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9781861898166

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'[Brunner's] cultured but unpretentious style carries with it a real sense of the Victorian drawing room, an impression reinforced by the wealth of contemporary engravings he has chosen to illustrate his text.' Times Literary Supplement 'A fascinating book.' San Francisco Chronicle 'Fascinating and beautifully illustrated ... a fun and educational read.' Environmental Magazine

'[Brunner's] cultured but unpretentious style carries with it a real sense of the Victorian drawing room, an impression reinforced by the wealth of contemporary engravings he has chosen to illustrate his text.' - Times Literary Supplement 'A fascinating book.' - San Francisco Chronicle 'Brunner does plenty to arouse interest and appreciation of this history in his well-paced and surprisingly pleasing book.' - Seattle Times 'This is a truly fascinating and most charmingly-illustrated history of the nineteenth century study of the underwater world and the development of the aquarium.' - Anthrozoos

The aquarium is a microcosm of the sea, a bit of the ocean scooped up into our living rooms. Bernd Brunners slim but fascinating and beautifully illustrated book sets out to explore the history of this phenomenon, which he memorably describes as Noahs ark in reverse. In the process, Brunner, a German writer of measured, slyly humorous tones, reveals much about how we relate to our greater environment. * <i>Daily Telegraph</i> * [an] intriguing history of this peculiarly English subject * <i>Guardian</i> * Brunner traces our fascination with domesticating the deep, from the goldfish barrels of ancient China to todays giant oceanaria owned by multinationals. During the 1850,aquatic vivaria became a craze, and this well-illustrated book is full of wonderful engravings of ingenious Victorian tanks . . . an absorbing read. * <i>BBC Wildlife magazine</i> * insightful and entertaining, it looks at why we have felt the urge to bring the creatures of the sea into our houses, and what our fascination for marine life says about us. Nicely executed and full of great pictures. * <i>The Big Issue</i> * [Brunners] cultured but unpretentious style carries with it a real sense of the Victorian drawing room, an impression reinforced by the wealth of contemporary engravings he has chosen to illustrate his text. * <i>Times Literary Supplement</i> * [Brunner] brings this book, which offers readers another display of his trademark thoughtfulness, to a close by suggesting that we need to pay better attention to what aquariums imitate * <i>Los Angeles Times</i> * In this richly illustrated book, [Bernd Brunner] gives us a history of the aquarium, from ancient times to the great public aquariums of today. * <i>Canberra Times</i> * A fascinating book. * <i>San Francisco Chronicle</i> * This is a truly fascinating and most charmingly illustrated history of the aquarium * Juliet Clutton-Brock, <i>Anthrozo</i><i>&#246</i><i>s</i> * The Ocean at Home beautifully fills an important gap in social as well as in natural history. * James Hamilton-Paterson *

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Bernd Brunner is a Berlin-based writer. He is also the author of Bears: A Brief History (2007) and Moon: A Brief History (2010).

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