Leviatán o la ballena

Philip Hoare's obsession with whales began with a giant model of a blue whale he saw as a child at the Natural History Museum in London. As an adult, he has sought out whales in their natural habitat in the waters of the Atlantic. Leviathan, or The Whale, is the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to studying these titans of the deep and trying to understand the secret of their enduring fascination. Venturing into the domain of these mysterious creatures, Hoare presents them as we have never seen them before. The author explores the tumultuous relationship between humankind and whales, visits legendary whaling grounds such as New Bedford, Nantucket, and the Azores, and traces a cultural history of the whale that spans from Jonah to Free Willy and encompasses the works of writers such as Hawthorne, Thoreau, and, above all, Herman Melville and his Moby-Dick.