, and in such a small and closed society, to be non-conformist is a very difficult thing.
I thought this was pretty good. A little slow to start but compulsive reading towards the end.
The village of the title is called Beddagama, which Woolf says means simply Jungle Village. Its inhabitants are desperately poor, even by the standards of the time and place. They suffer continuous malnutrition and disease, and the jungle is constantly seeking ways to destroy the village. In the novel the jungle is a living thing, not just in the sense it is made up of plants and animals, but a single entity, that seems to act consciously.
All jungles are evil, but no jungle is more evil than that which lay about the village of Beddagama.
Something of that evil seems to have transmitted itself to the villagers, most of whom are self-serving and manipulative. The story centres around a man called Silindu, who spends little time tending to his fields and who prefers going into the jungle to hunt. He has two daughters who accompany him on his trips, to the consternation of the other villagers. Silindu and his daughters are therefore non-conformist, and in such a small and closed society, to be non-conformist is a very difficult thing.
I thought this was pretty good. A little slow to start but compulsive reading towards the end.
March 16, 2025
4.5 Stars
Reading a book by Leonard Woolf was never on my radar. Thanks to a course I am taking, I got to read this book and I am so glad I did.
“ The village was called Beddagama, which means the village in the jungle…It was in, and of, the jungle, the air and smell of the jungle lay heavy upon it- the smell of hot air, of dust, and of dry and powdered leaves and sticks.”
This village is in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. The jungle itself is a character in this book as it presses upon this small village of 9 compounds. One thing all the villagers know is that “All jungles are evil.”
“For the rule of the jungle is first fear, and then hunger and thirst.”
Our main protagonist is Silendu- the one villager who dares to venture into the jungle to hunt. He has a fraught relationship with the headman, Babehami, which continually brings misery and misfortune to him and his family. He lives with his sister and twin daughters, Punchi Menika and Hinnihami. I did not care for Silendu when I first met him, but he definitely burrowed a place in my heart.
Leonard Woolf’s writing was revelatory to me. I went in expecting a “ British” book on this village, but instead read a book that seemed straight from the voices of the villagers, themselves.
The people in this village struggle daily due to poverty, Silendu most of all. There is an underlying tension throughout this novel, as tragedy follows tragedy to Silendu and his family. Will they overcome?
Woolf lived and worked in Ceylon ( Sri Lanka) for 7 years. He grew to respect the common folk and despise the rule of the Empire. He wrote this book after his time there.
This was a fascinating and engaging read. He captured the time, the place and the people extremely well. He had me anxious and captivated both at the same time.
I highly recommend this book. Leonard Woolf is more than just the husband of Virginia. He is a very fine writer!
Published: 2013
Reading a book by Leonard Woolf was never on my radar. Thanks to a course I am taking, I got to read this book and I am so glad I did.
“ The village was called Beddagama, which means the village in the jungle…It was in, and of, the jungle, the air and smell of the jungle lay heavy upon it- the smell of hot air, of dust, and of dry and powdered leaves and sticks.”
This village is in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. The jungle itself is a character in this book as it presses upon this small village of 9 compounds. One thing all the villagers know is that “All jungles are evil.”
“For the rule of the jungle is first fear, and then hunger and thirst.”
Our main protagonist is Silendu- the one villager who dares to venture into the jungle to hunt. He has a fraught relationship with the headman, Babehami, which continually brings misery and misfortune to him and his family. He lives with his sister and twin daughters, Punchi Menika and Hinnihami. I did not care for Silendu when I first met him, but he definitely burrowed a place in my heart.
Leonard Woolf’s writing was revelatory to me. I went in expecting a “ British” book on this village, but instead read a book that seemed straight from the voices of the villagers, themselves.
The people in this village struggle daily due to poverty, Silendu most of all. There is an underlying tension throughout this novel, as tragedy follows tragedy to Silendu and his family. Will they overcome?
Woolf lived and worked in Ceylon ( Sri Lanka) for 7 years. He grew to respect the common folk and despise the rule of the Empire. He wrote this book after his time there.
This was a fascinating and engaging read. He captured the time, the place and the people extremely well. He had me anxious and captivated both at the same time.
I highly recommend this book. Leonard Woolf is more than just the husband of Virginia. He is a very fine writer!
Published: 2013
October 9, 2024
A jungle, inexorably, encroaches. That which has been cleared, returns to its native state. Roots, vines, mold . . . all strangle. The reader knows that will happen here, whether by plot or allegory. Or both.
There is medicine for diseases, but is there any medicine for fate? A rhetorical question, perhaps. And enough to know it is bleak here, in the village in the jungle. Don't get attached to any character.
It's an odd present, then, to write for the one you love; but Leonard wrote this for his wife, Virginia. The epigram is addressed: To V. W. And goes like this:
I've given you all the little, that I've to give;
You've given me all, that for me is all there is;
So now I just give back what you have given--
If there is anything to give in this.
