Book Review on ‘The Village in the Jungle’ By Leonard Woolf

The novel written by Leonard Woolf which was published in 1913 is basically about novelist’s experience about Colonial Sri Lanka written in the intuitive point of view. Thus, it portrays a vivid picture of the lives of a deprived and pitiable family lived in the small village called Baddegama which in terms of literally ‘the village in the jungle. The events that take place in the novel provide a set of mixed feelings of terrifying, depressing and interesting. The description given to the jungle is quite awe inspiring and fearsome. According to the novel, “All jungles are evil, but no jungle is more evil than that which lay about the village of Beddegama†.Baddegama is a rudimentary, primitive settlement in the deep south of then Ceylon now Sri Lanka with just ten families. These families which are poverty-ridden are very much closer to the animals in the jungle. There are civilized culturally influenced values instead people are caught in a muddled traditional beliefs, superstitions and stoicism. The spirit of the jungle is in this village and the people who live in the thicket. The jungle with its hints of evil develops the background of the novel. With this setting, novel begins its exposition by introducing the protagonist or the principle character together by introducing several incidents with other characters which is the development of the novel.