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Leviathan
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Review
‘This singular, magnificent book inspires both awe and shame – awe of the whales, shame of the human species that has tried to destroy them. In the end, Hoare’s virtuosic sympathy for his subject makes you believe in the better angels of our nature.’ Alex Ross, bestselling author of ‘The Rest is Noise’
‘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 élan – 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
Review
'Philip Hoare has long been acclaimed as a brilliantly unconventional writer...This is the book he was born to write'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderfully eclectic, engrossing read...,
By
This review is from: Leviathan (Paperback)
This isn't my usual kind of reading - as much as I like whales I wouldn't say I was so fascinated by them as to want to read an entire book on them - and yet this had me spellbound. Philip Hoare has a wonderful, poetic way of writing, and his own love for and fascination with whales come over with every word. This isn't just a scientific book about whales; it's an exploration of the whale in human history, religion, literature. He talks about Melville's Moby-Dick as much as whaling and the whale itself, and it just works. It's an incredibly moving read at times too, particularly when he talks about what man has done to the whale. This is a wonderful book.
37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My top book of the year so far,
By
This review is from: Leviathan (Paperback)
This book absolutely blew me away.
I'm a sucker for books that meander through different areas of human knowledge and Leviathan does this with almost effortless aplomb. Hoare delves into literature, history, science, anecdote, anthropology and art to explore our long and often difficult relationship with whales. Hoare manages to dive between poetic lyrical writing and the harshest of scientific facts with only an occasional misstep. His writing just soars - I was alternatively speechless with wonder, livid with anger, enraptured with awe and on several occasions weeping with shame at how we've treated and continue to treat whales.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant account of Whales and their effect on the human consciousness,
By
This review is from: Leviathan (Paperback)
Whales exert a huge presence in modern consciousness - `Save the Whale' has been a clarion call of the environmental movement for as long as I remember - and yet comparatively little is known about them. Indeed only recently have accurate anatomical drawings been made, and for years scientists and natural historians were reliant on guesswork.
This is Philip Hoare's history of his own fascination with whales. It starts with his childhood encounters with life size replicas at London's Natural History Museum and ends with his adult encounters, a stunning and poignant account of swimming with sperm whales in the Azores. Throughout he mixes literary criticism (invariably Herman Melville features heavily), social, cultural and natural history - much, alas, until recently bloody and driven by man's profit motive rather than his passion for nature - with his own profoundly moving experiences of these great beasts. It is in so many ways a perfect book: accessible, evocative, brilliantly written, expertly portioned between Hoare and the great Leviathons (and never, as so many of these sort of books are, self indulgent) and superbly illustrated; a worthy winner of this year's Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.
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