Shauna Laurel Jones
Excerpt from the Audrey guide to Felix Salten’s Bambi: A Life in the Woods
Chapter 1 voice note

When my daughter was three years old, a friend gave me a copy of Bambi that she found in a used book store, thinking maybe I’d enjoy reading it to Elly one day. So when I was exploring possible nature-themed titles to add to Audrey’s library, I decided it was time to dust off the old hardback with Elly, who by then was nine. However, Audrey’s editor, Lucy, soon discovered that there was a new translation, so I waited to get my hands on this version.
I had already learned that Bambi was not just a story about the plight of animals in a forest ruled by humans, but that it was also about the persecution of Jews – and probably better understood by mature audiences. But thank goodness I took in the translator’s note before I started reading with Elly; Jack Zipes states quite clearly that Bambi “was never intended for children.” He’s right: there’s a lot of violence and intensity in this book.
Even before Disney’s animated film was released in 1942, Felix Salten was concerned about how his books were marketed abroad. The English version of his 1939 novel Bambi’s Children watered down the brutality to the extent that Salten wrote a desperate letter to his US publisher saying, “I beg you most urgently … not to advertise my work as a children’s book or to launch it otherwise in such a way.” Meanwhile in Europe, the Nazis read the bestselling Bambi as Jewish propaganda and had it banned and burned.
I don’t want to belabour the comparison between the book and the movie. But if you’re anything like me – and everyone I’ve spoken with about working on this guide – you already have preconceived ideas about the story and strong associations with the title. Maybe the film made a formative impact on you as a child, whether positive or negative. Or maybe you’re critical of Disney and its global influence, and for that reason steered clear of Bambi. Either way, I encourage you to have an open mind and experience Salten’s novel as the stand-alone work of adult literature it was intended to be. I know this might be easier said than done: I watched the film so many times on VHS when I was nine or ten that when I read the book, songs and dialogue I had long forgotten came flooding back into my mind!
But perhaps this is also interesting food for thought: what memories or ideas about Bambi do you bring to the table already? And where are these situated within your worldviews on animals and nature, on the one hand, or on violence, loss, and independence on the other?