Helpful Score: 2
This is one of the most important books I have ever read, directly influencing my thinking on our connection to the world around us. His words are almost poetic with full and engrossing descriptions of his time spent near the ocean and how it influenced his art and his beliefs.
Lisa B. reviewed The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod on + 37 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
The Outermost House, a chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach, has long been recognized as a classic of American nature writing. Henry Beston had originally planned to spend just two weeks in his seaside home, but was so possessed by the mysterious beauty of his surroundings that he found he "could not go," and spent his time writing in longhand on his kitchen table.
The Outermost House is one of the most indispensable nature books we have in our literature, and in it we find the wonders of life itself; the migrations of seabirds, the rhythms of the tide, the windblown dunes, and the scatter of stars in the changing summer sky. "The world today," Beston writes, "is sick to its thin blood for lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot." Vivid, cosmic, universal, and hauting, The Outermost House captures humanity's relationship to nature in a way only our finest books can.
The Outermost House is one of the most indispensable nature books we have in our literature, and in it we find the wonders of life itself; the migrations of seabirds, the rhythms of the tide, the windblown dunes, and the scatter of stars in the changing summer sky. "The world today," Beston writes, "is sick to its thin blood for lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot." Vivid, cosmic, universal, and hauting, The Outermost House captures humanity's relationship to nature in a way only our finest books can.
Lisa W. (WAL) -
Helpful Score: 1
Nonfiction Written with simplicity, sympathy, and beauty. New York Herald Tribune In what is considered to be a classic of American nature writing, The Outermost House chronicles a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach. Though Henry Beston had planned to spend only two weeks at the house, he became so entranced by the nature surrounding him that he could not leave. Here we find the migrations of birds, the rhythms of wind, sand and sea, and the changing seasons as Bestons words capture the vividness of nature.
Faith B. reviewed The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod on + 6 more book reviews
Love this book. Very enjoyable,
Elegant language, and the observations by the author of the beach and beach life are astounding. Beautifully written. And it conjures beautiful images.
Dan S. (meeteetse) reviewed The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod on + 10 more book reviews
A fascinating book of living on the beach of Cape Cod - year-round; before it became a vacation mecca.
Marcella E. reviewed The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod on + 13 more book reviews
The Outermost House, a chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach, has long been recognized as a classic of American nature writing. Henry Beston had originally planned to spend just two weeks in his seaside home, but was so possessed by the mysterious beauty of his surroundings that he found he "could not go," and spent his time writing in longhand on his kitchen table.
Good descriptions of the wind blown Cape and the joy and loneliness of a solitary life.
Good descriptions of the wind blown Cape and the joy and loneliness of a solitary life.
Linda S. (thk) -
I really enjoyed this. Could almost imagine I was there with him as he observed and was immersed in the natural (and human) life during his year on Cape Cod. Sounds, sights, feels, smells, and nearly the tastes.....
I can well understand why this book is considered a classic of nature writing.
I can well understand why this book is considered a classic of nature writing.
Jill F. (ellzeena) -
Intense sharing of the difficulty and beauty of living with the sea as your neighbor.