There is medicine for diseases, but is there any medicine for fate? A rhetorical question, perhaps. And enough to know it is bleak here, in the village in the jungle. Don't get attached to any character.
It's an odd present, then, to write for the one you love; but Leonard wrote this for his wife, Virginia. The epigram is addressed: To V. W. And goes like this:
I've given you all the little, that I've to give;
You've given me all, that for me is all there is;
So now I just give back what you have given--
If there is anything to give in this.
November 4, 2019
Free download available at Project Gutenberg
I made the proofing of this book for Free Literature and it will be published by Project Gutenberg.
I made the proofing of this book for Free Literature and it will be published by Project Gutenberg.
September 27, 2017
Memorable books continue to be celebrated through the decades and even over the centuries...Shakespeare's work is a case in point here. In Africa although Chinua Achebe published his classic, Things fall apart almost 60 years ago, the novel still remains the most popular and
saluted ever in the continent. Leonard Woolf - alas, one has to add here for the sake of many that this great writer in his own right was Virginia Woolf's husband - wrote the work, The village in the jungle, over 100 years ago, and till date many literary experts worldwide still consider the novel to be very important, a work focusing on an erstwhile colonised third world country so to speak. It is often posited that Mr Woolf in the work, very unusually for the time dealt with the pertinent denizens of the struggling area with sympathy and somewhat criticised the powers that be who were ruling the country. It is also conceded that the book has a lot of literary merit. And so it
does.
This work is set in the former British colony of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). It focuses on a particular village, its activities; and essentially on one family which has Silindu as the Father. His daughters, Hinnihami and Punchi Menika are key characters too, as is Babun, the husband of Punchi. There is the notorious ‘headman’ of the village, Babehami, and Fernando, the debt collector who wants Punchi as a mistress. The headman (with Fernando in tow) manages to get Silindu and babun arrested and tried by the colonial authorities. Babun is incarcerated, whilst an incandescent Silindu shoots Babehami and Fernando. The law has to deal with Silindu, who has become a
double-murderer.
In this remarkable story, we see how the life of the village(ers) is anchored on ‘chenas’. As the author explains, ‘The life of the village and of every man in it depended upon the cultivation of chenas. A chena is merely a piece of jungle, which every ten years is cleared of trees and undergrowth and sown with grain broadcast and with vegetables. The villagers owned no jungle themselves; it belonged to the Crown, and no one might fell a tree or clear a chena in it without
a permit from the government…’
The stultifying, even frightening impact of the jungle on the village is distinctly emphasized throughout this novel. ‘The Jungle surrounded it, overhung it continually pressed in upon it. It stood at the door of the houses, always ready to press in upon the compounds and open spaces, to break through the mud huts, and to choke up the tracks and paths…’
saluted ever in the continent. Leonard Woolf - alas, one has to add here for the sake of many that this great writer in his own right was Virginia Woolf's husband - wrote the work, The village in the jungle, over 100 years ago, and till date many literary experts worldwide still consider the novel to be very important, a work focusing on an erstwhile colonised third world country so to speak. It is often posited that Mr Woolf in the work, very unusually for the time dealt with the pertinent denizens of the struggling area with sympathy and somewhat criticised the powers that be who were ruling the country. It is also conceded that the book has a lot of literary merit. And so it
does.
This work is set in the former British colony of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). It focuses on a particular village, its activities; and essentially on one family which has Silindu as the Father. His daughters, Hinnihami and Punchi Menika are key characters too, as is Babun, the husband of Punchi. There is the notorious ‘headman’ of the village, Babehami, and Fernando, the debt collector who wants Punchi as a mistress. The headman (with Fernando in tow) manages to get Silindu and babun arrested and tried by the colonial authorities. Babun is incarcerated, whilst an incandescent Silindu shoots Babehami and Fernando. The law has to deal with Silindu, who has become a
double-murderer.
In this remarkable story, we see how the life of the village(ers) is anchored on ‘chenas’. As the author explains, ‘The life of the village and of every man in it depended upon the cultivation of chenas. A chena is merely a piece of jungle, which every ten years is cleared of trees and undergrowth and sown with grain broadcast and with vegetables. The villagers owned no jungle themselves; it belonged to the Crown, and no one might fell a tree or clear a chena in it without
a permit from the government…’
The stultifying, even frightening impact of the jungle on the village is distinctly emphasized throughout this novel. ‘The Jungle surrounded it, overhung it continually pressed in upon it. It stood at the door of the houses, always ready to press in upon the compounds and open spaces, to break through the mud huts, and to choke up the tracks and paths…’
September 29, 2012
This book deserves more recognition than it's gotten. While it's seen as a classic in Sri Lanka, I don't know that it is elsewhere.
