Book Description

'Amaryllis at the Fair' is a semi-autobiographical novel about rural life written by British author Richard Jefferies. In the book, the portraits of the family in the novel tally with external accounts of Jefferies' family. His father, James Jefferies, like Iden in Amaryllis, was devoted to his garden, while struggling to make a financial success of the farm. The garden, lovingly recalled in Wood Magic and Amaryllis, also made a strong impression on the memories of those who knew the Jefferies at the time. Betsy, Richard's mother, like Iden's wife, seems to have been dissatisfied with life on the farm: "a town-bred woman with a beautiful face and a pleasure-loving soul, kind and generous to a fault, but unsuited to a country life."