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The Illustrated Insectopedia
Hugh Raffles
Random House Inc
April 2010
On Sale: March 23, 2010
496 pages
ISBN: 0375423869
EAN: 9780375423864
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A stunningly original exploration of the ties that
bind us to the beautiful, ancient, astoundingly
accomplished, largely unknown, and unfathomably different
species with whom we share the world.
For as
long as humans have existed, insects have existed, too.
Wherever we’ve traveled, they’ve traveled, too. Yet we
hardly know them, not even the ones we’re closest to: those
that eat our food, share our beds, and live in our homes.
Organizing his book alphabetically with one
entry for each letter, weaving together brief vignettes,
meditations, and extended essays, Hugh Raffles embarks on a
mesmerizing exploration of history and science, anthropology
and travel, economics, philosophy, and popular culture to
show us how insects have triggered our obsessions, stirred
our passions, and beguiled our imaginations.
Raffles offers us a glimpse into the
high-stakes world of Chinese cricket fighting, the deceptive
courtship rites of the dance fly, the intriguing
possibilities of queer insect sex, the vital and vicious
role locusts play in the famines of west Africa, how beetles
deformed by Chernobyl inspired art, and how our desire and
disgust for insects has prompted our own aberrant behavior.
Deftly fusing the literary and the scientific,
Hugh Raffles has given us an essential book of reference
that is also a fascination of the highest order.
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