The Snow Leopard (Penguin Nature Classics)

The Snow Leopard (Penguin Nature Classics)
by Peter Matthiessen

The Snow Leopard (Penguin Nature Classics)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Peter Matthiessen
Edition: Paperback
Published: 1987-08-04
ISBN: 0140255087
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Penguin

Book Reviews of The Snow Leopard (Penguin Nature Classics)

Book Review: Interesting and Compelling Book
Summary: 5 Stars

The Snow Leopard is slow paced and there is little plot. The book is about a long hike and the author's coming or not coming to terms with his divorce from and the death of his ex-wife. That is really it, but the Snow Leopard took me to a new and better place, one that I can not easily explain. This is one of the best books I have ever read.

Summary of The Snow Leopard (Penguin Nature Classics)

In the autumn of 1973, the writer Peter Matthiessen set out in the company of zoologist George Schaller on a hike that would take them 250 miles into the heart of the Himalayan region of Dolpo, "the last enclave of pure Tibetan culture on earth." Their voyage was in quest of one of the world's most elusive big cats, the snow leopard of high Asia, a creature so rarely spotted as to be nearly mythical; Schaller was one of only two Westerners known to have seen a snow leopard in the wild since 1950.

Published in 1978, The Snow Leopard is rightly regarded as a classic of modern nature writing. Guiding his readers through steep-walled canyons and over tall mountains, Matthiessen offers a narrative that is shot through with metaphor and mysticism, and his arduous search for the snow leopard becomes a vehicle for reflections on all manner of matters of life and death. In the process, The Snow Leopard evolves from an already exquisite book of natural history and travel into a grand, Buddhist-tinged parable of our search for meaning. By the end of their expedition, having seen wolves, foxes, rare mountain sheep, and other denizens of the Himalayas, and having seen many signs of the snow leopard but not the cat itself, Schaller muses, "We've seen so much, maybe it's better if there are some things that we don't see."

That sentiment, as well as the sense of wonder at the world's beauty that pervades Matthiessen's book, ought to inform any journey into the wild. --Gregory McNamee

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