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The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea |  | Author: Philip Hoare
Publisher: Ecco
Category: Book
List Price: $27.99
Buy Used: $12.82
as of 7/29/2010 22:14 CDT details
You Save: $15.17 (54%)
Seller: hippo_books
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 39662
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.7
ISBN: 0061976210
Dewey Decimal Number: 599.5
EAN: 9780061976216
ASIN: 0061976210
Publication Date: February 1, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780061976216 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2010: After reading Moby Dick, author Philip Hoare was so captivated by the subject that he spent years trying to fathom the planet’s most enormous and enigmatic of creatures. Hoare's admitted mania for whales led him to write Leviathan, or the Whale—which was awarded the 2009 Samuel Johnson Prize, Britain’s most prestigious award for nonfiction. The book has finally migrated to this side of the Atlantic under a new title, The Whale. Hoare is not a scientist, but rather a biographer whose subjects have tended toward highbrow figures like Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde. In approaching cetaceans, the author’s non-scientific background works to great advantage. Similar to Melville, Hoare has captured a wide range of historical and scientific facts about whales, but has chosen to present them through an extremely powerful instrument--the literary imagination. The result is a deeply moving and thought-provoking biography of the planet’s toughest, yet most vulnerable of prehistoric survivors. The Whale takes us well beyond the limits of what we can see, hear or otherwise objectively "know" about whales, and offers a much more vivid sense of their true magnitude. --Lauren Nemroff
Product Description
From his childhood fascination with the gigantic Natural History Museum model of a blue whale to his adult encounters with the living animals in the Atlantic Ocean, the acclaimed writer Philip Hoare has been obsessed with whales. Journeying through human and natural history, The Whale is the result of his voyage of discovery into the heart of this obsession and the book that inspired it: Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Taking us deep into their domain, Hoare shows us these mysterious creatures as they have never been seen before. Following in Ishmael's footsteps, he explores the troubled history of man and whale; visits the historic whaling locales of New Bedford, Nantucket, and the Azores; and traces the whale's cultural history from Jonah to Free Willy. Winner of the prestigious BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, The Whale is an unforgettable and often moving attempt to explain why these strange and beautiful animals still exert such a powerful hold on our imagination.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Yes Title Deceptive - But Excellent Read ! June 23, 2010
J&K (Vermont)
The title should have been "Whaling" as that is what is covered. Nevertheless the book itself is wonderfully readable - fascinating in approach and well executed. A good basic overview of whaling and somewhat whales themselves. I liked the tie in to Moby Dick and also the personal narrative that flows within.
An excellent book - but be careful - it's not what it seems to be.
 Whales... giants of the sea June 17, 2010
Erwin Koenig
There is a reason this book won the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non Fiction... it is an exceptionally good read while being highly educational!
"The Whale" is NOT a scientific treatise on whales yet there are enough facts and details about whales to satisfy just about any level of whale enthusiast and the many illustrations are just an added bonus.
Philip Hoare deeply admires and respects whales and perhaps is even obsessed with them. It is this passion for his subject that gives the book its "hook" as it literally grabs you and pulls you along for the ride.
Hoare tries very hard to seperate fact from fiction as it pertains to our knowledge of whales. He uses Herman Melville's classic "Moby Dick" as a stepping stone to do this. By referencing passages from the book as well as other historical journals and events that Melville might have used to source his story Hoare provides a dramatic history of the whale, the whaling industry and the tenuous relationship that whales and men have had over the past 400+ years! This provides some of the best and most riveting writing in the book. "You are there" as a sailor yells "there she blows" and the crew goes into action to chase and catch the whale.
But throughout Hoare provides specific and fascinating details about each species of whale that he introduces: from Narwhals, Belugas, Bowheads to the grandaddy of them all... the Sperm whale! Hoare tells of why whales were so in demand during the 18th and 19th century and why men would travel to the four corners of the earth risking death to catch them and bring home the spoils while he also tells of the naturalists and the scientists who made it their life's work to go on expeditions to study whales and their world.
Hoare takes us into the 20th century and the almost indiscriminate slaughter of whales to again satisfy the need for their by products... one of which was as a base ingredient for the manufacture of nitro glycerine during the world wars!
For a man who as a child feared the sea and would not step anywhere near the waters edge... Philip Hoare has become a champion of Whales and our understanding of them. This book is a tremendous tribute to that giant of the- THE WHALE!
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