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Amazon.co.uk Review
The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In The Heart of the Sea certainly covers the same area, by examining the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story which inspired Herman Melville's classic, Moby Dick, has a lot going for it--derring-do, cannibalism, rescue--and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail. We learn about the importance and mechanics of blubber production--a vital source of oil--and we get the nuts and bolts of harpooning and life onboard whalers. Neither are we spared the nitty gritty of the open boats and sucking human bones dry.
By sticking to the tried and tested Longitude formula, Philbrick has missed a slight trick or two. The epicentre of the whaling industry was Nantucket, a small island off Cape Cod; most of the whales were in the Pacific, a huge journey around the southernmost tip of America. We never learn the reason for this distance and why no one ever tried to create an alternative whaling capital somewhere nearer. Similarly, Philbrick tells us that the story of the Essex was well known to Americans for decades but he never explores how such legends fade from our consciousness. Philbrick would no doubt reply that such questions were beyond his remit and you can't exactly accuse him of skimping on his research; 50 pages of footnotes is impressive by any standards and to give him his credit he wears his learning light. Unlike many academics, he doesn't get bogged down in turgid detail and the narrative rattles along at a nice pace. And when the story line is as good as this, you can't really ask for more.--John Crace --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
‘Utterly gripping’ Daily Telegraph
‘Brilliant’ The Times
‘Superbly readable … elegantly written … a compelling study of the infinite human meanings of the sea itself’ Guardian
‘As gripping as it is grissly … a cracking narrative, a complex cast of characters and a terrible moral dilemma at its heart’ Daily Mail
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Perhaps the highest praise I can bestow upon this book is to say that I can't ever remember being so thoroughly absorbed in any work of non-fiction. Before I knew where I was I had read half the book and had to pace myself for the remainder to make it last! Of the many books of maritime exploration, adventure, mutiny and war that I have read -- even Caroline Alexander's The Bounty, which I rate highly -- no other author came close to Mr Philbrick's ability to paint a picture with words of the sea - to make me feel as if I were there on these whaleboats sharing the dreadful experience of these shipwrecked men as they slowly shed their humanity and became animals. If you know nothing about the sea, if you've never left solid ground or even seen the sea, this book will still appeal to you as a very human story of shared suffering and the lengths that the human body and mind will go to in order to cling to life under the harshest conditions and in the most unforgiving and merciless environment on the planet.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
...The best read I have had all year. I have now purchased a further 8 copies of this book for other people, and it will no doubt be given to a few more this Christmas. You'd expect this historical non fiction to be dry, and indeed the first chapter of Nantucket whaling ship history may well give you a hint that your initial suspicions were confirmed but once they set sail - what an adventure! The coincidences, the survival, the power of the writing and the storytelling where Philbrick manages to avoid creating fictional dialogue for his sailors and sticks to the facts while making some suppositions of his own. You could not put this book down once started. An incredible tale and all the more amazing for being true. The cover mentions Moby Dick's reliance on the Essex's story for its own inspiration but I found Philbrick's book far more compellingly told than the overblown and hysterically dramatic classic novel. If I had to choose between the two, I would read Philbrick's tale a second time and forget the woeful Moby Dick.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Unknown Binding|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is an absolutely fantastic book detailing the horrific experiences of a whaleship crew cast adrift on the ocean. It is so well written you can feel the claustrophobia and utter hopelessness that these poor 19th Century mariners must have felt. The story just builds and builds and you will not be able to put this book down, you can feel the shivers running up and down your spine. It's a great read and I would recommend it to ANYONE be they interested in historical fact or not. It could not have come from the pen of a writer of fiction as only true stories leave you this nervous/breathless and truly plumb the depths of the human psyche. Brilliant.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
More dramatic and entertaining than the fiction ever could be...
This book tells the story of the Whaleship Essex, which was sunk by an angry sperm whale in the 19th century and which inspired Melville to write Moby Dick. Read more
Published 5 months ago by C. Ball
A Good Account of an Epic Story
This is a decent account of a true story, but I did find the parts of the book before and after the voyage rather tedious.
Published 10 months ago by Ian
Doomed whalers
Tale of the doomed whaling ship 'Essex', her ramming by an 85 foot sperm whale, and the resulting three month journey of her (reducing) crew in small whaleboats. Read more
Published 10 months ago by JoTownhead
A must read
In the Heart of the Sea, a great, cant put down book, with a tremendous insight into the endurance of the people at the time and the hardships they had to endure. Read more
Published 10 months ago by David Billington
Surprisingly gripping
I buy all my books on amazon and have never rated any of them but felt i just had to with this one. It gripped me right from the start and i have not been able to put it down, it... Read more
Published 14 months ago by anothermadeupname
A little-remembered story which inspired one of the great classics of...
"In the Heart of the Sea" tells the story of the loss of the Nantucket whaling ship "Essex" in 1820. Read more
Published 16 months ago by J C E Hitchcock
A harrowing story, and exceptional narrator.
I've had this on the shelf for a while and decided to give it a read the other day. Can't believe this amazing story has been staring me in the face for so long, but there you... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Privateofcourse
Perfectly Fine but Far From Enthralling
I can't quite put my finger on it, but it strikes me that there's a certain strain of superfluousness in the contemporary narrative nonfiction genre. Read more
Published 19 months ago by A. Ross
How to make a turtle into a field stove.
I heard several people quietly raving about this book before someone lent me a copy, and what a truly amazing story it turned out to be. Read more
Published 23 months ago by F. R. Jack
Good on you, whaley!
A very, very good book. The pages keep turning as the barely credible details of the story pan out. One day books like this will include maps to match the detail of the text. Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2009 by G. Haynes
Listmania!
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