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The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre Paperback – April 30, 1991 by Jean-Henri Fabre (Author), & 3 more

The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre Paperback – April 30, 1991 by Jean-Henri Fabre (Author), & 3 more

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Jean Henri Fabre, nineteenth-century French entomologist and author of the massive Souvenirs Entomoligies, has inspired perhaps more modern writer/naturalists than any other chronicler of the natural world. Edwin Way Teale's selection of the most compelling of Fabre's writing makes The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre the essential edition of the writer Darwin called "the incomparable observer."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Out of print for 20 years, this splendid collection of 40 excerpts from Fabre's works will enchant a whole new generation of readers. De Mattos's fine translations convey the freshness of the 19th-century entomologist's lyrical writings, fully in keeping with his intention of capturing the interest of young people, "to make them love the natural history which you scientists make them hate." And it is easy to be drawn into Fabre's fascination with insects even when he is only watching them pilfer bits of a decomposing mole or observing caterpillars traipse endlessly and unprofitably in a circle--behavior that moves him to bemoan "the abysmal stupidity of insects as a class." Elsewhere he ambushes red Amazon ants to determine how they follow paths they have previously marked, and he fires a mortar to see if the noise disrupts the cicadas' summer song. He also describes the courtship of a pair of scorpions as they wander, hands clasped, exchanging "ogling glances" in an evening idyll that concludes with the bride devouring her mate. Natural Science Book Club selection; first serial to Harper's.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The writings of Fabere are classic because they compose an accurate natural history of creatures all around us, written in a vivid personal style that will never grow old or tired." —E.O. Wilson

"This is beautiful, knowledgeable prose." —Annie Dillard, from On Nature

"Fabre could write about his discoveries simply and beautifully so that even people who did not understand anything about entomology could appreciate them." —Gerald Durrell

"What makes Fabre interesting as a writer is his unabashed emotional involvement in the behavior of his subjects. He is no cold, aloof observer, but a man who is at once fascinated and repelled by the gap between human values and reason and the blind, amoral strategies or instinct. His descriptions of how insects conduct their lives read at once as factual natural history and moral parables—but parables modern in their recognition that there are no parallels for human ethics in nature." —Robert Finch and John Elder, from The Norton Book of Nature Writing

About the Author

Jean Henri Fabre, nineteenth-century French entomologist and author of the massive Souvenirs Entomoligies, has inspired perhaps more modern writer/naturalists than any other chronicler of the natural world.
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Beacon Press; Fir edition (April 30, 1991)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 356 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0807085138
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0807085134
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.89 x 8.5 inches
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