Leviathan

Or The Whale

Author: Philip Hoare

Read by: Philip Pope

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At a Glance

Format
Digital Audiobook

Duration
12:10.21

Published: 29th April 2021

Digital Audiobook

$35.99

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The story of a man's obsession with whales, which takes him on a personal, historical and biographical journey - from his childhood to his fascination with Moby-Dick and his excursions whale-watching.

All his life, Philip Hoare has been obsessed by whales, from the gigantic skeletons in London's Natural History Museum to adult encounters with the wild animals themselves. Whales have a mythical quality - they seem to elide with dark fantasies of sea-serpents and antediluvian monsters that swim in our collective unconscious.

In 'Leviathan', Philip Hoare seeks to locate and identify this obsession. What impelled Melville to write 'Moby-Dick'? After his book in 1851, no one saw whales in quite the same way again.

This book is an investigation into what we know little about - dark, shadowy creatures who swim below the depths, only to surface in a spray of spume. More than the story of the whale, it is also the story of our own obsessions.

In Leviathan, Hoare's obsession with whales takes us on a journey that is both personal and universal, making it a top pick for readers. His narrative is a best-in-class exploration of the human psyche, using his fascination with whales as a metaphor for our own obsessions.

For fans of Sean Hewitt (All Down Darkness Wide), Oliver Soden (Jeoffry), Julia Rothman (How We Got By), Robert Macfarlane (Is a River Alive?), and Dan Flores (Wild New World).