The Story of My Heart

I guess one could say that this books contains the story of two hearts, one belonging to Richard Jefferies, the other to Brooke Williams. Jefferies published “The Story of My Heart” in 1883, describing his beliefs about the nature of man and the world. The foundation of his narrative is his experience of nature, walking the hills and coastlines of nineteenth century rural England. Those experiences generated a powerful spiritual force in Jefferies, energizing his development of a unique view of man’s place in the universe. In this work, he describes those views in very emotional terms, intimate and mystical at the same time.Unlike modern environmental writers, Jefferies discards science as a starting point for understanding himself, or understanding the world. The only “facts” that count for Jefferies are the intense feelings and desires produced by his personal subjective experience of nature. The conclusions he draws from his personal experience point towards some type of cosmic consciousness, which in turns suggests a vastly expanded view of human abilities.At many points, it sounds like Jefferies is trying to describe some type of Platonic model, where the world humans inhabit is just a shadow of some greater, more perfect and more beautiful universe, far beyond the dreary and painful details of day to day life. Not surprisingly, Jefferies struggles to find the language to describe his unseen universe. His one constant is fervent desire to experience, at least to some degree, the world beyond this world. Looking for the strongest metaphors, Jefferies has hits and misses; praise for masters of the universe such as Julius Caesar, disdain for science as mere “observation”, and some degree of condescension for ordinary humans unable to appreciate his vision. Remarkably, at some points his ideas about the nature of the cosmic universe seem to point in the direction of the mysterious quantum mechanical world that European scientists began to explore just a few years after Jefferies death in 1887.Brooke Williams provides a personal commentary on each chapter of Jefferies' book. Williams has devoted much of his life to the modern environmental struggle, with a focus on preserving the wild lands of his home region, the Colorado Plateau. It’s likely that the core of every environmentalist contains a deep personal experience of the natural world, an experience that would resonate with the mystical experiences that Jefferies' struggles to describe. As I read this book, the question I was asking myself, and perhaps Williams was asking himself, is whether Jefferies had seen something that contemporary conservationists were missing?Each reader of this interesting and enjoyable book will have a chance to answer that question for himself.

Love the book. Excellent condition but hard to get unexpected price sticker off back of book

This is a lovely book, merging the work of RJ with BW and TTW. My disappointment is that the edition had not been printed properly. The afterword ends mid-sentence on page 233. When I turn the page to continue, I find the Acknowledgements page.This appears to be a flaw in the printing and construction of the text.

Some nice things here and there, but it didn't MOVE me the way it did Brooke & Terry. I carry a copy of Terry's *Red* with me and have given away numerous. I haven't read any of Brooke's writings, but I get the feeling growing up in the Mormon tradition gave them an edge on relating to Jeffries that just isn't available to a devout agnostic like me.

A wonderful, delightful story......similar to Thoreau and Walden, only the British version. A true story about how nature can give life to a person.

Exactly perfect!

This is a real gem. A great introduction to all three authors' writing and thinking. My book group found much to discuss. Terry Tempest Williams and Brooke Williams make Jefferies' writing accessible in our time.

This is an astounding book. Beautifully written, articulate dence descriptions. I have already thought of a dozen people To whom I will send this book.