Scan barcode
waynediane's review against another edition
4.0
Period piece takes place in the 30's or 40's in England I believe. He is a School Tutor/Teacher of an all boys school- he seems conflicted here with relationships with the young lads. He intimates but does not come out. Never has any serious relationships other than rudimentary training in Falconry and Hawks. Fails quite a bit, but is honest about it. You might say this book pairs well with H is for Hawk.
melissa_who_reads's review
4.0
Listened to the audio book in the car. It was quite nice: Simon Vance was the narrator, and he has a very good voice for reading T.H. White. It was also soothing, which was nice when driving through snowstorms. It was fascinating to a certain extent, although about mid-book I thought "I am NEVER training a hawk of any kind." Good to cross that off the list. He starts by using three old manuals - and by old, I mean the most recent was published in 1619. By the end he has realized that the practice of training birds has developed over the centuries - it's an ongoing, living practice, continuing to build new understanding. White's beautiful writing overcomes one's misgivings about the subject matter (how interested am I in this pre-World War II attempt to train a goshawk?). Enjoyable, but won't need to read it again.
ampersunder's review
3.5
“To divest oneself of unnecessary possessions, and mainly of other people: that was the business of life.
“One had to find out what things were not necessary, what things one really needed. A little music and liquor, still less food, a warm and beautiful but not too big roof of one's own, a channel for one's creative energies and love, the sun and the moon. These were enough, and contact with Gos in his ultimately un-defiled separation was better than the endless mean conflict between male and female or the lust for power in adolescent battle which led men into business and Rolls-Royce motor cars and war.”
“Walking home tired in the Sunday dusk, it became obvious that it had been a good day. While one was in the act of being busy with these small creations, the mind travelled lucidly about its humble errands, gently skirting and mantling round the little problems of ash or hazel. Pre-occupied with simple, tangible constructions, looking before and after, the Biscay of the brain was stilled to a sweet calm: and in this calm vague thoughts created themselves unconsciously - sudden, unrelated discoveries.“
“Walking home tired in the Sunday dusk, it became obvious that it had been a good day. While one was in the act of being busy with these small creations, the mind travelled lucidly about its humble errands, gently skirting and mantling round the little problems of ash or hazel. Pre-occupied with simple, tangible constructions, looking before and after, the Biscay of the brain was stilled to a sweet calm: and in this calm vague thoughts created themselves unconsciously - sudden, unrelated discoveries.“
hagbard_celine's review
3.0
Read "H is for Hawk" a few months ago, and finally remembered that I'd been meaning to read this ever since. Listened to the audiobook while packing up my apartment. Lovely narration.
"H is for Hawk" prepared me for a diary of bad falconry and near-abusive ineptitude, which I suppose is present. Not being a hobbyist or expert, I still sympathized with White more often than I found myself thinking "idiot!"
It's been about a year since I last read "The Once and Future King," and the language of "Goshawk" transported me back there almost immediately. Especially at the end, with the bit about the badgers and the pigs eating his dog's food and his shack overflowing with English wildlife, there are strong associations with the England that Wart knew as a child (and learned from Merlin). It's impossible not to see White's Arthurian legend while reading/listening to this book.
More than anything, it makes me want to read "Once and Future King" again.
"H is for Hawk" prepared me for a diary of bad falconry and near-abusive ineptitude, which I suppose is present. Not being a hobbyist or expert, I still sympathized with White more often than I found myself thinking "idiot!"
It's been about a year since I last read "The Once and Future King," and the language of "Goshawk" transported me back there almost immediately. Especially at the end, with the bit about the badgers and the pigs eating his dog's food and his shack overflowing with English wildlife, there are strong associations with the England that Wart knew as a child (and learned from Merlin). It's impossible not to see White's Arthurian legend while reading/listening to this book.
More than anything, it makes me want to read "Once and Future King" again.
pino_sabatelli's review against another edition
2.0
Chiunque può dedicare il proprio tempo a una passione, per quanto stramba ed eccentrica. Se però questo qualcuno decide di trasformare la propria passione in un’opera letteraria, esce dalla sfera della insindacabilità dei comportamenti individuali e si sottopone al giudizio del lettore.
Scritto nel 1937 e pubblicato nel 1951, questa via di mezzo fra un diario e un trattato di falconeria, si caratterizza per uno stile rigido e pomposo, ulteriormente appesantito da ripetute divagazioni piuttosto fini a se stesse. Più che la sua ripetitività, tuttavia, a renderlo particolarmente noioso è la sua assoluta mancanza di leggerezza, di ironia e, soprattutto, di un movente psicologico che giustifichi agli occhi del lettore la decisione di addestrare un astore. Diventa pertanto difficile giudicare quest’opera come qualcosa di più della cronaca stucchevole del rapporto fra un uomo e un incolpevole volatile, in cui quest'ultimo risulta alla fine molto più simpatico del primo, costretto com’è a subire ,senza alcun valido motivo (ammesso che ve ne possa mai essere uno), la crudeltà arbitraria di una scelta incomprensibile a noi prima che a lui.
Scritto nel 1937 e pubblicato nel 1951, questa via di mezzo fra un diario e un trattato di falconeria, si caratterizza per uno stile rigido e pomposo, ulteriormente appesantito da ripetute divagazioni piuttosto fini a se stesse. Più che la sua ripetitività, tuttavia, a renderlo particolarmente noioso è la sua assoluta mancanza di leggerezza, di ironia e, soprattutto, di un movente psicologico che giustifichi agli occhi del lettore la decisione di addestrare un astore. Diventa pertanto difficile giudicare quest’opera come qualcosa di più della cronaca stucchevole del rapporto fra un uomo e un incolpevole volatile, in cui quest'ultimo risulta alla fine molto più simpatico del primo, costretto com’è a subire ,senza alcun valido motivo (ammesso che ve ne possa mai essere uno), la crudeltà arbitraria di una scelta incomprensibile a noi prima che a lui.
barschuft's review
4.0
Wild story, if you like hearing about a man being driven mad by a hawk. White's writing style and my love of birds put this up to 4 stars, but it is very much built on those 2 things
beccathejenks's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
I liked a lot about the writing style, but I found the author too off-putting to want to spend 200 pages inside his head. It was difficult for me to get past the oblique references to deeply-held misogyny, the seeming ambivalence toward Hitler and Mussolini, and the complete idiocy of acquiring an intelligent, wild animal without knowing how the heck to care for it. If those things were excised, I would have really enjoyed the book, but unfortunately I couldn't stomach it very well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Racism