The Book of Hermits

A History of Hermits from Antiquity to the Present

By: Robert Rodriguez

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Paperback | 1 October 2021

At a Glance

Paperback
374 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 2.11

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RRP $33.00

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Hermits have thrived in every major historical era, geography, culture, and society - from antiquity to the present, East and West, in deserts, forests,

and mountains, depicted in art, literature, and lore.

What are their motives?

Religious, spiritual, philosophical? Ethical, aesthetic, psychological? From a love of wilderness to a desire for the anonymity of life as a "hermit in the city." From an inkling about the universe to a desire for radical simplicity. The historical hermits have reflected all of these.

As Kahlil Gibran put it, "A hermit renounces the world of fragments to enjoy the world wholly, without interruption." Hermits want, as Thoreau proposed of himself, to "live deliberately."

Within these pages, all these motives are explored, all the hermits considered: poets, sages, teachers, philosophers, the eccentric, pious, irreverent, sociable, reclusive, and wise - men and women. Hermits from India, China, Japan, and South Asia, huts, cells, and cabins, from the Middle East to Europe to the United States. The waning of hermits shifted the modern Western world to solitude. But the persistence of hermits, even today, is universal.

Industry Reviews

"Aristotle and John Donne were wrong. Some of us might be social animals, but there have always been those of us who are islands. A richer or more complete account would be hard to imagine. Everything but the floor plans."

- Bill Porter, author, Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits and Finding Them Gone: Visiting China's Poets of the Past.

"A comprehensive and authoritative survey of the hermit tradition from the ancient Greeks to contemporary exemplars of social withdrawal.

- David Vincent (emeritus professor of social history, The Open University), author, The Book of Solitude and Privacy: A Short History.

"A wonderful, sympathetic and informative book from a lifelong researcher of hermit life and lore. I loved reading it."

- Andreas Matthias (professor of philosophuy, Lingnan Univefsity, Hong Kong), author, Neural Networks Without the Math and The Simple Life: Epicurus, HJermits and the Dao; editor, Dï»aily Philosophy online magazine.

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The Book of Hermits

A History of Hermits from Antiquity to the Present

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

More in General & World History

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China's Road from Revolution to Reform

The History of the Ancient World

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The Voynich Manuscript

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An Encyclopedia of Gods & Goddesses, Heroes & Heroines, Nymphs, Spirits, Monsters, and Places

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