Natural History

Sep 22, 2024 7:41 AM

Author:Pliny the Elder,John Healey,John Healey

Natural History

Pliny's Natural History is an astonishingly ambitious work that ranges from astronomy to art and from geography to zoology. Mingling acute observation with often wild speculation, it offers a fascinating view of the world as it was understood in the first century AD, whether describing the danger of diving for sponges, the first water-clock, or the use of asses' milk to remove wrinkles. Pliny himself died while investigating the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii in AD 79, and the natural curiosity that brought about his death is also very much evident in the Natural History - a book that proved highly influential right up until the Renaissance and that his nephew, Pliny the younger, described 'as full of variety as nature itself'.

Reviews

A passionate defence of the enduring power of human nature ... both life-affirming and deeply satisfying

—— Tim Lott , Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

Brilliant ... enjoyable, informative, clear, humane

—— New Scientist

If you think the nature-nurture debate has been resolved, you are wrong ... this book is required reading

—— Literary Review

An original and vital contribution to science and also a rattling good read

—— Matt Ridley , Sunday Telegraph

A marvellous book... This second part of the life stands on its own. Soothing, unhurried and absorbing

—— Jane Ridley , Spectator

A fitting tribute to his career, as it combines, in both style and substance, the different themes of his life's work. Blending genuine literary talents with impeccable scientific credentials, Gould crafts an elegant entreaty for scientists and scholars to spend less time complaining about each other and more time combining their considerable resources. We need both the fox and the hedgehog in any intellectual menagerie - the persistent pluralist

—— Alan C. Hutchinson , Globe and Mail

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