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Almost 300 editions and reissues of The Natural History of Selborne
testify to its the lasting and universal appeal, but none before
has been so beautifully and fittingly illustrated. Gilbert White's
painstaking study of the fauna and flora of his native parish,
Selborne in Hampshire, first appeared in 1789 and has delighted and
inspired generations of readers ever since. His regular
correspondence, beginning in 1767, with two distinguished
naturalists forms the basis of The Natural History of Selborne,
which was published in the form of his letters to them. The
fascination of the book lies in the magic of its prose and the
vividness of its description, which have earned it the distinction
of being the only work on natural history to have received equal
acclaim as a masterpiece of English literature. To complement the
text, 124 colour plates have been faithfully reproduced from the
hand-coloured engravings of Gilbert White's contemporaries, giving
an invaluable extra dimension to this most captivating of books.
'I was much entertained last summer with a tame bat, which would
take flies out of a person's hand.' Gilbert White's Natural History
of Selborne (1789) reveals a world of wonders in nature. Over a
period of twenty years White describes in minute detail the
behaviour of animals through the changing seasons in the rural
Hampshire parish of Selborne. He notes everything from the habits
of an eccentric tortoise to the mysteries of bird migration and
animal reproduction, with the purpose of inspiring others to
observe their own surroundings with the same pleasure and
attention. Written as a series of letters, White's book has all the
immediacy of an exchange with friends, yet it is crafted with
compelling literary skill. His gossipy correspondence has delighted
readers from Charles Darwin to Virginia Woolf, and it has been read
as a nostalgic evocation of a pastoral vision, a model for local
studies of plants and animals, and a precursor to modern ecology.
This new edition includes contemporary illustrations, a
contextualizing introduction, and an appendix of literary responses
to the book. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's
Classics has made available the widest range of literature from
around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's
commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a
wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions
by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text,
up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
The naturalist Gilbert White (1720-93) was known for his meticulous
observations of flora and fauna in their natural environment,
primarily around his village of Selborne in Hampshire. This
posthumous 1795 publication, edited by the physician and writer
John Aikin (1747-1822), comprises a collection of extracts from
White's previously unpublished papers from 1768 to his death.
Presented here for 'lovers of natural knowledge' is a full year of
White's observations. Following the month-by-month record of
natural events, the book contains brief studies of birds,
quadrupeds, insects, plants and the weather. A lifelong lover of
the outdoors, White had kept a near daily record of his activities
for more than forty years. Regarded as one of the fathers of
ecology, inspiring others to appreciate the natural world, White is
best known for The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne
(1789), which is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.
Gilbert White (1720 1793) published his Natural History and
Antiquities as one volume in 1789. Both works consist of a series
of letters written by White to the barrister Daines Barrington
(1727 1800) and the zoologist Thomas Pennant (1726 1798). The
letters in Natural History, White's best-known work, contain
detailed information about his observations of local flora, fauna
and wildlife. White was a pioneer of the study of birds and animals
in their natural habitats, rather than as specimens removed from
their environments. His methods of observation enabled him to
identify and record many previously unknown species. (He was the
first, for example, to distinguish the chiffchaff from the warbler
by differences in song.) The letters in Antiquities are concerned
with the topographical, social and ancient history of Selborne.
They include details of important Roman coin finds and are an
indispensable source for the history of local churches and
buildings.
A century before Charles Darwin, decades before the French
Revolution, Gilbert White began his lifelong habit of measuring and
observing the world around his Hampshire home. Daily rainfall
levels and temperature shifts were recorded with home-made
instruments. Bird song and seasonal migrations were noted. The
feeding habits of frogs, bats and mice were jotted into his diaries
and nature journals, as were the simple delights he felt hearing a
cricket in the meadow or a blackbird in the hedgerows. The
extraordinary detail of the natural history he described has given
us, two hundred years later, a glimpse into ecosystems untouched by
industry and an account of how changes in global climate can affect
local weather patterns. Gilbert White is now considered England's
first ecologist. The Natural History of Selborne is one the most
published books in the English language. Yet the most enduring
quality of his writing is the spirit of curiosity that bounds
across every page, inspiring us to explore the abundance of life at
our doorsteps and around our parishes.
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