This book, set mostly in Sri Lankan jungle, follows the inhabitants of the village of Beddegama. It is atmospheric and gripping. Most of the inhabitants live hand to mouth and are heavily in debt to the headman, who doles out favours according to his whims.
Woolf describes the social hierarchy at work within this village, with administrative staff like the headman at the top of the food chain and abusing their power, while folks like Silindhu (one of the protagonists) are considered social deviants, and left scrabbling for food.
The bustle of the town is bewildering to these people, when they do venture forth, and most people consider leaving as a last resort, even when starving to death.
There are a lot of other themes too, like the importance given to the supernatural, in a world where demons are almost prosaic. In the midst of all their troubles, the villagers cling to religion as their safeguard against these demons. It's also set in the colonial times, so there's a bit of social commentary there too (the outsiders are seen as being somewhat compassionate).
The powerlessness of the village women is explored as well- most of the story revolves around Silindhu's daughters, who seem to be of the Rodiya caste.
This book isn't one to go for if you're looking for neat resolutions or happy endings. But it is an accurate (I think) portrayal of the impoverished village.
Leonard Woolf served in the Ceylon Civil Service in the early 1900s, in Kandy and Jaffna, before he was appointed Assistant Government Agent to Hambantota. Later, he married Virginia (yes, THE Virginia Woolf) and wrote the Village in The Jungle around 1913.
He clearly has a knack, the prose flows beautifully and it's one of those uncomfortable reads (reminds me a little of 'Things Fall Apart'. Definitely worth a read.
This book, set mostly in Sri Lankan jungle, follows the inhabitants of the village of Beddegama. It is atmospheric and gripping. Most of the inhabitants live hand to mouth and are heavily in debt to the headman, who doles out favours according to his whims.
Woolf describes the social hierarchy at work within this village, with administrative staff like the headman at the top of the food chain and abusing their power, while folks like Silindhu (one of the protagonists) are considered social deviants, and left scrabbling for food.
The bustle of the town is bewildering to these people, when they do venture forth, and most people consider leaving as a last resort, even when starving to death.
There are a lot of other themes too, like the importance given to the supernatural, in a world where demons are almost prosaic. In the midst of all their troubles, the villagers cling to religion as their safeguard against these demons. It's also set in the colonial times, so there's a bit of social commentary there too (the outsiders are seen as being somewhat compassionate).
The powerlessness of the village women is explored as well- most of the story revolves around Silindhu's daughters, who seem to be of the Rodiya caste.
This book isn't one to go for if you're looking for neat resolutions or happy endings. But it is an accurate (I think) portrayal of the impoverished village.
Leonard Woolf served in the Ceylon Civil Service in the early 1900s, in Kandy and Jaffna, before he was appointed Assistant Government Agent to Hambantota. Later, he married Virginia (yes, THE Virginia Woolf) and wrote the Village in The Jungle around 1913.
He clearly has a knack, the prose flows beautifully and it's one of those uncomfortable reads (reminds me a little of 'Things Fall Apart'. Definitely worth a read.
March 8, 2017
I knew Leonard Woolf wrote about political and colonial issues for the Fabian society, that he was generally acknowledged as the leader of the Bloomsbury group and I knew he was married to Virginia. I did know he had written this novel.
It deserves to be better known, as it really is rather good. The book is still highly regarded in Sri Lanka apparently, despite almost all the native characters being depicted as either rascally, corrupt or extremely stupid. The story is not a happy one and the colonial authorities are shown as desperately trying to administer justice in the face of poverty and the afore mentioned corruption and stupidity.
When this was written Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon. Leonard Woolf worked there as a colonial administrator. He must have gathered a lot of knowledge of the people, their customs and way of life. These aspects are fascinating.
It deserves to be better known, as it really is rather good. The book is still highly regarded in Sri Lanka apparently, despite almost all the native characters being depicted as either rascally, corrupt or extremely stupid. The story is not a happy one and the colonial authorities are shown as desperately trying to administer justice in the face of poverty and the afore mentioned corruption and stupidity.
When this was written Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon. Leonard Woolf worked there as a colonial administrator. He must have gathered a lot of knowledge of the people, their customs and way of life. These aspects are fascinating.
October 2, 2022
An outstanding and unjustly forgotten book. Woolf captures perfectly the flat existence and paratactic thought patterns of the primitive and archaic mind. And all of the pathos of good natural life, of le bon sauvage….
January 21, 2020
It was interesting piece of work and did very good job mainly in showing what a society in Sri Lanka is like and the major problems faced by them.
June 26, 2025
This really was about a village in a jungle
My hiatus is over i will read more now, a shame i came back with this limp opener
Leave the writing to ur wife babes ! 😭
My hiatus is over i will read more now, a shame i came back with this limp opener
Leave the writing to ur wife babes ! 😭
July 15, 2021
This is a portrait of a Sinhalese family in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), dwelling in the titular village and scraping a living from hunting and cultivating a small plot. Silindu is regarded as a little mad, wandering around the jungle and believing he can see demons and hear animals talk. Nonetheless he fascinates his two little girls, who grow up to be desired by the men of the village.
