Under the Sea Wind

By: Rachel L. Carson

Narrated by: C. M. Hébert

The special mystery and beauty of the sea is the setting for Rachel Carson's memorable portrait of the sea birds and sea creatures that inhabit the eastern coasts of North America. In a sequence of riveting adventures along the shore, within the open sea, and down in the twilight depths, Rachel Carson introduces us to the winds and currents of the ocean as revealed in the lives of Scomber, the mackerel and Anguilla, the eel. Life for them a continuous miracle, a series of life-and-death victories played out among strange and often terrifying life forms far below the surface of the sea.

Under the Sea Wind is a classic wilderness adventure to which all nature writing is compared. The hero of Under the Sea Wind is soon seen to be life itself, that quicksilver prize granted, for a brief time only, to the clever and the fortunate.

©1941 Rachel L. Carson (P)1999 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Carson knows the names of species, calls parts of animals by their correct names, and brings behaviors as vividly to life as would a video sequence....Hébert draws listeners into the natural world with accurately produced animal sounds and a clear sense of wonder." ( Kliatt)
"Carson's peaceful prose is masterfully read in Hébert's velvet voice." ( Booklist)

Captivating

Carson uses stories about birds, plants, fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and even humans, to describe the complex world of life in and around the sea and waters leading to the sea. She gives identities, even names, to some creatures, but she never anthropomorphizes them. Rather, she uses their identities and stories to draw us into their world so we can understand their experiences.

We see the fragility of each creature's existence, but Carson's real story is the circle of life. So each creature's death provides sustenance for at least one other, and life itself continues.

Carson treats humans the same as other creatures, except that she never gives them names. They are part of the sea world, dependent on it and subject to its vagaries, just like its other parts.

brilliance

Carson's writing is sublime nothing wasted
Sharing fullness of her knowing is a gift .

Rachael Carson spoke with a sense of wonder

We get to know the animals of the sea, the wind itself, and the planktons all as characters of great importance. If only human kind took this perspective quicker, quick enough to save these seas.