A Crystal Age

A Crystal Age

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2.6666666666667
(3 Reviews)
A Crystal Age by W. H. Hudson

Published:

1887

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1,965

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A Crystal Age

By

2.6666666666667
(3 Reviews)
A classic utopian tale.

Book Excerpt

not catch their words, although standing within fifteen yards of the grave. The uncoffined corpse, which seemed that of a full-grown man, was covered with a white cloth, and rested on a thick straw mat, provided with handles along the sides. On these things, however, I bestowed but a hasty glance, so profoundly absorbed had I become in watching the group of living human beings before me; for they were certainly utterly unlike any fellow-creatures I had ever encountered before. The old man was tall and spare, and from his snowy-white majestic beard I took him to be about seventy years old; but he was straight as an arrow, and his free movements and elastic tread were those of a much younger man. His head was adorned with a dark red skull-cap, and he wore a robe covering the whole body and reaching to the ankles, of a deep yellow or rhubarb color; but his long wide sleeves under his robe were dark red, embroidered with yellow flowers. The other men had no covering on their heads, and their luxuriant hair, worn

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For all the build-up and anticipation throughout the book, and after slogging through many laborious pages of description, a very disappointing ending. It ruined the whole book for me
The classic fall asleep and wake up in a different place type of tale. Unfortunately doesn't give enough explanation of why the world is that way. Not enough history of what the world was before it became that way.
Best known for his novel Green Mansions, this is a better book. A hiker accidentally falls into a ravine, and when he regains consciousness, he is in a different land. Everyone speaks English, but no one has heard of England. Everything he knew has disappeared, and he is constantly blundering into new customs and manners. Eventually, he decides to blend in.

The main character is pretty well done, his confusion and thinking fill out his personality nicely. The rest of the characters, even the love interest Yoletta, are curiously bland (that is explained late in the book.) The descriptions of the landscape, the dogs, the horses, the people are detailed and rich.