Curiosities of Natural History in Four Volumes: First Series

A pioneer in the strange art and ambiguous science of zoöphagy-that is of studying animals by eating them-British natural historian FRANCIS TREVELYAN BUCKLAND (1826-1880) was a wildly popular speaker and writer of the Victorian era. In his classic four-volume Curiosities of Natural History published between 1857 and 1872 he shared his love of creatures exotic and mysterious with readers who devoured his charming and erudite essays much in the same way he devoured his animal subjects. If there is one person that I would have expected to have captured a sea serpent in the 19th century for the sole purpose of eating it it would be Frank Buckland writes cryptozoologist Loren Coleman in his new introduction to Bucklands series. One of the founding grandfathers of cryptozoology the discipline that investigates animal mysteries Buckland was not a wild-eyed true believer in anything strange insists Coleman but brought instead a skeptical open-minded approach to his work. Indeed here in the first series of Curiosities of Natural History Bucklands erudition is clear in his animated discussions of among many other things the stupidity of newts French sailors eating rats skinning a boa constrictor how a fish might drown and the cunning of monkeys. This new edition a replica of the original 1858 third edition is part of Cosimos Loren Coleman Presents series. LOREN COLEMAN is author of numerous books of cryptozoology including Bigfoot!: The True Story of Apes in America and Mothman and Other Curious Encounters.