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The Original Bambi
- Author
- Felix Salten
- Narrator
- John Chancer, Peter Marinker
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- Publish Date
- 22 February 2022
- Run Time
- 6 hours 4 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Peter Marinker narrates a new translation of Felix Salten's celebrated novel
Bambi, capturing the emotional impact and rich meanings of the original story
With a preface read by John Chancer
Most of us think we know the story of Bambi
—but do we?
The Original Bambi is an all-new translation of a literary classic that presents the story as it was meant to be told. For decades, readers' images of Bambi have been shaped by the 1942 Walt Disney film—an idealized look at a fawn who represents nature's innocence—which was based on a 1928 English translation of a novel by the Austrian Jewish writer Felix Salten. This masterful new translation gives contemporary readers a fresh perspective on this moving allegorical tale and provides important details about its creator.
Originally published in 1923, Salten's story is more somber than the adaptations that followed it. Life in the forest is dangerous and precarious, and Bambi learns important lessons about survival as he grows to become a strong, heroic stag. Jack Zipes's introduction traces the history of the book's reception and explores the tensions that Salten experienced in his own life—as a hunter who also loved animals, and as an Austrian Jew who sought acceptance in Viennese society even as he faced persecution.
Critics Review
-
"Bambi is quite remarkable: a meditation on powerlessness and survival told with great economy and sophistication."—Bill McKibben, New York Times
New York Times
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"In The Original Bambi, the distinguished translator Jack Zipes, has sought to restore both the dignity and the relevance of Salten's vision; to rescue it, in a manner of speaking, from Disneyfication. . . . [The book is] bracingly free of the encrustation of sugar that the tale has accumulated over the past 100 years."—Meghan Cox Gurdon, Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal
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"Wonderful black-and-white illustrations. . . . Zipes is knowledgeable about his subject matter."—Kathryn Schulz, New Yorker
New Yorker
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Felix Salten
- Narrator
- John Chancer, Peter Marinker
- Duration
- 6 hours 4 minutes
- Release Date
- 22 February 2022
- ISBN
- 9780691234885
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- Genre
- Children’s and teenage literature studies: general, Literature: history and criticism
Synopsis
Peter Marinker narrates a new translation of Felix Salten's celebrated novel Bambi, capturing the emotional impact and rich meanings of the original story With a preface read by John Chancer Most of us think we know the story of Bambi —but do we? The Original Bambi is an all-new translation of a literary classic that presents the story as it was meant to be told. For decades, readers' images of Bambi have been shaped by the 1942 Walt Disney film—an idealized look at a fawn who represents nature's innocence—which was based on a 1928 English translation of a novel by the Austrian Jewish writer Felix Salten. This masterful new translation gives contemporary readers a fresh perspective on this moving allegorical tale and provides important details about its creator. Originally published in 1923, Salten's story is more somber than the adaptations that followed it. Life in the forest is dangerous and precarious, and Bambi learns important lessons about survival as he grows to become a strong, heroic stag. Jack Zipes's introduction traces the history of the book's reception and explores the tensions that Salten experienced in his own life—as a hunter who also loved animals, and as an Austrian Jew who sought acceptance in Viennese society even as he faced persecution.
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