Insect Lives: Stories of Mystery and Romance from a Hidden World
Insect Lives: Tales of Mystery and Romance from a Hidden World Books
Product Description
Insects inhabit an often unexamined microcosmos, pursuing lives that are often weird beyond our wildest imaginings. From the dawn of humanity, our six-legged fellow Earthlings have repelled and enthralled us. Humans have exterminated, eaten, domesticated, and even excommunicated insects. We collect them, we curse them, and we have penned a surprising body of literature about them.
Insect Lives: Tales of Mystery and Romance from a Hidden World offers an entertaining and informative survey of the human fascination, dreadful and otherwise, with insects diabolical and divine, from accounts in the Bible and Aristotle to the writings of Charles Darwin and the fantastic nineteenth-century naturalists sending home accounts from the rain forest. Highlighted here are observations from E. O. Wilson, Jean-Henri Fabré, David Quammen, May Berenbaum, Roger Swain, William Wordsworth, A. S. Byatt, Gary Larson and more than sixty other writers who tell of the mystery and romance of that other, hidden world beneath our feet and beyond our rolled-up newspapers.
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This is such a diverse book – each entry is pretty small so you can pick up the book for a small read. There are some humorous parts, some dense parts, lots of fascinating facts. Each entry has a small intro by the author to give some context to who the novelist of the piece was and sometimes a bit of background on the essay itself. There are some clean drawings too (grasshoppers through metamorphosis, moth ears, a walking stab to name a few) There’s lots of variety in terms of subjects covered ranging from butterflies to bees to aphids to earwigs to ants, wasps and more. Defiintely a excellent book for anyone interested in insects and it would make an especially nice gift since the content is so unusual.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book is a collection of small pieces about every conceivable type of insect. A few are complete essays, but most are excerpts from longer works. At least one is a one-panel Gary Larson cartoon!
Most of the selections are entertaining, or at least fascinating. Many are minutes of direct observation by naturalists in the 19th or early 20th Centuries. Ordinarily they have some distinguishing feature such as freakish behavior, first observation, or an exceptionally fascinating experiment included.
This is not a scientific book on insects–Although many of the authors are scientists, the excerpts don’t fit together to make a textbook or organized survey of insects. What it is is very fascinating and entertaining–A excellent bathroom or bedside book for the insect-lover. Certainly do not choose it as your first or only book in trying to learn about insects, but it makes a excellent addition to the insect library of an enthusiast.
Rating: 4 / 5
If you’re interested in insects, this book is for you. An brilliant collection of a a large quantity of writings and other materials, all about insects. Excellent bedside reading, as each excerpt is relatively small.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a perfectly and cunningly edited eclectic collection of tales, articles, poems, scientific treatises, and even cartoons about insects. There are quaint tales from the eighteenth century, studious articles from the nineteenth, and modern selections from such twentieth century experts as Edward O. Wilson, Roger B. Swain. Karl von Frisch, May Berenbaum, Harold Oldroyd and others. Charles Darwin is represented, Aristotle, Alfred Russel Wallace, Thoreau, even the Bible makes an appearance. There are selections from a novella, A.S. Byatt’s “Morpho Eugenia”; poems, Wordsworth’s “To a Butterfly,” Robert Burns’s “To a Louse”; and even a bit of a movie, THEM! (1954). Observably, editors, Hoyt and Schultz are as intent at entertaining as informing. You’ll find dozens of different insects here, from house flies and ants to dung beetles and glow-worms to ticks, wasps, silverfish, etc. Each selection is presented with a small note from the editors and followed by a bibliographical entry. There is an index of authors and one of subjects. The selections are collected below various heading, e.g., “Insects Praised,” “Insects Reviled,” “Insect Architecture,” etc. The sheer breath of insect behavior presented here is unnerving: How multifarious are the realities of life! Noteworthy is the meticulous care taken with the editing and proofreading. This is a excellent and weird read.
Rating: 5 / 5