In this tiny community no deed goes unseen and no grudge is forgotten. Silindu's life seems to him to be overshadowed by doom; some evil is ever harrying him. The women, expected to be powerless, gain little by attempting to exercise what freedom they do have. With scheming headmen, moneylenders, medicine men and gossips, village life is claustrophobic and cruel, and yet moving to any other place or way of living seems impossible for the inhabitants. Contact with the systems of modernity - administrators, courts and prisons - baffles them, whereas their own jungle world is one they at least understand.
This is an unhappy saga in which no course of action leads anyone to peace. Yet the novel respects the villagers' striving and takes no pleasure in their fate. Just as the jungle is constantly encroaching on the village, so too it invades the spirits of those who reside there and extends, in its seething mystery, into the surrounding machineries of the state. It is brutal and unconquerable, and they can never be free from it.
In this tiny community no deed goes unseen and no grudge is forgotten. Silindu's life seems to him to be overshadowed by doom; some evil is ever harrying him. The women, expected to be powerless, gain little by attempting to exercise what freedom they do have. With scheming headmen, moneylenders, medicine men and gossips, village life is claustrophobic and cruel, and yet moving to any other place or way of living seems impossible for the inhabitants. Contact with the systems of modernity - administrators, courts and prisons - baffles them, whereas their own jungle world is one they at least understand.
This is an unhappy saga in which no course of action leads anyone to peace. Yet the novel respects the villagers' striving and takes no pleasure in their fate. Just as the jungle is constantly encroaching on the village, so too it invades the spirits of those who reside there and extends, in its seething mystery, into the surrounding machineries of the state. It is brutal and unconquerable, and they can never be free from it.
January 17, 2024
Read this while living on Baddegama road like 10 mins from Baddegama. Interesting worldbuilding and aesthetic, though there's definitely no drought here now! I enjoyed the jungle, though, certainly as monstrous as it sometimes feels here, but nowadays you also feel so deeply how much it has been neutered and it's hard to feel this awesome (awe-inspiring) vision that Woolf wants to evoke. But the jungle that slowly encroaches and consumes the village does hit something primal inside of you, even moreso when you're living in an actual jungle.
In any case, good exotic coloring, realistically cardboard characters. Not crazily memorable if not for the aesthetic at this particular point of my life.
In any case, good exotic coloring, realistically cardboard characters. Not crazily memorable if not for the aesthetic at this particular point of my life.
April 7, 2017
A young Leonard Woolf arrived in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) an innocent imperialist, and he left it several years later with a great love of the country and its peoples. His social conscience had sharpened, and he was all too aware that the imperial project was meaningless and harmful in the lives of the Sinhalese, Tamils and Moors.
This novel is about a Sinhalese family living in a small village in the depths of a jungle. It is a hard life, though they have their ways of making it work as best as conditions allow. I suppose I had false notions of jungles being verdant and fruitful and lush, but in many ways - or for much of the year - it seems almost as barren as a desert.
The story considers their lives unflinchingly and with a cool clear sympathy. It can be a tough read, as there is no shirking from the harsh things in their lives, and there is relatively little happiness or abundance. The writing is lucid, precise and doesn't strive for effect, but there are a few really wonderful passages, such as the description of how the jungle consumed an abandoned mud hut over three years ('by the third rain...') and the very last scene just leaves one gasping.
There is also a bonus story in this edition, which tells a very unromantic tale of the British in India.
All of it is excellent stuff, from a man I admire greatly.
This novel is about a Sinhalese family living in a small village in the depths of a jungle. It is a hard life, though they have their ways of making it work as best as conditions allow. I suppose I had false notions of jungles being verdant and fruitful and lush, but in many ways - or for much of the year - it seems almost as barren as a desert.
The story considers their lives unflinchingly and with a cool clear sympathy. It can be a tough read, as there is no shirking from the harsh things in their lives, and there is relatively little happiness or abundance. The writing is lucid, precise and doesn't strive for effect, but there are a few really wonderful passages, such as the description of how the jungle consumed an abandoned mud hut over three years ('by the third rain...') and the very last scene just leaves one gasping.
There is also a bonus story in this edition, which tells a very unromantic tale of the British in India.
All of it is excellent stuff, from a man I admire greatly.
August 30, 2020
An outstanding novel set in the early part of the 20th century in a remote Sinhala village deep inside a dense, unforgiving jungle in Ceylon, a village where time stands still but where the tentacles of urban civilisation begin to extend their vice like grip. Written in 1913 by a colonial servant, the narrative is told from the local perspective and has a trance like quality that engages the reader from the very first page, making him empathise with the protagonists as they struggle against dark forces to eke out a living. Epic in its sweep and primordial in its depiction of basic human experience, it's a wonder that this novel never got the traction that it deserved, till recently. It's considered as an iconic work in Sri Lankan literature though, written by an Englishman who felt revolted by the colonial enterprise that he represented in the seven years he was posted there. Leonard Woolf actually got shadowed by his wife - Virginia Woolf.
