The Compleat Angler - Softcover

Walton, Izaak

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1507504152 ISBN 13: 9781507504154

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

The Compleat Angler (the spelling is sometimes modernised to The Complete Angler) is a book by Izaak Walton. It was first published in 1653 by Richard Marriot of St Dunstan-in-the-West, London. Walton continued to add to it for a quarter of a century. It is a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing in prose and verse. To all Readers of this discourse, but especially to the honest Angler. I think fit to tell thee these following truths; that I did neither undertake, nor write, nor publish, and much less own, this Discourse to please myself: and, having been too easily drawn to do all to please others, as I propose not the gaining of credit by this undertaking, so I would not willingly lose any part of that to which I had a just title before I began it; and do therefore desire and hope, if I deserve not commendations, yet I may obtain pardon. Walton was born in Stafford and moved to London when he was in his teens. The book was dedicated to John Offley of Madeley, Staffordshire, and there are references in the book to fishing in the English Midlands. However, the work begins with Londoners making a fishing trip to the Lea Valley in Hertfordshire. The first edition featured dialogue between veteran angler "Piscator" and student "Viator", while later editions change Viator to hunter Venator and added falconer Auceps. Walton drew on an earlier work. 6 verses were quoted from John Dennys's 1613 work The Secrets of Angling. There were a number of editions during the author's lifetime. There was a second edition in 1655, a third in 1661 (identical with that of 1664), a fourth in 1668, and a fifth in 1676. In this last edition, the thirteen chapters of the original had grown to twenty-one, and a second part was added by his friend and brother angler Charles Cotton, who took up Venator, where Walton had left him and completed his instruction in fly fishing and the making of flies.

About this title

Review

For a book to stay in print for nearly 350 years, its merits must continually entice and satisfy. The Compleat Angler qualifies on both counts. On the most obvious level, it remains as good a primer on fishing as any angler would want. But its most enduring distinction is hinted at in the subtitle--"the Contemplative Man's Recreation." Izaak Walton's sometimes convoluted 17th-century grammar can still reel in our imaginations with his graceful evocations of a life free from hurly-burly in the company of friends intent on physical and moral sustenance. "He that hopes to be a good Angler must not only bring an inquiring, searching, observing wit," suggests the master, "but he must bring a large measure of hope and patience.... Doubt not but Angling will prove to be so pleasant, that it will prove to be like a virtue, a reward to itself." Just like Walton's magnificent literary catch. --Jeff Silverman

From the Inside Flap

[[The first unabridged cast reading. Features original song compositions. [[The Compleat Angler has been in print for over 350 years. [[As fresh and relevant today as it was two and a half centuries ago. [[Considered to be 'must' reading for every new generation of fishermen and women.

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1507504152
• ISBN 13: 9781507504154
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 150