Customer Reviews

Fabre's Book of Insects

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2 star:		(1)
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It seems unfair to give this book such a low rating due to a lack of illustrations. If you have any curiosity toward insects, I highly recommend this book. While some insect books come from more of an anatomical point of view (and yes, with many illustrations), this book takes you through an intimate and fascinating account of the lives of these amazing creatures, such as: the sacred beetle, praying mantis, psyches, locusts and more. The author will open up a whole other world to you with a gentle view toward insects and with vivid and illustrative language.

Since I was a student in the late 1940s Henri Fabre has been one of my heroes. I have had his book of collected observations on the intimate lives of insects since that time. The book was so over used that it badly needed replacing,and I was very pleased to see that it is still in print. It was my pleasure, in 1983, to visit Fabre's House and property in Provence, now a small museum. The museum retains atmosphere of a private place - I and my wife were the only visitors at the time; his desk, microscope and the big black hat remain in the room where he did many of his observations; as do, in a large glass case, the very large collection of natural objects (unrelated to insects) that he amassed in the course of his long life. In a lower floor are exhibited the many letters he received from admiring scientists, including Darwin.

Warning, there is not one picture in this book save a crappy watercolored cricket on the cover. There was an earlier edition with exquisite illustrations, so I thought I'd take a chance with this one. *sound of gameshow buzzer* I'm sorry, no pictures. Anyway it is a good book, I enjoyed it. It's not a scientific description of insects and their habits, it's a regular guy's observations of and adventures with the insect world throughout his life and it's pretty interesting. It was Surrealist director Luis Bunuel's favorite book, although his copy had illustrations!!!

This book was originally written in French by my distant relative, Jean Fabre. We are so proud that he spent his entire life studying and analyzing insects the way he did. Recommended.