Tarka the Otter [Hardcover]

Henry Williamson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1960

Tarka the otter pursues an active life, sometimes playful and sometimes dangerous, in the Devonshire countryside.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Looking Glass Library; distributed by Random House (1960)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0007ELG2K
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,092,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An overlooked masterpiece, February 7, 2005

By 

Matt Hetling "Matt" (Bethel, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TARKA THE OTTER (Concord Library) (Paperback)

Most classics enjoy a broad audience, and maintain their popularity through the years because they are so fantastic. Other classics are no less fantastic, but for some reason never attained the iconic status that they deserve. This is that kind of classic, a quiet classic which is little-known, but still has that special ability to impact those who read it.

This book tells the life story of Tarka the Otter, who is born in the Devon countryside and faces the struggles that all otters must endure as they grow up, mate, and grow old. Tarka is the main character of the book, but the author refuses to anthropomorphize him, instead bringing us into an utterly realistic world of life, death, joy and loss, without pretending that otters can actually speak in anything approximating a human language.

I've read other books that purport to show us the life of an animal in this way, but none of them bear the richness of detail and the feeling of authenticity that come with this novel. The author has such an intimate understanding of the particulars of Tarka's life that we are drawn into his world with a stunning immediacy. Every feature of the land is known from the ground up; every bend in the creek is lovingly described. The way that the land and the various organisms that populate it interact creates a breathtaking tapestry of life that puts most other nature writers to shame.

The language, particularly the language used to describe the natural settings, is rich and exotic, making us appreciate the wonders of an unremarkable countryside setting in a new way. No matter how well read you are, this book will throw new words at you, and enrich your vocabulary. Turning to a random page, I see references to "a sandy rabbit-bury," the "slot of deer," an "old dismated ketch," and "the frore air." What a wealth of words, and yet the unfamiliarity doesn't prevent us from enjoying every poetic sentence.

If you like to read about animals or appreciate nature, this is a book that will speak to you more profoundly and more eloquently than Thoreau, and which will allow you to appreciate the wonders of nature even moreso than the books of Bernd Heinrich.

If you devote a little time to reading this book, you'll be rewarded out of all proportion to your investment.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent but it will make you cry., December 17, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: TARKA THE OTTER (Concord Library) (Paperback)

This is a good book but it will make you cry. I cried all the way through it. I cry when I pick the damn book up. But it's probably the best book ever written about animals' lives and it has a lot of beauty in it. Very well written

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Animal Story Ever Written., August 1, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: TARKA THE OTTER (Concord Library) (Paperback)

My mom bought me this book when I was ten I immediately thought it was going to be a good book as it had a charming front cover showing an innocent looking otter. Tarka is a sweet young otter and the book is like his life story in a way his life is like a human's . He is born ,he grows up,he loves he loses and he dies. The discription of him and his surroundings create a vivid picture in the readers mind. It really is a charming story and I would recommend this to anyone who loves animals and/or reading.