The Whale
In Search of the Giants of the Sea
A history of whales and of what people have believed about them, written in the wake of Moby-Dick.
Hoare’s obsession with whales carries him through natural history, the history of whaling, and Moby-Dick, which he reads as the book that made the animal mythological. He swims with them, visits the ports that hunted them, and assembles a history of what people have believed about the largest creatures on earth. It won the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2009.
Recommended by 1 Person
Mark Kurlansky
We learn a lot about their lives but we also learn about the lore of whales – why they have always been important to us, and what throughout history has been thought about them. The crowning example is Moby Dick, which inspired Hoare to write his book. Moby Dick was in many ways about a mythological version of whales. As Melville intended, it tells us more about us than it does about the whale.
Interview · January 2012
As an Amazon Associate, bookstoread.org earns from qualifying purchases. Links to Amazon on this page may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Spotted an error on this page? Tell us and we will fix it.