The Book of Sea Monsters

A fascinating and beautifully illustrated journey across the world and through the centuries in search of the sea monster. 'They rave for food with unceasing frenzy, being always ahungered and never abating the gluttony of their terrible maw.' Pliny the Elder This absorbing exploration of the sea monster in all its tentacular forms is a deep dive into the world of sirens, mermaids, Scylla and kraken from 3C BCE to the modern day. Told through writings from ancient myths, early scientific natural histories and iconic literature, tales are intertwined with wonderful engravings, diagrams and paintings. These accounts give a unique perspective on the histories of societies and cultures around the world, taking in significant events like the Age of Sail, the Enlightenment and Darwinian evolution. With their excess size, claws, tentacles and bloodlust, monsters represent our greatest fears: the unknown, the dark, the natural world and even ourselves. As stories passed from generation to generation, they were analogues for dangerous weather events, foreign invaders, enemy nations, physical phenomena and real animals. Prema Arasu brings together excerpts from Beowulf, Moby-Dick and many other works by authors such as Homer, HP Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, HG Wells... Each is brought to life with an introduction and beautifully gory artwork, making this a gorgeous book that's sure to draw you in and drag you down...

Dr Prema Arasu is a research fellow at the University of Western Australia. Prema's research considers the representation of the deep sea in the popular imagination and the significance of sea monsters across different cultures and mythologies. @prema_arasu

Introduction 1. Enuma Eliš (Unknown) 2. Odyssey (Homer) 3. The Aeneid (Vergil) 4. Metamorphoses (Ovid) 5. Naturalis Historia (Pliny the Elder) 6. The Book of Jonah (Unknown) 7. Beowulf (Unknown) 8. The Natural History of Norway (Erich Pontopiddan) 9. 'The Sea-Nymph' (Ann Radcliffe) 10. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) 11. 'The Kraken', 'The Merman' and 'The Mermaid' (Alfred Tennyson) 12. 'The City in the Sea' (Edgar Allan Poe) 13. Moby-Dick (Herman Melville) 14. 'Leviathan' (Celia Thaxter) 15. 'Caliban upon Setebos' (Robert Browning) 16. Toilers of the Sea (Victor Hugo) 17. Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas (Jules Verne) 18. 'In The Abyss' (HG Wells) 19. 'The Terror of the Sea Caves' (Sir Charles GD Roberts) 20. 'The Seafarer' (Ezra Pound) 21. 'The Thing in the Weeds' (William Hope Hodgson) 22. 'Sea-Heroes', 'Thetis' and 'At Ithaca' (Hilda Doolittle) 23. 'Dagon' and 'The Temple' (HP Lovecraft) 24. The Maracot Deep (Arthur Conan Doyle) Credits Acknowledgements Index