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Title: The Compleat Angler : or, The Contemplative Man's Recreation by Izaak Walton, Charles Cotton, Howell Raines ISBN: 0-375-75148-3 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 26 May, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Handy fishing companion
Comment: Fits in my pocket when I go fishing - I read a bit after I cast the line. Best days of my life are with a trout stream, rod and this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: A rare portal to an untainted world of tranquil delight....
Comment: If you don't know about this famous book by the inimitable Walton, you have a lot to look forward to. Purporting to be an account of a 5-day gentlemen's fishing idyll (when gentlemen were gentlemen, and the English countryside was at once bountiful and near to hand), it is in fact a deeply engaging nostalgia trip into a never-never land of pastoral bliss which has no exact parallel in world literature.
To say "evocative of simpler, happier times" is to barely hint at the near-mystical fragrance of this enchanting volume. Three high-spirited protagonists ("Piscator", "Venator", and "Auceps"), devoted to three rival outdoor avocations (fishing, hunting, and falconing, respectively), meet on a "fine, fresh May morning"; ramble across the countryside in search of fine fishing and hearty times; sing, banter, and versify; recount ancient wisdom (of often dubious validity) regarding the habits and temper of over a dozen local fish species; and encounter a sampling of innkeepers, milkmaids, gypsies, and various other idealized rural types. This is a refuge book for quiet evenings, one of those unaccountably transporting narratives which no charmed reader has ever wanted to reach the end.
Some history: stolen in parts from precedents written as far back as 1450, Walton's work is nearly as early as it could be and still be readable without a line-by-line explanatory gloss ("compleat" is about as arcane as it gets). First published in 1653, there have been well over 100 editions in print. Some of the earlier ones contain Lang's 28-page introduction to the author's life, the structure of the work, and its publishing history, all of which is superbly sensitive and informative. Noteworthy are the 80+ illustrations produced by Sullivan (again, available in some of the older editions and their reprints), which are unselfconsciously exquisite -- naively rendered country scenes and character sketches; finely wrought studies of dry flies and of the various species of fish mentioned in the book; and ornately framed images of famous fishermen "taken" from the evidently superb engraved portraits of Major's 1824 edition.
The author was a minor legend in his own time. Held in the highest regard by all who knew him, this "excellent old man" suffered many tragedies throughout his long life (from the public murder of his beloved king to various family deaths and personal debilities), but he never lost his rare sweetness of temper. He wrote numerous other treatises, but "The Compleat Angler" early on rendered him a literary immortal.
Rating: 5
Summary: A CLASSIC of English Literature!
Comment: I have had this book beside me for more than 20 years, not for its guidance about fishing (though this is pleasant), but for the simple, unaffected but eloquent beauty of its 17th century prose. A lovely, idealized, Arcadian sort of England comes to life, and it is a very nice place in which to dip your mind a while.
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Title: The Complete Angler: A Connecticut Yankee Follows in the Footsteps of Walton by James Prosek ISBN: 0060191899 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Trout : An Illustrated History by James Prosek ISBN: 067944453X Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 14 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Seasons of a Fisherman by Roderick L. Haig-Brown ISBN: 1585744093 Publisher: The Lyons Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman by John Gierach ISBN: 0743229924 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 02 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The Longest Silence : A Life in Fishing by Thomas McGuane ISBN: 0679454853 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 26 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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