'There is probably no single quality or characteristic - besides
love of the countryside - that must inevitably distinguish a rural
writer, ' notes W.J. Keith. However, 'what distinguishes rural
writing that belongs to literature from that belonging to natural
history, agricultural history, etc., is, as Richard E. Haymaker has
observed, the writer's "means of revealing Nature as well as
describing her"...In the final analysis the rural essayist paints
neither landscapes nor self-portraits; instead he communicates the
subtle relationship between himself and his environment, offering
for our inspection his own attitudes and his own vision. We may be
asked to look or to agree, but more than anything else we are
invited to share. Ultimately, then, the best rural writing may be
said to provide us, in a phrase adapted from Robert Langbaum, with
a prose of experience.' Keith argues that non-fiction rural prose
should be recognized as a distinct literary tradition that merits
serious critical attention. In this book he tests the cogency of
thinking in terms of a 'rural tradition, ' examines the critical
problems inherent in such writing, and traces significant
continuities between rural writers. Eleven of the more important
and influential writers from the seventeenth century to modern
times come under individual scrutiny: Izaak Walton, Gilbert White,
William Cobbett, Mary Russell Mitford, George Borrow, Richard
Jefferies, George Sturt/'George Bourne', W.H. Hudson, Edward Thomas
Williamson, and H.J. Massingham. In examining these writers within
the context of the rural tradition, Keith rescues their works from
the literary attic where they have too often been relegated as
awkward misfits. When studied together, each throws fascinating
light on the others and is seen to fit into a loose but nonetheless
discernible 'line.'
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