The book marked the beginning of nature writing as we know it. White instead focused on careful and often affectionate observation of natural detail, placed carefully in the setting of an English village. Published in 1789, Selborne arrived as the rational focus on a well-ordered universe was beginning to clash with Romanticism’s view of nature as wild and alternately terrifying and inspiring. This new edition, with a new foreword but the same opening quotation, brings back to print the man whose single volume, The Natural History of Selborne, helped revise the public view of nature. It offers a nice glimpse into White’s ability to observe and understand nature. With this quotation from a letter by Gilbert White, Richard Mabey opened this biography when it was first published in 1986. “The language of birds is very ancient, and, like other ancient modes of speech, very elliptical: little is said, but much is meant and understood.” Reviewed by: Priscilla Grundy on June 23, 2022 Book Review Gilbert White by Richard Mabey, 2021
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