Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

More than any other writer Gilbert White (1720-93) has shaped the relationship between man and nature. A hundred years before Darwin, White realised the crucial role of worms in the formation of soil and understood the significance of territory and song in birds. His precise, scrupulously honest and unaffectedly witty observations led him to interpret animals' behaviour in a unique manner. This collection of his letters to the explorer and naturalist Daines Barrington and the eminent zoologist Thomas Pennant - White's intellectual lifelines from his country-village home - are a beautifully written, detailed evocation of the lives of the flora and fauna of eighteenth-century England.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Narrator Peter Wickham delivers a companionable reading of clergyman and naturalist White's seminal work, first published in 1789 and considered the earliest study of natural history in English. This immensely popular work has seen over 300 editions and has been continuously in print since its initial publication; it counts luminaries like Virginia Woolf and Charles Darwin among its fans. The book is a collection of letters to White's friends and fellow naturalists, Thomas Pennant and the lawyer Daines Barrington. Wickham adopts a jovial, delighted tone as he conveys White's musings on a range of topics, from the mating habits of toads to the tail feathers of peacocks to the pastoral wonders of Gilbert's beloved Hampshire parish of Selborne. Though Gilbert presents a sometimes overwhelming amount of detail, listeners will be charmed by his good humor, unending curiosity, and willingness to entertain differing opinions and hypotheses. Gilbert's elegant observations, such as his comments on the language of birds ("Little is said, but much is meant and understood"), will stick with listeners long after the audio concludes. VERDICT An absorbing and lively account of the natural world.--Sarah Hashimoto

CHOICE Review

This work reproduces Gilbert White's 18th-century classic in natural history. White (1720-93), an Oxford-educated clergyman in Selborne (in the county of Hampshire), depicted the natural history of his own Selborne parish in the form of a series of letters addressed to contemporary naturalists Thomas Pennant and Daines Barrington; he presented "anecdotes of animal behaviour," integral for a work in natural history. Secord (research scholar, Univ. of Cambridge) supervised the revision of the text without alterations, and added a useful introduction, a bibliography of selected works, and a chronology of White's life. She explains that White's failure to obtain an academic position made him remain in Selborne where he "intensified his interest in natural history." White not only produced a remarkable work of natural history, but also instructed readers how to observe, an ability shared by several naturalists, including Charles Darwin, who was also an acute observer. (This is possibly why Darwin was an enthusiastic reader of this work.) The volume contains black-and-white illustrations, reproduced from engravings first published in Thomas Pennant's British Zoology (1776) that are not always found in earlier republications of White's work. This delightful book is ideal for naturalists and historians. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic, professional, and general libraries. J. S. Schwartz emeritus, CUNY College of Staten Island

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Edited with an introduction by Richard Mabey