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В мире безмолвия
Известный французский исследователь Мирового океана Жак-Ив Кусто и его единомышленники в своих книгах рассказывают о создании акваланга, о первых погружениях и об удивительных открытиях в таинственном подводном мире безмолвия.
Unknown Binding
First published June 1, 1953
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About the author
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
204 books170 followersBorn in 1910, was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, and filmmaker, who studied the sea. Although he is most famous to us from his television programmes, he also co-developed the aqua-lung, and pioneered marine conservation as a political and scientific priority.
In the Calypso, an ex-Royal Navy minesweeper, Cousteau visited the most interesting waters of the planet. During these trips he produced many books and films. He gained three Oscars for; The Silent World, The Golden Fish, and World Without Sun, as well as many other top awards including the Palme d'Or in 1956 at the Cannes Film Festival.
Cousteau liked to call himself an "oceanographic technician". He was in reality a sophisticated lover of nature who found a way of communicating complex scientific and biological concepts to ordinary people. While he was criticised at the time by some academics for failing to express science 'properly', his work permitted many people to explore the resources of the "blue continent". As an example of his influence, in 1975, folk singer John Denver composed the song "Calypso" as a tribute to Cousteau and his research ship Calypso. The song reached the number one position on the Billboard 100 charts.
Cousteau's work did a great deal to popularize knowledge of underwater biology and was featured in the long-lived documentary television series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau which began in 1968. On January 11, 1996, the Calypso sank in Singapore harbour. Cousteau died on June 25, 1997 - his work is continued by his son Jean-Michel and his grandson Fabien, who studies sharks from a custom-built shark-shaped submarine.
In the Calypso, an ex-Royal Navy minesweeper, Cousteau visited the most interesting waters of the planet. During these trips he produced many books and films. He gained three Oscars for; The Silent World, The Golden Fish, and World Without Sun, as well as many other top awards including the Palme d'Or in 1956 at the Cannes Film Festival.
Cousteau liked to call himself an "oceanographic technician". He was in reality a sophisticated lover of nature who found a way of communicating complex scientific and biological concepts to ordinary people. While he was criticised at the time by some academics for failing to express science 'properly', his work permitted many people to explore the resources of the "blue continent". As an example of his influence, in 1975, folk singer John Denver composed the song "Calypso" as a tribute to Cousteau and his research ship Calypso. The song reached the number one position on the Billboard 100 charts.
Cousteau's work did a great deal to popularize knowledge of underwater biology and was featured in the long-lived documentary television series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau which began in 1968. On January 11, 1996, the Calypso sank in Singapore harbour. Cousteau died on June 25, 1997 - his work is continued by his son Jean-Michel and his grandson Fabien, who studies sharks from a custom-built shark-shaped submarine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews
November 5, 2012
This is an amazing book, chuck full of so much information and things I never ever thought about. Cousteau wrote this book with his friend Frederick Dumas in English (not in his native French). Cousteau and Emile Gagnan designed, built and tested the first "aqua-lung" in the summer of 1943 off the southern coast of France. In the opening chapters Cousteau recounts the earliest days of scuba diving with his diving companions Frederic Dumas and Philippe Tailliez. The aqualung allowed for the first time untethered free-floating extended deep water diving and ushered in the modern era of scuba diving. Later chapters include excursions diving ship wrecks.
From this book developed the film "The Silent World" in 1956 which won an Oscar.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWtWG0...
Cousteau diver waltz with Jojo the Grouper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwq_pj...
From this book developed the film "The Silent World" in 1956 which won an Oscar.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWtWG0...
Cousteau diver waltz with Jojo the Grouper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwq_pj...
June 19, 2009
The opening shot of Louis Malle's film version of "The Silent World" tracks a platoon of divers as they descend through blue water; the focus of the shot, however, is not the men themselves, but on the long strings of bubbles emitted by their regulators, and the flares each of them is holding. The trace in other words: a flexible, buoyant, and irrepressible string, which threads the seawater beautifully and then disappears on the surface, in a series of harmless gurgles.
Cousteau's writing in The Silent World mimics those bubbles. Like Saint Expurey, or Jean-Luc Godard - like so many French artists of the 20th century - he is a skywriter, whose work pulses with tangible enjoyment and the thrill of discovery, challenge, victory. In this way, Cousteau's life can be read, like this book, as an enormous essay; that is, as an attempt whose constant, proboscis-like forward motion is balanced by a childlike self-awareness, a wonder at one's own accomplishment, which keeps the whole thing fresh and superiorly - I almost want to say innocently - poised. The dives are balletic, and so is the prose that recounts those dives, for like Stendhal, Cousteau exhibits an almost Spielbergian adaptation to his medium. Words fit him like the shell fits the hermit crab, like the water, implausibly enough, fit the "menfish." All of whom all seem to be happily and undoubtably at home.