It's amongst the best novels that I have read in recent years, helping me tide over the initial Coronavirus lockdown days. Go for it and get enchanted.
It's amongst the best novels that I have read in recent years, helping me tide over the initial Coronavirus lockdown days. Go for it and get enchanted.
March 17, 2009
Set in colonial Ceylon, this novel is vivid and readable. While the author clearly illustrates a particular culture and time, that of a rural family in the "dry" forest area, where life is particularly hard and short, the psychological and social effects of poverty have universal qualities. While the colonial administration system is clearly one of the villains of the book, the gentle innocence of the main characters clearly would be a disadvantage under any system, at least as the world is portrayed in this novel. Dark and haunting, with compelling plot and fascinating characters, this book deserves to be more widely read.
September 3, 2017
A very well written book by Virginia Woolf's husband about the native country of my husband, Sri Lanka. Leonard Woolf masterfully and woefully describes the forces that act upon common men - from the forces of nature to the forces of fellow men to the forces of imperialism. His portrait of both the living jungle, and the very rural characters in his novel, shows an extraordinary understanding of a foreign land, even for someone who spent years living there as he did. In the end, one is left with a fatalistic acceptance and some regret about which forces prevail, but never any regret for having read the story.
December 8, 2021
Rarely does one come across a book that shakes you to the core. These books are those which present a slice of reality to you. Reality, while nice to some, is bleak for most. In the 1900s it was more so. The masses across Asia and Africa, living under extractive imperialism, had little choice but to toil and count their days. The forest and the land, the primary sources of livelihood, had been transferred to the crown. A bureaucratic system of permits controlled everything and a formal system unknown to most had been imposed. Mr Woolf, a former bureaucrat himself, understood very well how alien this entire system must have been to the natives. While we are all aware of how this wreaked havoc on the colonized, this book takes you through the life of an individual, of a family, and of a village, which sees the imperial system in its full action. The intrigue it leads to through the inequitable division of power between officials, headmen and simple villagers is astonishing. This leads to tragedy. In the end, not much is left.
I would highly recommend this book.
I would highly recommend this book.
August 10, 2020
I have a lot of complex feelings about this one and I don't think I can express them clearly at the moment. It's just not common when my father recommends a book to me that he has also read in his youth. And it's rare for me to experience stories from my own country, that is written so well and poignantly, but also from a colonizer's writing. I know that I loved it, and I know that I have a lot of emotions about it. I will need a second read through to grasp it better though.
December 31, 2013
Leonard Woolf is probably most famous for his marriage to Virginia but was also a noted political theorist, publisher (The Hogarth Press) and “leader” of the notorious Bloomsbury Group. As Woolf spent seven years in Ceylon as a colonial officer, he had first hand knowledge of the area which makes the book more authentic in my eyes. It is set in Ceylon around 1900 and follows the villagers of Beddegama (which means literally “the village in the jungle”)through their daily struggles. Although there are quite a few characters our main focus is a man called Silindu who beat his wife after she dared to give birth to daughters (after all, what use are they?!) but gradually comes to dote upon them, especially when they show interest in the jungle, which pleases him no end and he tells them many tales and folklore about the animals they should respect, and the demons that they should fear. However when his daughters grow up, their beauty attracts some unwanted attention and presents many problems for Silindu as he strives to keep them by his side, and protect them from evil. Silindu is also suffering with unpaid debts and being able to provide food for his family is a toil, with starvation and sickness ever looming.
The short story “Pearls before Swine” is also provided in this book, and felt like quite a contrast from the village of Beddegama. It is told by an unnamed narrator, whom after foolish comments from some upper middle class Englishmen in a club, tells a tale of how he supervised a pearl fishery assisted by a man called White who dies a horrible death in the throes of delirium tremens. This is compared to the death of an Arab fisherman which seems on the other hand to be serene and somewhat noble.
I really enjoyed The Village in the Jungle much more than I thought I would. It is a vivid, moving tale of how the villagers struggled with day-to-day life and things that we take for granted, such as having enough to eat. I loved the strange and superstitious character of Silindu, and felt sorry for the tragedies he suffered trying to protect his daughters, his constant hunger and worry about his debts and the almost obsessive worries over demons in the jungle trees. The prose flows beautifully throughout this story and as a reader I got a real sense of the place and time which I felt was captured perfectly. I didn’t get on as well with the short story Pearls before Swine, although I appreciate the message Woolf was trying to convey and thought it was written well.
