Go to Hachette Book Group home

Search

Site Preferences

Show prices in:

Promotion

Use code CYBER2024 for 30% off sitewide + free shipping over $30

By clicking “Accept,” you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies on your device as set forth in our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy. Please note that certain cookies are essential for this website to function properly and do not require user consent to be deployed.

An Obsession With Butterflies

Our Long Love Affair With A Singular Insect

An Obsession With Butterflies Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Sharman Apt Russell

Formats and Prices

Price

$19.99

Price

$25.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Trade Paperback $19.99 $25.99 CAD
  2. ebook $10.99 $13.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around April 28, 2004. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Also available from:

Sharman Apt Russell again blends her lush voice and keen scientific eye in this marvelous book about butterflies. From Hindu mythology to Aztec sacrifices, butterflies have served as a metaphor for resurrection and transformation. Even during World War II, children in a Polish death camp scratched hundreds of butterflies onto the walls of their barracks. But as Russell points out in this rich and lyrical meditation, butterflies are above all objects of obsession. From the beastly horned caterpillar, whose blood helps it count time, to the peacock butterfly, with wings that hiss like a snake, Russell traces the butterflies through their life cycles, exploring the creatures’ own obsessions with eating, mating, and migrating. In this way, she reveals the logic behind our endless fascination with butterflies as well as the driving passion of such legendary collectors as the tragic Eleanor Glanville, whose children declared her mad because of her compulsive butterfly collecting, and the brilliant Henry Walter Bates, whose collections from the Amazon in 1858 helped develop his theory of mimicry in nature. Russell also takes us inside some of the world’s most prestigious natural history museums, where scientists painstakingly catalogue and categorize new species of Lepidoptera, hoping to shed light on insect genetics and evolution. A luminous journey through an exotic world of obsession and strange beauty, this is a book to be treasured by anyone who’s ever watched a butterfly mid-flight and thought, as Russell has, “I’ve entered another dimension.”

Genre:

On Sale
Apr 28, 2004
Page Count
256 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780465071609

You May Also Like

The Insect Epiphany
The Insect Epiphany $35.00 $45.00 CAD
Bugs In The System
Bugs In The System $21.99 $28.99 CAD
The Social Lives of Animals
The Social Lives of Animals $30.00 $38.00 CAD
The Animals Among Us
The Animals Among Us $28.00 $36.50 CAD
The Trainable Cat
The Trainable Cat $19.99 $25.99 CAD

Sharman Apt Russell

About the Author

Sharman Apt Russell is the author of several books, including Hunger and Songs of the Fluteplayer, which won the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award. She has written for publications including Discover and Nature Conservancy, and currently contributes to OnEarth, the magazine for the National Resource Defense Council. Russell teaches creative writing at Western New Mexico University and at Antioch University in Los Angeles, California. She lives in Silver City, New Mexico.

Learn more about this author