Complications? Witness the original manfish, Frederick Dumas, Cousteau's co-author and a sort of Queequeg here, wild and irrepressible. It seems that every time "Didi" shows up, a fish gets harpooned. The carnage is general: a string running through this book as consistently and unmissably as the red "open here" tag running around a piece of string cheese. The boys equip themselves with "shark billys" and harpoon guns, my favorite of which festoons the top of the world's first free floating deep-sea submersible, the Bathyscaphe. Peaked with a unicorn's horn of such redundant capability that I have to quote:
"The depth gun was designed to secure whatever interesting animals we encountered, possible one of the Brobdingnanian squids that haunted our imaginations. The animals could be discouraged, not only by the harpoon, but by an electrical discharge running through the harpoon line. In case the specimen resisted electrocution, the harpoon head injected strychnine. At the base of the Picard-Cosyns gun were spring-driven reels for hauling in harpoons and monsters."
Like Swift, I'm all for gratuity - but clearly the designers of this gun have been reading too many Jules Verne novels. They've gotten caught in their own plot, and now find themselves seeing things with a vision that seems purely facilitating now, rather than actually accurate. Thank God they came before us, so that we could Do Right. Maybe not the truest statement in the world, but at least we're not clubbing baby whales on the backs of the heads in the name of science (got our own set of moral blunders to indulge in, after all...)
The pelagic Illiad continues, through both the movie and book versions of TSW, as we watch Cousteau dynamite entire shoals in order to catalogue their populations, spear dolphins to attract sharks (which are then clubbed to death, sharks being "the diver's natural enemy"), and dissect the manta rays that cruise above the divers like B-52 bombers, eclipsing the sun. Explorers are always gratuitous, and it is worth noting that Cousteau himself has, since his earliest explorations, been one of the primary and most effective proponents of underwater conservation. In this book, however, there is no ignoring the mediums' lessons. Language, like water, only appears to be traceless. What it describes, in this book at least, is a "pure" joy in discovery and movement that divers themselves will readily second - for as Cousteau himself says, "One of the greatest joys of sea bathing, perhaps not realized by many, is that water relieves the everyday burden of gravity."
Cousteau's writing in The Silent World mimics those bubbles. Like Saint Expurey, or Jean-Luc Godard - like so many French artists of the 20th century - he is a skywriter, whose work pulses with tangible enjoyment and the thrill of discovery, challenge, victory. In this way, Cousteau's life can be read, like this book, as an enormous essay; that is, as an attempt whose constant, proboscis-like forward motion is balanced by a childlike self-awareness, a wonder at one's own accomplishment, which keeps the whole thing fresh and superiorly - I almost want to say innocently - poised. The dives are balletic, and so is the prose that recounts those dives, for like Stendhal, Cousteau exhibits an almost Spielbergian adaptation to his medium. Words fit him like the shell fits the hermit crab, like the water, implausibly enough, fit the "menfish." All of whom all seem to be happily and undoubtably at home.
Complications? Witness the original manfish, Frederick Dumas, Cousteau's co-author and a sort of Queequeg here, wild and irrepressible. It seems that every time "Didi" shows up, a fish gets harpooned. The carnage is general: a string running through this book as consistently and unmissably as the red "open here" tag running around a piece of string cheese. The boys equip themselves with "shark billys" and harpoon guns, my favorite of which festoons the top of the world's first free floating deep-sea submersible, the Bathyscaphe. Peaked with a unicorn's horn of such redundant capability that I have to quote:
"The depth gun was designed to secure whatever interesting animals we encountered, possible one of the Brobdingnanian squids that haunted our imaginations. The animals could be discouraged, not only by the harpoon, but by an electrical discharge running through the harpoon line. In case the specimen resisted electrocution, the harpoon head injected strychnine. At the base of the Picard-Cosyns gun were spring-driven reels for hauling in harpoons and monsters."