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.wordpress.com
The short story “Pearls before Swine” is also provided in this book, and felt like quite a contrast from the village of Beddegama. It is told by an unnamed narrator, whom after foolish comments from some upper middle class Englishmen in a club, tells a tale of how he supervised a pearl fishery assisted by a man called White who dies a horrible death in the throes of delirium tremens. This is compared to the death of an Arab fisherman which seems on the other hand to be serene and somewhat noble.
I really enjoyed The Village in the Jungle much more than I thought I would. It is a vivid, moving tale of how the villagers struggled with day-to-day life and things that we take for granted, such as having enough to eat. I loved the strange and superstitious character of Silindu, and felt sorry for the tragedies he suffered trying to protect his daughters, his constant hunger and worry about his debts and the almost obsessive worries over demons in the jungle trees. The prose flows beautifully throughout this story and as a reader I got a real sense of the place and time which I felt was captured perfectly. I didn’t get on as well with the short story Pearls before Swine, although I appreciate the message Woolf was trying to convey and thought it was written well.
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.wordpress.com
August 22, 2014
The story of Village in the Jungle is full of acrimony. It is disgusting to see that human beings are subjected to such levels of torture and misery by their own neighbors and the administrators. Unfortunately the story of the novel is not unique only to Baddegama. It is the story of the rural Sri Lanka during colonial times. The story of the rural villages is not that different even today with all the advancement of technology and democracy we are supposed to enjoy.
Leonard Woolf selects a few characters of the village Baddegama in the deep down south of Sri Lanka and tells us a story about how the dreams of a young couple, Babun and Punchimenika shatter away due to the lewdness of a trader who comes to the village and subsequent troubles created to separate Babun from Punchimenika.
In the backdrop of the main story, there is another story about Punchimenika’s younger sister, Hinnihamy being forced to marry an old and vicious indigenous medical practitioner and her subsequent death by the villagers due to the suspicions inculcated against her in the villagers’ mind by the medical practitioner as she refuses to be his wife.
Silindu, the protagonist of the novel leads a miserable life squeezed in to the jungle and the bureaucracy. He is as silent as a deer and becomes violent as a provoked water buffalo when it is too much for him to tolerate the wickedness of the world.
There is a Sinhala language movie with the same name based on the novel with lead roles played by Wijaya Kumarathunga, Malani Fonseka, Joe Abeywickrama, Tony Ranasinghe, D. R. Nanayakkara and Nadeeka Gunasekara. Dr. Arthur C. Clarke makes a cameo appearance. The film is directed by none other than Lester James Pieris.
Leonard Woolf selects a few characters of the village Baddegama in the deep down south of Sri Lanka and tells us a story about how the dreams of a young couple, Babun and Punchimenika shatter away due to the lewdness of a trader who comes to the village and subsequent troubles created to separate Babun from Punchimenika.
In the backdrop of the main story, there is another story about Punchimenika’s younger sister, Hinnihamy being forced to marry an old and vicious indigenous medical practitioner and her subsequent death by the villagers due to the suspicions inculcated against her in the villagers’ mind by the medical practitioner as she refuses to be his wife.
Silindu, the protagonist of the novel leads a miserable life squeezed in to the jungle and the bureaucracy. He is as silent as a deer and becomes violent as a provoked water buffalo when it is too much for him to tolerate the wickedness of the world.
There is a Sinhala language movie with the same name based on the novel with lead roles played by Wijaya Kumarathunga, Malani Fonseka, Joe Abeywickrama, Tony Ranasinghe, D. R. Nanayakkara and Nadeeka Gunasekara. Dr. Arthur C. Clarke makes a cameo appearance. The film is directed by none other than Lester James Pieris.
April 6, 2021
Set in former Ceylon, a family hack out a fragile existence in the jungle, unprotected by the oblivious colonial administration against the threats of their malevolent neighbours.
Somewhere I read praise of this and was intrigued to discover what and how the husband of the more famous Virginia would write. It is fascinatingly different from her books in every way. I can’t do better than quote the first paragraph of the ‘afterword’ by the author’s biographer Christopher Ondaatje: “[This] sits with Burmese Days by George Orwell as the very best of the literature written by servants of the British Empire in the twentieth century. It is emphatically not about what the East means to white people; it does not fantasise ... from a European perspective. It shows a remarkable, deep empathy for the hard lives of the poor Sinhalese jungle dwellers and their psychology, and gives a devastating portrayal of the irrelevance of the colonial regime to their needs and world. Written ... after serving as a colonial officer [there], it arose directly from the misgivings Woolf came to feel about the imperial enterprise.”
It was accepted for publication in 1913, two years before Virginia self-published her first novel. It was highly praised then and has become a loved part of the literary culture of Sri Lanka today. It has no literary pretension or solipsism (apologies, Virginia), just skilful, knowledgeable, humane storytelling. So glad I read it. Respect.
