The Compleat Angler: Classics in Fishing Series

By Izaak Walton, Richard Le Gallienne, Charles Cotton

Book Overview

The Compleat Angler, Izaak Walton's fishing classic, is a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing. Through prose, verse, song, and folklore, Walton inspires readers to go into nature - to go to its meandering streams and rivers - and fish. Walton teaches us about a life filled with harmony between nature, man, and God; and a life spent in the company of friends and free from the hustle of the city.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1940777003
• ISBN13: 9781940777009
• Release Date: September 2013
• Publisher: J. Missouri
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Early structure fishing

A great early example of man's interest in fishing. A look into a window of the past to answer the question for modern anglers, how did we get here!

Anciet fish for modern anglers

This is surely one of the earliest books available to the modern angler. But it's worth distinguishing 'anglers' from 'fishermen'. I take 'anglers' to be people who go after fish for fun or sport or pleasure and 'fishermen' to be people who go after fish for work. The first thing to be said about Izaak Walton's book, is that it is a play followed by a text book. The second thing, is that it's in a foreign language even to the English, because it was first published in 1653 when the author was 60. A ripe old age in England in those days. Walton was essentially a biographer. He got paid for it - often commissioned as a good artist might. He wrote 'The Life of Donne' - a poet who even I've heard of. He's alleged to have been a prosperous merchant, but it doesn't really matter. Great angling writers like Richard Walker were engineers. Old school writers like George Skues, were public school educated solicitors in London practices who took the train to the chalk streams of Winchester in Hampshire at weekends, tying flies as they went. The play concerns three people who meet by chance and get into conversation about their interests. They're travelling at a walk, and so they lighten their journey with convoluted conversation. Before long, it develops into a bit of a competition. Walton is the angler (Piscator). Another gentleman is keen on falconry (Venator) and yet another is keen on hunting (Auceps). If you tire of 17th century banter, skip forward to the chapters on each particular species of fish, which will ring true immediately. To me it's a revelation that these friendly old fish will still fall for the same tricks as Walton was playing on their ancestors over 350 years ago.

A lovely book

A lovely ramble with a fascinating old gentleman, quaint, charming, sunny and a true picture of one aspect of a bygone age and of the way our great-great grandfathers talked and lived. The fishing lore and natural history are hopelessly out of date but who cares? Has been in print for centuries and deservedly so.