Like Swift, I'm all for gratuity - but clearly the designers of this gun have been reading too many Jules Verne novels. They've gotten caught in their own plot, and now find themselves seeing things with a vision that seems purely facilitating now, rather than actually accurate. Thank God they came before us, so that we could Do Right. Maybe not the truest statement in the world, but at least we're not clubbing baby whales on the backs of the heads in the name of science (got our own set of moral blunders to indulge in, after all...)
The pelagic Illiad continues, through both the movie and book versions of TSW, as we watch Cousteau dynamite entire shoals in order to catalogue their populations, spear dolphins to attract sharks (which are then clubbed to death, sharks being "the diver's natural enemy"), and dissect the manta rays that cruise above the divers like B-52 bombers, eclipsing the sun. Explorers are always gratuitous, and it is worth noting that Cousteau himself has, since his earliest explorations, been one of the primary and most effective proponents of underwater conservation. In this book, however, there is no ignoring the mediums' lessons. Language, like water, only appears to be traceless. What it describes, in this book at least, is a "pure" joy in discovery and movement that divers themselves will readily second - for as Cousteau himself says, "One of the greatest joys of sea bathing, perhaps not realized by many, is that water relieves the everyday burden of gravity."
September 13, 2019
I was worried the book may be too technical to enjoy, but was pleasantly surprised. Cousteau shared his experience in a manner that was educational and thoroughly enjoyable. I learned so much about the undersea world. Much better than Rachel Carson's The Sea Around US, I thought.
February 20, 2015
During childhood summers spent along the lake at Grandmother's in SW Michigan I was effectively an only child, my brother Fin Einar not being born until I was seven and being pretty useless for years afterwards. There was only one other kid in the woods we called "Livingston Hills", Diane Werner, the daughter of Dad's childhood friend, Christian. We would see each other a lot over the years until she, maturing faster, started getting girlish around age twelve.
Diane and I had an arrangement whereby we played both indoors and outdoors on alternating days. Indoor days were hers. Then we would play house with dolls and stuff. Outdoor days were mine. Then we would play army, often as tank commanders patrolling the rutted, sandy roads in the woods. Of course, there were plenty of exceptions to this arrangement. Rarely, some adult would take us to town or rain might force us inside or there'd be another family with kids up at their summer house for us to visit.
Pretty much everybody in Livingston Hills stayed in a summer house. The Werners and the elderly Hogles who lived in a real house between ours' were the only year-round residents. Childless, Diane was like a daughter to them and doubtless spent much of their isolated winters with her at their home. During summers I was included, the two of us sometimes going over for dinner at the Hogle place and always feeling welcome to just drop by.
The Hogles had a real library in their house with built-in shelves and everything including a globe of the earth and another of the night sky. Alfred Hogle, noticing that I had an interest in reading, made the contents of this library available to me. Thanks to him I read C.S. Lewis and lots of nature and science books at an early age. One of the science books which made an impression was Jacques Cousteau's first work, The Silent World, in this hardcover edition. I think Mr. Hogle had been an engineer before his retirement because this and so many other of his books were substantially about technology. Unlike some of the engineering books he had, however, this one had a real story, some adventure and lots of interesting photographs.
Diane and I had an arrangement whereby we played both indoors and outdoors on alternating days. Indoor days were hers. Then we would play house with dolls and stuff. Outdoor days were mine. Then we would play army, often as tank commanders patrolling the rutted, sandy roads in the woods. Of course, there were plenty of exceptions to this arrangement. Rarely, some adult would take us to town or rain might force us inside or there'd be another family with kids up at their summer house for us to visit.
Pretty much everybody in Livingston Hills stayed in a summer house. The Werners and the elderly Hogles who lived in a real house between ours' were the only year-round residents. Childless, Diane was like a daughter to them and doubtless spent much of their isolated winters with her at their home. During summers I was included, the two of us sometimes going over for dinner at the Hogle place and always feeling welcome to just drop by.
The Hogles had a real library in their house with built-in shelves and everything including a globe of the earth and another of the night sky. Alfred Hogle, noticing that I had an interest in reading, made the contents of this library available to me. Thanks to him I read C.S. Lewis and lots of nature and science books at an early age. One of the science books which made an impression was Jacques Cousteau's first work, The Silent World, in this hardcover edition. I think Mr. Hogle had been an engineer before his retirement because this and so many other of his books were substantially about technology. Unlike some of the engineering books he had, however, this one had a real story, some adventure and lots of interesting photographs.
