Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1059292 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Reptilian Sense and Sensibility
What a wry, original, disarming, imaginative, and instructive tale! Author Verlyn Klinkenborg considers the subjective journaling of 18th century English curate Gilbert White regarding a real life tortoise who lived on White's property in Selborne, and from White's biased human observations crafts a rebuttal unlike any other: a bestial philosophic treatise. Timothy is a sentient being who has much to teach us from her example (White in his paternalism erroneously concludes Timothy is male).

Through Timothy's narrative we are shown our own species' arrogance, cruelty, and bumbling tack. "How do I escape from that nimble-tongued, fleet footed race?.... Walk through the holes in their attention". Timothy's discourse on instinct versus reason is worthy of university level discussion. "Tottering, stilt-gaited beasts. A sad plight. Reason too often a will-o'-the-wisp. Instinct a relic within them."

Jane Austen in a carapace. Elegance amongst the asparagus.

As one reviewer notes, this is "one of the best meditations on slowness, patience, and endurance". It will make you re-consider humankinds place in the world. An excellent book club read, it will lead to many long discussions. One can also predict increasing crowds at the reliquary of Timothy's shell at the Natural History Museum in London.

A differnt world View
In early April 1780 Gilbert White took possession of a tortoise. In most cases this event would have been of no significance and would have passed out of history. But in this case it was not to be so. Gilbert White was the author of The Natural History of Sleborne and the tortoise, know as Timothy, was to occur at irregular times through his book.

This book is an account of the coming and goings of Selborne through Timothy's eyes. The central premise of the book is that Gilbert White has misjudged Timothy badly, from her gender (she is female!) and in her metal abilities. The first premise of the book is correct - Timothy was female, and the second is actually a key idea about human perception. Timothy is dismissed by White as an "abject reptile" and is seen as little more that a slave to instinct - but the character of Timothy presented in the book is far from abject. Timothy puts forward the argument that White has little evidence on which to base his opinion of the mental abilities of the tortoise, and this is set in marked contrast to the way he approaches his other natural history observations.

In many ways this is a book about "ways of knowing" and how they can limit our understanding of the world. How can we really be sure that there is nothing else going on inside the head of a swallow other than food and sex? And if we are products of the same world what does this say about our own brains and behavior?

I think a working knowledge of The Natural History of Selborne would help the reader of this book. Many of the incidents that are commented upon are more fully accounted for in The Natural History, and an awareness of them helps to flesh out the thinking of the Tortoise.

Timothy's voice starts off as a set of staccato statements, produced by very short sentences, but by the end of the book, as both White and Timothy approach death, his voice seems more fluid and eloquent. This is a simple, but ultimately thought provoking book that really does offer a different view of the world. Recommended.