My edition includes a short story, Pearls and Swine, a brilliant example of ‘showing, not telling’ how misconceived, immoral and offensive Britain’s colonial notions are.
Somewhere I read praise of this and was intrigued to discover what and how the husband of the more famous Virginia would write. It is fascinatingly different from her books in every way. I can’t do better than quote the first paragraph of the ‘afterword’ by the author’s biographer Christopher Ondaatje: “[This] sits with Burmese Days by George Orwell as the very best of the literature written by servants of the British Empire in the twentieth century. It is emphatically not about what the East means to white people; it does not fantasise ... from a European perspective. It shows a remarkable, deep empathy for the hard lives of the poor Sinhalese jungle dwellers and their psychology, and gives a devastating portrayal of the irrelevance of the colonial regime to their needs and world. Written ... after serving as a colonial officer [there], it arose directly from the misgivings Woolf came to feel about the imperial enterprise.”
It was accepted for publication in 1913, two years before Virginia self-published her first novel. It was highly praised then and has become a loved part of the literary culture of Sri Lanka today. It has no literary pretension or solipsism (apologies, Virginia), just skilful, knowledgeable, humane storytelling. So glad I read it. Respect.
My edition includes a short story, Pearls and Swine, a brilliant example of ‘showing, not telling’ how misconceived, immoral and offensive Britain’s colonial notions are.
March 14, 2016
This minor classic is still highly regarded in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) although it isn't very well known here. That's probably because although Woolf was a perceptive and accomplished writer, he was put in the shade by his much more famous wife, Virginia.
The story of Beddagama, the village in the jungle of the title, and its inhabitants is told with insight and empathy for the hard lives of the villagers who are at the mercy of the corruption and cruelty of their headman and healer. The difficulties women and minorities faced are highlighted with particular sympathy. Woolf worked in Ceylon as a colonial administrator for several years and his descriptions of the jungle are powerful and atmospheric. I would recommend this if you want to learn something about the history of Sri Lanka in the early twentieth century, but be warned, it's a very sad story. If you want a feel-good read, I'd keep away.
The story of Beddagama, the village in the jungle of the title, and its inhabitants is told with insight and empathy for the hard lives of the villagers who are at the mercy of the corruption and cruelty of their headman and healer. The difficulties women and minorities faced are highlighted with particular sympathy. Woolf worked in Ceylon as a colonial administrator for several years and his descriptions of the jungle are powerful and atmospheric. I would recommend this if you want to learn something about the history of Sri Lanka in the early twentieth century, but be warned, it's a very sad story. If you want a feel-good read, I'd keep away.
October 5, 2023
There is a good book I had read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2020
I would never have read this book if it hadn’t been on the reading list for a workshop I’m doing. I hadn’t even realised Leonard Woolf wrote novels.
I felt quite indifferent to the start of the novel: it was readable but not much more for me. However, as it progressed, I found myself being drawn further and further into the tale of the inhabitants of the village and the hardship and tragedy they faced.
It is a sympathetic story of people struggling in an unfair world.
I felt quite indifferent to the start of the novel: it was readable but not much more for me. However, as it progressed, I found myself being drawn further and further into the tale of the inhabitants of the village and the hardship and tragedy they faced.
It is a sympathetic story of people struggling in an unfair world.
June 24, 2017
Written shortly after Woolf returned to the UK from his time as a colonial administrator in Ceylon. The tale shows his considerable insight into the lives of simple villagers and an empathy which is unusual of writers about poor indigenous people at that time.
September 16, 2014
Well shit, that was bleak.
January 1, 2023
I feel like I'm rating harshly I think I just don't like old books lmao
July 31, 2021
Towards the end of this book, one of the characters is awaiting the end of something, but she does not have a conception of time. Therefore, the six month "waiting period" is incomprehensible to her. This character is an inhabitant of the title village, an isolated, impoverished dot in British-ruled Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
The character's quandary is interesting to me because Mr. Woolf's novel in completely bound up in time. It is episodic and strictly chronological. No two things occur at the same time. It is a straightforward narrative, without any cloudiness as to who is where when.
Mr. Woolf spent a time in Ceylon in the colonial administration. And so he must have learned about the type of backwater place that is the title village. I have to say "bravo" because he paid attention to people that live close to subsistence and under the thumb of multiple layers of hierarchy and its corruptions -- from the village headman with his power to issue licenses (or to lie about it), to the official above him, etc., all the way up the line. In the meantime, there are merchants and clerks, all of whom want their piece whether a few pennies or a man's daughter. The essence of corruption and pure malice is so well done. Jesus did not visit this place.
Mr. Woolf pays attention to the lowest of the low who are not in this hierarchy of power. These are persons who seem barely to think (at least as I do), whose lives are based on feelings, superstition, deprivation, and hand-to-mouth subsistence. Yet, Mr. W. does protray the closeness that can be felt within such a low family, and that is the theme of many of the episodes -- how this closeness is torn by the malice and greed of outsiders.
