The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea
Mar 2010 · Harper Collins
4.0star
5 reviews
Ebook
468
Pages
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Eligible
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About this ebook
A travelogue through the history, literature, and lore of the remarkable mammals that we long have been fascinated with, from Moby-Dick to Free Willy.
From his childhood fascination with the gigantic Natural History Museum model of a blue whale, to his abiding love of Moby-Dick, to his adult encounters with the living animals in the Atlantic Ocean, the acclaimed writer Philip Hoare has been obsessed with whales. The Whale is his unforgettable and moving attempt to explain why these strange and beautiful animals exert such a powerful hold on our imagination.
Praise for The Whale
Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction
“This tour de force is a sensuous biography of the great mammals that range on and under Earth’s oceans.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“The Whale is part cultural study, part travelogue, as Hoare traces the footsteps of Herman Melville from New York to New Bedford and Nantucket . . . [and] digresses on our abuses of the whale and the devastations of the whaling industry.” —Boston Globe
“One of the most sublime reading experiences you’ll have this year.” —NPR’S All Things Considered
From his childhood fascination with the gigantic Natural History Museum model of a blue whale, to his abiding love of Moby-Dick, to his adult encounters with the living animals in the Atlantic Ocean, the acclaimed writer Philip Hoare has been obsessed with whales. The Whale is his unforgettable and moving attempt to explain why these strange and beautiful animals exert such a powerful hold on our imagination.
Praise for The Whale
Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction
“This tour de force is a sensuous biography of the great mammals that range on and under Earth’s oceans.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“The Whale is part cultural study, part travelogue, as Hoare traces the footsteps of Herman Melville from New York to New Bedford and Nantucket . . . [and] digresses on our abuses of the whale and the devastations of the whaling industry.” —Boston Globe
“One of the most sublime reading experiences you’ll have this year.” —NPR’S All Things Considered
Ratings and reviews
4.0
5 reviews
A Google user
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It took a few pages, because the author wasn't doing the straightforward natural history of the whale thing, but I was eventually very moved by his description of very special animals that we know mostly because we've hunted them so avidly. He wrote quite a bit using Herman Melville as his muse, somebody who knew the life of a whaler and wrote about it in a way that expressed the deep connection to the natural world that whales bring us to. After the two centuries of sail-powered whaling Hoard described, the jolt of factory-ship whaling was sadly vivid. I really enjoyed this.
Patrick Booker
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July 16, 2014
A wonderful read. Thank you, Mr. Hoare!
1 person found this review helpful
About the author
Philip Hoare is the author of biographies of Stephen Tennant and Noël Coward and the historical studies Wilde's Last Stand, Spike Island and England's Lost Eden. He is also the writer and presenter of the BBC Arena film, The Hunt for Moby-Dick. He lives in Southampton, England.
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