Background
Hudson based Rima and her lost tribe on persistent rumors about a tribe of white people who lived in the mountains. Temple paintings often showed light-skinned people, and Spanish Conquistadors were at first thought to be gods. Green Mansions also features some cryptozoological concepts such as Curupita Curupira and Didi purportedly representing giant apes unknown by science.
Many authors of the time also recounted "lost worlds" and "lost tribes", the most successful being H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard. Hudson's book has endured as literature because of its evocative and lyrical prose, and his naturalist's keen vision of the jungle.
Rima also exemplifies the "natural man", a philosophical notion put forth by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others, that someone raised away from corrupting civilization would be naturally pure of heart and attuned to their environment. Tarzan, raised by apes, and Mowgli, raised by wolves, are Rima's literary cousins. In the Classics Illustrated comic book adaptation, the editor wonders if Hudson took inspiration for Rima's people – older, gentler, vegetarian, woods-dwelling – from legends of elves.
The title may spring from the Bible quote "In my Father's house are many mansions" (John 14:2), implying the pristine forest is a natural and sacred cathedral.
The plot of the book resembles that in Hudson's earlier novel A Crystal Age.
Read more about this topic: Green Mansions
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