The Compleat Angler

by Izaak Walton

Overview

First published in 1653, this literary and nature classic was created by a Londoner with a passion for rustic life. As satisfying a primer on fishing as any angler could wish, it celebrates the art and spirit of fishing with verse, song and folklore, moral reflections, and timeless wisdom. Cast in the form of a dialogue between the veteran angler Piscator and his pupil Viator, it both informs and delights with an ingenious exploration of fishing's subtle intricacies and the pleasures of the natural world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849022378
Publisher:	Benediction Books
Publication date:	11/17/2008
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Izaak Walton (1593-1683) was born in Stafford. He was a biographer of the poet John Donne, and wrote lives of other notable Anglicans, including George Herbert and Richard Hooker. 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 (1630-87) was a country gentleman, poet, and translator, who built a fishing house for himself and Walton at his birthplace, Beresford Hall in Staffordshire. In 1676, at Walton's invitation, he wrote the second part to The Compleat Angler.

Marjorie Swann, editor, grew up fishing for perch and pike on St Joseph Island, Ontario. 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 (2001) and is writing a book about Walton's Angler and its post-seventeenth-century afterlives.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Note on the Text xxvi

Select Bibliography xxviii

A Chronology of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton xxxii

Maps xxxvii

The Compleat Angler, Part I Izaak Walton

The Epistle Dedicatory 3

Walton to the Reader 5

Commendatory Verses 9

Part I 17

The Compleat Angler, Part II Charles Cotton

Cotton's Epistle Dedicatory to Izaak Walton 169

Part II 171

Walton's Epistle to Cotton 223

The Retirement. Stanzes Irreguliers to Mr. Izaak Walton. 225

Explanatory Notes 231

Glossary of Angling Terms 283

Editorial Reviews

"Much more than a fishing manual, The Complete Angler succeeds through its discursive style, casting calmly and accurately over a wide range of subjects and sources...Walton's prose is always vivid and precise. He hopes that anyone who does not enjoy the books will at least like the pictures of the fish." — The Times Literary Supplement

"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."—Simon Redfern, Independent on Sunday

From the Publisher