Novel
Bambi, a Life in the Woods
Bambi. Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde
Felix Salten · 1923
Synopsis
A roe deer is born in a thicket and learns the forest: the clearings, the seasons, the language of the other animals, his friends Gobo and Faline, and a threat that all of them call He, without ever naming it. His mother teaches him to flee, then one day stops coming. An old solitary stag then takes him in hand and shows him that survival is learned alone.
Context
The book was published by Ullstein in Berlin in 1923. The National Socialist authorities banned it and burned copies, reading in it an allegory of the fate reserved for the Jews of Europe: the threat is never named other than by a pronoun. The 1942 animated film made it a children's story, and the original text was long eclipsed by the film. Salten wrote a sequel, which appeared in English in 1939, then in German in Switzerland the following year.
Who it is for
A novel of fewer than two hundred pages, intended first for grown-ups and since read by children.
Prizes and reception
The work that made its author famous; the 1928 English translation, chosen by the Book-of-the-Month Club, made it a worldwide success.
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