There were ten more editions in the 18th century, and the book was reprinted astonishing times in the 19th. Ask any other question about the book, however, and you may be met with a blank stare. The fly-fishing content in the first editions was provided by Thomas Barker, whose Art of Angling had appeared in Who Were These Guys?
He opened a shop of his own and was apparently successful in business, which allowed him to pursue his interests in fishing and literature. In , he returned to Staffordshire, where he lived the country life so vividly portrayed in his book.
He moved to Hampshire, which provided him the opportunity to fish the famed chalk streams of the region, and he spent the last forty years of his life writing, fishing, and visiting friends, living to the then-remarkable age of ninety. Aside from The Compleat Angler , he wrote several well regarded biographies of poets of his day, such as John Donne and George Herbert.
Young Cotton was well-educated and -traveled, and he inherited an estate when he was twenty-eight, which allowed him to devote his life to the country arts and literature, like Walton. This new edition highlights The Compleat Angler 's continuing relevance as an influential and provocative meditation on humanity's relationship to the environment.
Izaak Walton was born in Stafford. He was a Royalist, and during the Civil War participated in a royalist conspiracy after the battle of Worcester. In The Compleat Angler he expressed his political and religious allegiances while exploring humanity's relationship to the natural world. He is buried in Winchester Cathedral, where he is commemorated by a stained-glass window in the Fishermen's Chapel.
Charles Cotton was a country gentleman, poet, and translator, who built a fishing house for himself and Walton at his birthplace, Beresford Hall in Staffordshire. In , at Walton's invitation, he wrote the second part to The Compleat Angler. She subsequently earned degrees at Queen's University and Oxford. She is the author of Curiosities and Texts: The Culture of Collecting in Early Modern England and is writing a book about Walton's Angler and its post-seventeenth-century afterlives.
It would have been my loss. Walton shows that English of the time is much more intelligible to modern readers than the Bard's plays suggest [ Yet it's the most frequently reprinted book in the English language after the Bible, so it obviously still has an audience.
The question is: why bother? First published in , its archaic language and discursive structure are a challenge for the modern reader, though the comprehensive explanatory notes in this attracti new edition, small enough to slip into a fishing-jacket pocket, guide us smoothly enough along the path.
Yet its blend of charm and expert tuition more than repays the effort required. Walton loved his fishing — "God did never make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling" — and enjoyed teaching beginners how to lure fish on to their angles hooks , and then how to prepare and cook them no catch-and-release nonsense for him. For perch, "a bold biting fish", a "worm, minnow or little frog" as bait were recommended, while his recipe for pike includes stuffing it with pickled oysters, anchovies, oranges and garlic, then basting it with claret and butter.
Walton regarded angling as ideally a communal endeavour, and many scenes are positively pastoral as he and his companions encounter singing milkmaids and welcoming hostelries as they wander the river-banks. But what raises The Compleat Angler far above a mere manual or series of jolly outings is Walton's profound understanding of natural history and the particular ecosystems fundamental to angling.
In his awareness of the environment, he was centuries ahead of his time. One to dip into rather than devour at one sitting, this book is infused throughout with good fun and good sense.
Yes No Close. We're still open for business - read our EU and Covid statements. Prothero Michael J. Nick Redgrove explains in an article for Standpoint :. The majority of the book is comprised of a dialogue between Piscator, the fisherman, and Venator, the hunter, in which the former attempts to persuade the latter of the practical and spiritual merits of angling.
The conversation takes place over several days on a fishing trip in the Lea Valley, during which they journey from Tottenham to Ware in Hertfordshire. The former tradesman -turned-author spent years working on later editions of the book, which captured a view of nature from the perspective of his tumultuous lifetime.
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