Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest by Felix Salten (tr. by Jack Zipes), narrated by Peter Marinker #AudiobookReview #BlogTour

 

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, audiences’ 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 audiences a fresh perspective on this moving allegorical tale and provides important details about its creator.

It's my pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for the Listen With Audrey audiobook version of Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest by Felix Salten today. Many thanks to the publishers and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for my copy of the audiobook file.

Disney's Bambi was probably my favourite of the classic Disney films as a child and I watched it again years later with my own children. I have been aware of Felix Salten's book for many years but until now, hadn't really considered reading it. However, this audiobook translation through the Listen with Audrey app was impossible to resist.

 Although Felix Salten's story is a far richer, more violent story than the more familiar movie, the early chapters are familiar as the young fawn is born and takes his first tentative steps into first the forest and then the meadow. The cast of characters here is different – there's no Thumper or Flower – but the young Bambi's interactions with other forest animals still provides some lighter moments during the first part of the book. As he grows, he becomes friends with his second cousins, Gobo and Faline with Felix Salten's beautifully lyrical but never sentimental descriptions of the forest creating a really immersive sense of place.

While most of the story is focused on Bambi and told in the third person, there are chapters told from different perspectives too – perhaps most notably a pair of autumn leaves who have an existential conversation about why they must fall from the tree and what will happen to them when they do. It's this scene which heralds the start of one of the most brutal segments of the book. The death of Bambi's mother is such a pivotal scene in Disney's film and so there is an ominous sense of foreboding as winter hits and the animals endure poverty and exposure to the elements. However, it's the arrival of the hunter – or Him as he is described here – which brings the most catastrophic change to the forest. It isn't just Bambi's mother who loses her life during these scenes and the panic of the fleeing animals, followed by their merciless slaughter is a stark reminder of the fragility of the lives of these creatures.

Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest is too dark to be a book for young children but it can be read as a coming-of-age tale. It is, of course, of its time and while the character of Bambi himself is an empathetically observed, complex creation, the female characters, especially Faline don't fare as well. The sparky young deer who captures Bambi's heart eventually becomes a rather pitiful, even hysterical creature but as Bambi's destiny is to emulate the old prince of the forest, it is necessary for him to decide upon a solitary life. 

First published in Austria in 1923, Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest predates the Holocaust but in the wake of the First World War, the always present antisemitism in Europe was seeing an unprecedented rise. As a Jewish author, Felix Salten possibly wrote the book as a warning about the dangers facing Jews at that time. If it was meant as an allegory, it is chillingly successful. From the tragedy of Gobo, whose naïve belief that man has befriended him and can thus be trusted, to the treachery of the dog, the other animals live in constant fear of Him. It is undoubtedly a novel about persecution and listening to the book with this in mind certainly adds another dimension to the tale. It's particularly poignant to note that the Nazis later burned it as Jewish propaganda in 1935. 

The narration by Peter Marinker is excellent, he tells the story with the clarity and gravitas it deserves. The Audrey app also offers a guide by Shauna Laurel Jones, which gives readers an extra insight into the book and can be read between chapters or at the end of the story. Personally, I enjoyed reading more about the author or the historical context of the novel rather than the personal reflections or discussion questions but that is purely a personal preference. The chapter recaps and character descriptions, however, are something I would welcome with every audiobook and I will definitely look at other classic books on the Audrey app.

Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest will inevitably be compared to the movie but while it's easy to criticise the sanitised Disneyfication of Felix Salten's dark, thoughtful tale, I prefer to treat them as two separate entities. For all its faults, the film will always have a place in my heart but Felix Salten's full-bodied, poignant parable deserves to be far better known – perhaps now more than ever. 

Find out more about the Audrey app and the growing library of books available here.

About the Author

Felix Salten was born Siegmund Salzmann on 6 September 1869 in Pest, Austria-Hungary.

His best remembered work is Bambi (1923). A translation in English was published by Simon & Schuster in 1928, and became a great success. In 1933, he sold the film rights to the American director Sidney Franklin for only $1,000, and Franklin later transferred the rights to the Walt Disney Studios, which formed the basis of the animated film Bambi (1942).

Life in Austria became perilous for Jews during the 1930s. In Germany, Adolf Hitler had Salten's books banned in 1936.

Felix Salten died on 8 October 1945, at the age of 76.

About the Translator

Jack Zipes is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Minnesota and has previously held professorships at New York University, the University of Munich, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Florida. In addition to his scholarly work, he is an active storyteller in public schools and has worked with children's theaters in France, Germany, Canada, and the United States. In 1997 he founded a storytelling and creative drama program, Neighborhood Bridges, in collaboration with the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis that is still thriving in the elementary schools of the Twin Cities. 

About the Narrator

Peter Marinker (born July 28, 1941) is a Canadian-born English actor, voice actor and stage actor who has worked extensively in England, the United States, and Canada.

He is well known for his work on BBC Radio on audiobook recordings, and as a director for the Bookshop Theatre Company.

He has also played characters in a variety of media.