When you hear the name Bambi you will likely think of the Walt Disney movie about a young fawn growing up, learning the joys and hard realities and dangers of a life in the woods. Felix Salten wrote the novel just nineteen years before the animated cartoon was released. Salten’s story is unsentimental and the violence is more on-screen than off. He does write beautiful descriptions of nature, but nature red in tooth and claws is an ominous presence.

The characters are animals–deer, a hare, birds–and they talk and think in human ways.

Bambi is fascinated by the formidable and regal old stag whom he sometimes encounters in the forest. In one scene, Bambi deliberates on speaking to his idol, unaware that the stag’s own internal dialogue shares Bambi’s own awe and self-doubt. Bambi has the beauty and vibrance of youth. To Bambi, the stag has imperious majesty. The moment passes in silence.

Bambi fights the other bucks for his childhood friend Faline and they share a splendid summer together before he loses interest and leaves her alone. Don’t you love me still? she asks. I don’t know, he responds.

Salten incorporates comments on society and violence.

The mothers teach the fawns to fear He/Him, the two legged threat with a third arm that blasts thunder and kills. Faline’s brother Gobo was weak and was captured by a hunter who kept him as a pet. Breaking free, Gobo returns to the forest and brags of his wonderful treatment, doted on and well fed, not understanding his captivity as an evil. Without fear of humans, he soon becomes a victim of a hunter.

The privation of winter breaks down society. The adult deer wonder if it will ever get better, holding onto the memory of a beautiful life before.

The terrible hardship that seemed to have no end spread bitterness and brutality. It destroyed all their memories of the past, their faith in each other, and ruined every good custom they had. There was no longer either peace or mercy in the forest. from Bambi by Felix Salten

These lines could have been written about war and persecution, which Salten experienced firsthand. The author changed his name from Siegmund Salzmann to the less Jewish sounding Felix Salten. He was a prolific author and a hunter who loved the forests of Austria. His books were banned under Hitler, and he was forced to escape to Switzerland. Many read the story as an allegory.

The book is suggested for readers ten and older but will capture the attention of adult readers. The 1928 forward by John Galsworthy tells how he read the galley proof completely absorbed, calling it “a little masterpiece.”

This edition of the novel is just gorgeous, with a gold embossed cloth cover, ribbon bookmark, smooth paper, and original illustrations. Just holding it was a delight. There are over fifty volumes published in the Everyman’s Library Children’s Classics series. I am already eyeing volumes of books to reread.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book. ( )

April/ May 2020 Children's Books group. A fairly long book but so very much richer than the Disney movie or any abridgments, I highly recommend reading the full story.

And this is the second time I've read it. I hadn't remembered that it's actually fairly short, and doesn't need to be abridged. And it's gorgeous. ( )

Beautiful artwork from the 1940s stunningly illustrates young Bambi's journey from fawn to prince of the forest.

Better than the Disney adaptation ( )

A very well written children's novel. Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten makes you think about how everything in the world, by nature, isn't claimed by one being (from humans, to other animals, even to plant life). Very, different from Walt Disney's animated film but just as charming. Reading the book you'll come to the realization that Disney cannot be blamed for the death of Bambi's mother because it was Salten who cam up with the idea. Gobo, Bambi's male cousin, was also an interesting character because that's when you see there is no good or evil in "He" (the name called for humans in the book). My favorite chapter, however, was one where two leaves are having a conversation amongst themselves wondering what happens when they fall off the tree. Overall, I recommend it to anyone who likes books on nature. ( )