The Kindle title is not currently available for purchase
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Follow the author

Philip Hoare
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Leviathan Kindle Edition

by Philip Hoare (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 139 ratings
See all formats and editions

This edition does not include illustrations.

The story of a man’s obsession with whales, which takes him on a personal, historical and biographical journey – from his childhood to his fascination with Moby-Dick and his excursions whale-watching.

All his life, Philip Hoare has been obsessed by whales, from the gigantic skeletons in London’s Natural History Museum to adult encounters with the wild animals themselves. Whales have a mythical quality – they seem to elide with dark fantasies of sea-serpents and antediluvian monsters that swim in our collective unconscious.

In ‘Leviathan’, Philip Hoare seeks to locate and identify this obsession. What impelled Melville to write ‘Moby-Dick’? After his book in 1851, no one saw whales in quite the same way again.

This book is an investigation into what we know little about – dark, shadowy creatures who swim below the depths, only to surface in a spray of spume. More than the story of the whale, it is also the story of our own obsessions.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    468 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Fourth Estate
  5. Publication date
    August 6, 2009
  6. File size
    1091 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next page
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002UZ5JA4
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fourth Estate (August 6, 2009)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 6, 2009
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1091 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 468 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0007230141
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 139 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Philip Hoare

Philip Hoare

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Philip Hoare is the author of several books, including 'Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant'; 'Noel Coward: A Biography'; 'Oscar Wilde's Last Stand'; 'Spike Island' and 'England's Lost Eden'. He lives in Hoxton, London, and Southampton, and each summer visits Cape Cod, where, as a member of the Center for Coastal Studies, he undertakes twice-daily expeditions to watch its whales.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
139 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

GRETA G.
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2021
Verified Purchase
This is a good book, especially for Moby Dick fans as I am. But even more I am a fan of these incredible creatures which, among others, have been so blighted by us. A heartbreaking read in parts.
Helpful
 Report
bloomsday
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful after Moby Dick
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2012
Verified Purchase
Read Moby Dick first. Take your time. Someone said it was essentially a blog and that may be right. Dream about it.

Leviathon is not a take on Moby Dick, but it does provide some great echos and amplifications. Buy it. It's crucial.

But first.. buy Moby Dick in two versions: the Rockwell Kent / Random House hardbound and any paperback, especially if it lacks illustrations because Rockwell Kent's images are the ones you want to envision while you abuse the paperback. Treasure and carefully preserve the Rockewell Kent version for your grandkid's generation..your kid's generation is lost to tech.
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Nez
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book. Great seller.
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2016
Verified Purchase
A little worn, (nothing major), but seller disclosed it. Very pleased with the experience.
Helpful
 Report
jdfield
5.0 out of 5 stars Whales are Amazing. Fact.
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2011
So, I have to preface this with the information that ever since I can remember I've been obsessed with the natural world. Recently my focus has been whales. I based an entire holiday around it. Given all of this, I was predisposed to love Leviathan. If you have any kind of magpie mind you'll find something to spark your interest here. It's crammed with astonishing facts about beasts that are already fascinating. There is great harshness, too. The narrative is structured around the history of man's interaction with whales, and it hasn't been nice...
My problem with this book is also it's greatest strength. The magnificence and otherworldliness of whales is astonishingly hard to line into words, but Hoare manages this. One phrase of his describing a humpback as a 'barnacled angel' I thought really lovely.
But he goes too far, and is too personal. Often its frustrating and intrusive and I felt the urge to snap at him to back out of the story. He's less interesting than the whales, unsuprisingly, but doesn't seem aware of this.
And the photos are grainy and black and white. A bit of colour and gloss would have been nice.
Still, though, Leviathan gets 5 stars, because I'm unashamedly biased. And I think everybody should read it. Everybody in the world needs to know more about these largest inhabitants of the world ever, and how mysterious their comings and goings are in the entirely unknown and secret depths and wastes of the ocean. Because they're amazing, and it's time we started being a bit nicer to them...
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
alphaboy
5.0 out of 5 stars Moby Dick Lovers rejoice
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2010
You don't have to be obsessed with Moby Dick to love this book, but it doesn't hurt. Hoare's extraordinary, complex, respectful, fearful, loving relationship with the largest mammals on the planet takes him back to the history of whaling, to a time when entire cities were lit by whale oil; to places far below the surface of the ocean, where giant whales battle with three hundred foot squid. It's a magical journey, heartbreaking in terms of man's exploitation of these beautiful creatures. Doubt it will sell well in Japan.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Carolyn Dain
1.0 out of 5 stars Everything you always wanted to know....
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2014
Verified Purchase
Excellent... Nice combination of detail and colorful writine...
Helpful
 Report
Xpectro
1.0 out of 5 stars No illustrations
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2012
How sad. This edition doesn't have any of the wonderful illustrations that the printed version has. What a huge loss...