This book is worth reading because of the lives of these low people -- from their inability to tolerate crowds in a town, to their inability to understand the levers of power and authority, to their acceptance of the need to pay for what little they get, to their belief in devils and possession. Whether Mr. Woolf is presenting an accurate picture is a whole other question. I do note that the book is well-read in Sri Lanka.
Amidst the passivity of the lowest of the low there come events of self-affirmation. One of these is the reaction of a daughter of the house to forced intercourse advised by a "sage" as the method to release her father from the devil brought to him by her abuser. She closes that chapter with great personal authority. Another is one of a great revenge scene in which the father acts on a realization that he has been manipulated into greater misery.
Mr. Woolf is very good at presenting the meeting place of the traditional with western concepts of courtroom justice. Here the clash between truth and evidence is well done. And one is led to criticize the well-meaning but arrogant and unimaginative imposition of an inappropriate system on a people who had never heard of it.
Check it out.
The character's quandary is interesting to me because Mr. Woolf's novel in completely bound up in time. It is episodic and strictly chronological. No two things occur at the same time. It is a straightforward narrative, without any cloudiness as to who is where when.
Mr. Woolf spent a time in Ceylon in the colonial administration. And so he must have learned about the type of backwater place that is the title village. I have to say "bravo" because he paid attention to people that live close to subsistence and under the thumb of multiple layers of hierarchy and its corruptions -- from the village headman with his power to issue licenses (or to lie about it), to the official above him, etc., all the way up the line. In the meantime, there are merchants and clerks, all of whom want their piece whether a few pennies or a man's daughter. The essence of corruption and pure malice is so well done. Jesus did not visit this place.
Mr. Woolf pays attention to the lowest of the low who are not in this hierarchy of power. These are persons who seem barely to think (at least as I do), whose lives are based on feelings, superstition, deprivation, and hand-to-mouth subsistence. Yet, Mr. W. does protray the closeness that can be felt within such a low family, and that is the theme of many of the episodes -- how this closeness is torn by the malice and greed of outsiders.
This book is worth reading because of the lives of these low people -- from their inability to tolerate crowds in a town, to their inability to understand the levers of power and authority, to their acceptance of the need to pay for what little they get, to their belief in devils and possession. Whether Mr. Woolf is presenting an accurate picture is a whole other question. I do note that the book is well-read in Sri Lanka.
Amidst the passivity of the lowest of the low there come events of self-affirmation. One of these is the reaction of a daughter of the house to forced intercourse advised by a "sage" as the method to release her father from the devil brought to him by her abuser. She closes that chapter with great personal authority. Another is one of a great revenge scene in which the father acts on a realization that he has been manipulated into greater misery.
Mr. Woolf is very good at presenting the meeting place of the traditional with western concepts of courtroom justice. Here the clash between truth and evidence is well done. And one is led to criticize the well-meaning but arrogant and unimaginative imposition of an inappropriate system on a people who had never heard of it.
Check it out.
March 5, 2020
A seminal historical novel by a former administrative officer who lived in Sri Lanka from 1904 to 1911. Based on his experiences as a district officer/magistrate in Sri Lanka at the height of of England’s empire, he presents in narrative form, an analysis of the poverty and eventual tragedy of village life in one of the poorest areas of Sri Lanka’s southern dry zone. It is a bleak reflection of life on the edge of survival, showing the mindset of local community members, and giving a sense of the toughness of village existence.
Woolf is better known as a major literary figure in England from the 1920s to 1970s - a key member of the Bloomsbury Group, a co- founder of the Hogarth Press, Virginia Woolf’s husband, and literary critic, political essayist and biographer.
This book, his first and only novel, parallels George Orwell’s “Burma Days”, another first novel, likewise drawn from Orwell’s experiences as a police officer in Burma.
Both books offer valuable insights. They reflect the perspectives of intelligent British civil servants whose self awareness and opinions about both British and local colleagues provide deep insights, showing how people worked “ to keep the empire going”. Both give a sense of the authors’ growing disillusionment with imperialism, as was evidenced in both men’s subsequent careers.
Woolf is better known as a major literary figure in England from the 1920s to 1970s - a key member of the Bloomsbury Group, a co- founder of the Hogarth Press, Virginia Woolf’s husband, and literary critic, political essayist and biographer.
This book, his first and only novel, parallels George Orwell’s “Burma Days”, another first novel, likewise drawn from Orwell’s experiences as a police officer in Burma.
Both books offer valuable insights. They reflect the perspectives of intelligent British civil servants whose self awareness and opinions about both British and local colleagues provide deep insights, showing how people worked “ to keep the empire going”. Both give a sense of the authors’ growing disillusionment with imperialism, as was evidenced in both men’s subsequent careers.
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