Bambi's Children

Bambi's Children

First English edition
Author	Felix Salten
Original title	Bambis Kinder: Eine Familie im Walde
Translator	Barthold Fles
Illustrator	Hans Bertle (Swiss edition) Erna Pinner (U.S. edition)
Country	Switzerland
Language	German
Genre	Children's novel
Publisher	Bobbs-Merrill (US) Albert Muller (Switzerland)
Publication date	1940
Published in English	1939
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	315
OCLC	225457
LC Class	PZ10.3.S176 Bap10
Preceded by	Bambi, A Life in the Woods
Followed by	A Forest World

Bambi's Children: The Story of a Forest Family (German: Bambis Kinder: Eine Familie im Walde) is a children's novel written by Austrian author Felix Salten as a sequel to his successful work Bambi, A Life in the Woods.

The sequel to Bambi follows the lives of the twin children of Bambi and his cousin Faline as they grow from fawns through adulthood. Salten wrote the sequel while living in exile in Switzerland after being forced to flee Nazi-occupied Austria as he was of Jewish heritage.^[1] Originally written in German, the novel was first published in English in the United States in 1939 by Bobbs-Merrill. It was not published in German until the following year.^[2] Its language is gentler than that of Bambi, A Life in the Woods.^[3] Perri, a squirrel character from one of Salten's earlier novels, makes brief appearances in the book.

Although the title page of the American edition claims that the English translation is “complete and unabridged,” in reality it is somewhat abridged and greatly altered in tone and content. On the other hand, the 1977 Swedish translation, Bambis barn, is essentially abridged, without a mention of this in the book.^[4]

Plot

The novel's protagonists are the twin fawns born at the ending of the first novel. Geno and Gurri learn the pleasures as well as downsides of nature and their forest home, as their mother Faline raises them to adulthood. Their father, Faline's cousin Bambi, watches over them and, at times, takes care of them while their mother is busy. During their lives, they interact with Lana and Boso, twin fawns of their Aunt Rolla.

One day, Gurri is attacked by a fox, but survives. She is then taken away by a gamekeeper (mostly known as the "brown He" by some of the animals, because of the brown coat he wears). When she is brought to the "brown He's" place, she meets his dog, Hector, and an owl that He found awhile ago. The owl is chained to a post, and he tells Gurri about the times when the small birds (that the owl preys on) came to attack him. Then Bambi comes, and he tells Gurri that he will come at any time to teach her how to jump over the gate. When the "brown He" comes, Bambi runs back into the forest, and when he does that, the "brown He" opens the gate and leaves. Gurri then takes the opportunity to leave.

When she comes back, tensions between her family and Rolla's family start to rise. First, Rolla asks Gurri to tell her what had happened, but she is too tired to talk about it. The next day, Rolla again demands Gurri to tell her, but she just wants to play with Lana and Boso. Then one day, Rolla gets attacked by a wolf-dog. While trying to escape him, she accidentally lures the wolf-dog to where Faline and the others are hiding. The wolf-dog immediately turns his attention to Geno, and chases him instead. When Faline gets word of Geno's disappearance, she blames Rolla for "sacrificing" her son. After Bambi saves Geno from the wolf dog, Geno finds Rolla, and he is then reunited with his sister and mother. When they go to see Rolla, Lana gives them a warm welcome, while Boso starts developing a hate for them. He starts antagonizing Geno, then scolds Faline for not sending them a messenger about their mother being injured. When Faline and her children leave, a feud between the two families is started.

When Geno starts to grow his antlers, he and Gurri discover two orphaned male fawns named Nello and Membo. Faline decides to adopt them as new friends for her children, so they can forget about their new enemies. When Geno gets older, he meets Lana again, and starts developing feelings for her. Boso comes out and challenges Geno to a fight, but Geno refuses. Boso starts to spread rumors across the forest about Geno being a coward. When Geno has had enough, he fights Boso and defeats him; he offers a truce, but Boso instead turns away. Geno tries to apologise to Lana, but she refuses to talk to him after that.

One day, Boso is shot by a boy hunter, but before the boy can kill him he escapes. He then runs into Bambi, and Bambi has him use the same techniques that his father, the Great Prince, told him to use when he got shot. The boy then returns and tries to kill Geno, but right when he is about to kill him, Bambi jumps out and kills him.

In the end, Lana forgives Geno for what he did to Boso, and the two families end their feud and become friends again. When they have all left, Faline notices a "well-beloved shadow" in the bushes (obviously Bambi), and she goes towards it.

Further reading

• Lewis Buell, Ellen: A Fine Sequel to That Modern Classic, "Bambi". New York Times 1939-12-05: BR105. Partially accessed 2011-07-21.

Dell Comic

Although this story was never made into a film, Dell Comics published a Walt Disney Production comics adaptation in 1943.^[5]

References

1. Flippo, Hyde. "Felix Salten (Siegmund Salzmann, 1869–1945)". The German-Hollywood Connection. The German Way and More. Archived from the original on 2009-01-02. Retrieved 2011-07-22.
2. Lorenz, Dagmar (2003). A Companion to the Works of Arthur Schnitzler. Boydell & Brewer. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-57113-213-0. Retrieved 2011-07-22. The English translation of Bambis Kinder was published in 1939, a year before the German publication (Dormer, 438 and 439).
3. Bousé, Derek (2000). Wildlife Films. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-8122-1728-5.
4. Comparing Bambi’s Children.
5. "GCD :: Issue :: Four Color #30". Retrieved 2012-02-20.