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| Additional Physical Format: | Online version: Hoare, Philip. Leviathan, or, The whale. London : Fourth Estate, 2009 (OCoLC)768362393 |
|---|---|
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Philip Hoare |
| ISBN: | 9780007230143 0007230141 |
| OCLC Number: | 373484324 |
| Notes: | Winner of the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction. |
| Awards: | Winner of BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2009. |
| Description: | 453 p. : ill., maps ; 20 cm. |
| Other Titles: | Whale |
| Responsibility: | Philip Hoare. |
Abstract:
Reviews
Publisher Synopsis
'This history of man's dealings with whales is respectful, even mystical.' Daily Mail 'A scintillating, scattershot, blunderbuss of a book. Throughout the book, Hoare's unbridled enthusiasm for his subject is infectious!this thoroughly engaging, rigorously researched and often revelatory book is a joy to read and one which Melville, surely, would have appreciated.' Independent on Sunday 'So compelling and all-encompassing that it cast a spell on me that endured for days after I had done turning its beautifully illustrated pages!This is the book he was born to write, a classic of its kind!What poetry there is here and what a balm for the soul.' Observer 'Enjoyable trawl through the history, literature and lore of whales!As well as being a showcase for descriptive prose of great beauty, "Leviathan" is full of fascinating facts.' Guardian 'An elegant writer with a sharp eye for quirky detail!A lyrical and timely reminder of what we have to lose if we don't change our greedy ways.' Mail on Sunday 'In Hoare's hands, whales are almost limitlessly strange and interesting.' Sunday Times 'Hoare's idiosyncratic mingling of autobiography, anthropology and archaeology has reached its zenith!an enthralling volume. Hoare has the skill and humility to make this work, to him, great art and the Leviathan are both inexplicable, unknowable forces from the deep, wherein lies their wonder.' Daily Telegraph 'Insights and images rise in plumes from almost every page.' Daily Telegraph (Book of the Week) 'With "Leviathan" -- a cultural, personal and natural history of whales and whaling, richly stocked with whale lore and written with admirable intensity and elan -- Hoare might be said to have literalised his interest in surface and depth!Shuttling between inhuman actuality and anthropomorphism, Hoare breaches the surface of his subject in the most profound fashion.' Brian Dillon, Irish Times 'Wonderful illustrated biography of this most magnificent beasts is studded with glittering shards of natural history and social science.' Metro London 'The author's passion for whales is infectious.' Esquire 'Hoare's personal pilgrimage, wandering, reflective, frequently very personal, owes much to WG Sebald, including the device of peppering the text with black and white pictures. Whales have a very intimate and troubled relationship to man, one which this elegiac book does much to illuminate.' Waterstones Books Quarterly 'Tells you everything you need to ever wanted to know about the kings of the ocean.' Wanderlust Read more...
