The Story of My Heart

"In the history of literature one happens, from time to time, upon a book which has been written because the author had no choice but to write it," biographer Walter Besart said of Richard Jefferies' The Story of My Heart. "He was compelled by hidden forces to write it. There was no rest for him, day or night, so soon as the book was complete in his mind, until he sat down to write it. And then he wrote it at a white heat. For eighteen years, Jefferies says, he pondered over this book-he means, that he brooded over these and cognate subjects from the time of adolescence. At last his mind was full, and then-but not till then-he wrote it. Those who have not read it must understand at the outset that it is the book of one who dares to question for himself on the most important subject which can occupy the mind."

Or, as Roger Mifflin put it more simply, "If your mind needs a whiff of strong air, blue and cleansing, from hilltops and primrose valleys, try "The Story of My Heart" by Richard Jefferies." Book 6 in the Roger Mifflin Collection of vintage classics.