“A desert that had been a desert always”: about Idle Days in Patagonia, of W. H. Hudson

Abstract

Since his childhood spent in Argentina, the writer William Henry Hudson (1841-1922) was in contact with nature, especially with birds. In 1871 he travelled to Patagonia, which seemed to him beautiful and sublime. Idle Days in Patagonia (1893) is the narration of this experience, previously written in a diary, and the description of the fauna and flora of this place. It’s also a reflection about the concepts of pleasure, taste and animism.

Keywords

• Hudson
• Patagonia
• diario
• literatura argentina
• gusto