Where are them?
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
John Wood
5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely interesting book on whales
Reviewed in Canada on August 16, 2020
Verified Purchase
The author leads the reader on a detailed, exciting, interesting and thoughtful journey through the domain of the whales from earliest times to modern day. Plenty of quotations and historical context, thought-provoking and sometimes saddening tale about how little humans really know about whales. Long read, and worth every minute.
Report
Neerav Srivastava
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and profound
Reviewed in Australia on February 11, 2021
Verified Purchase
And deeply moving. Mr Hoare embraces the mystery of whales. The unknown is a thing of beauty. So too is the compassion of sperm whales. There were times when I was so ashamed of our cruelty to whales that I felt like throwing the book to the ground.
Report
silvia
5.0 out of 5 stars Arrivato subito
Reviewed in Italy on January 12, 2016
Verified Purchase
Spedizione amazon prime puntuale come sempre , libro arrivato in 2 giorni lavorativi. Condizioni perfette, non l'ho ancora letto ma provvedero' a breve. La mia edizione ha anche i disegni e le foto.
Report
Ian Richardson
5.0 out of 5 stars A Whale of a Book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 2, 2010
Verified Purchase
Philip Hoare's wonderful book is a meandering meditation on the great cetaceans and on mankind's troubled relationship with these extraordinary creatures. It rambles through history, philosophy and biology with a marvellous lack of apparent structure; being a big baggy animal with unexpected corners at every turn of the page. (Very suitable, given its subject). There is a long and fascinating section on the genesis of Melville's "Moby Dick" and intimate portraits of the major characters and whaling centres of North America and Europe. A chilling survey of the carnage wreaked on the great Rorquals during the latter phase of the 20th Century is balanced by a moving account of Hoare's own personal encounters with whales.
Such was my enthusiasm for the book and my wish to pass on copies to friends that what I needed (I thought) was another copy in which the ropey pictures of the paperback edition are replaced with something much better. Of course, I thought to myself, these will surely be found in the original hardback edition? Wrong.

So, in short, although you should indeed get a copy of this marvellous book; you will be perfectly happy with the paperback. The latter is, in every respect - right down to the pagination and poorly reproduced photographs, identical to the hardback. So you do NOT need to shell out your hard-earned sponduliks for this one.

On the other hand, my misplaced assumptions are hardly the fault of Braydon Books, who supplied exactly what I had ordered with exemplary alacrity and decent (if flimsy) packaging.
5 people found this helpful
 Report
Jonathan S.
4.0 out of 5 stars A sad, but engaging history of man and whale
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 15, 2009
Verified Purchase
This book, starts with the history of whaling and the book Moby Dick, which introduced whales to literature. The author deals with the slowly changing interaction between whale and man. Conservation of whales only started because it was obvious that the number of whales was declining quickly thanks to over fishing and more efficient ways of harpooning. Be prepared for some rather gory details as Hoare does not spare the reader the bloody details of whaling or its crueller aspects, such as a whale pup bleating next to its freshly butchered mother. The author covers the period from the eighteenth century to the mid twentieth, when whaling as an industry started to falter, because of declining numbers
The black and white photographs of which there are many, are rather poor and indeed anachronistic.
The book looks more to the past, than the present. Hoare does capture some of the joys of whale watching, but here especially, the lack of colour photos does the well researched and well written book a disservice. There is a bit of speculation on the intelligence of the whales (sperm whales have the largest brains of any species on this planet), but not enough.
4 people found this helpful
 Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report