February 24, 2018
This book provides a fascinating account of the earliest modern scuba dives conducted by Jacques Cousteau and Frederick Dumas using the Aqualung which was designed and built by Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan. These divers had no guidebook, no rules, only a rudimentary (compared to today) understanding of decompression theory, oxygen toxicity, nitrogen narcosis, and the other physiological effects of diving. They went on to pioneer the sport of SCUBA diving for millions to come.
It was entrancing to read about their discoveries that now seem so commonplace amongst divers, such as the fact that the underwater world is brightly colored down deep, but you have to bring your own light to see it because the longer wavelengths attenuate fairly shallowly in the water column. Cousteau also wove a pro-environmental narrative throughout most of the book that I connected with strongly.
I docked this book a star though because of the graphic descriptions of a couple of instances of animal cruelty perpetrated by Cousteau and his team - the torture and slaughter of a whale and a porpoise in particular. I also was bothered by their dissection of a manta ray, but they had a scientific goal behind doing so and these creatures were not nearly so endangered when this book was written.
The bottom line: if you're a diver, this is a must-read. If you're not a diver but you are interested in the history of diving and what the earliest SCUBA dives were like, this is also a book for you.
It was entrancing to read about their discoveries that now seem so commonplace amongst divers, such as the fact that the underwater world is brightly colored down deep, but you have to bring your own light to see it because the longer wavelengths attenuate fairly shallowly in the water column. Cousteau also wove a pro-environmental narrative throughout most of the book that I connected with strongly.
I docked this book a star though because of the graphic descriptions of a couple of instances of animal cruelty perpetrated by Cousteau and his team - the torture and slaughter of a whale and a porpoise in particular. I also was bothered by their dissection of a manta ray, but they had a scientific goal behind doing so and these creatures were not nearly so endangered when this book was written.
The bottom line: if you're a diver, this is a must-read. If you're not a diver but you are interested in the history of diving and what the earliest SCUBA dives were like, this is also a book for you.
February 6, 2018
Дуже раджу цю книгу всім, хто хоч трішки цікавиться дайвінгом і підводним світом. Це перша книга всім відомого Кусто, в ній він розповідає, як все починалося. Кусто був військовим французьких морських сил і займався випробовуваннями і розробкою апарата, який би дав можливість плавати під водою. Він був не перший у цій справі - з давніх часів люди збирали різні дари моря просто пірнаючи з окулярами, зараз це красиво називається фрі-дайвінг. Давно вигадали підводний дзвін і важкий свинцевий костюм для водолазів. Але Кусто хотів піти далі і отримати трохи більше свободи під водою. Читаєш, як він пірнав на 15 метрів на чистому кисні (спроба ребрізера), чи як в нього переломалась дихальна трубка на іншому винаході - і дивуєшся, що він взагалі вижив. І не лише вижив, а з колегами таки придумав і випробував свій акваланг. Неймовірно цікво читати про всі труднощі, з якими вони стикались і вирішували їх так, що же через 10 років мали цілком сучасні правила занурень, декомпресії і т.д.
Текст написаний легко і з гумором. Багато поетичних описів морських ландшафтів і затонули кораблів, спостережень за морськими мешканцями, анекдотів з життя команди. Багато піднесення і віри в розвиток галузі.
Кусто брав участь у випробовуваннях FNRS - з Огюстом Піккаром. В одному з розділів він розвінчує низку неймовірних легенд про морських чудовиськ, серед яких був восьминіг, гаприклад. В іншому пише про міфи про скарби затонулих кораблів.
Цікава і піднесена екскурсія в минуле, в часи перших досліджень підводного світу.
Текст написаний легко і з гумором. Багато поетичних описів морських ландшафтів і затонули кораблів, спостережень за морськими мешканцями, анекдотів з життя команди. Багато піднесення і віри в розвиток галузі.
Кусто брав участь у випробовуваннях FNRS - з Огюстом Піккаром. В одному з розділів він розвінчує низку неймовірних легенд про морських чудовиськ, серед яких був восьминіг, гаприклад. В іншому пише про міфи про скарби затонулих кораблів.
Цікава і піднесена екскурсія в минуле, в часи перших досліджень підводного світу.
April 15, 2023
This book has been on my radar for years, as I always expected I would like it.
However, I did not expect the experience to be as immensely enjoyable as it turned out to be. Cousteau was already a man of incredible experiences and stories - not to mention his considerable contribution to scuba diving. But on top of that, he is an absolutely top-notch writer.
From charting the lightless depths of inland water caves and nearly dying, to exploring the richly forested floors of the Mediterranean, to encountering hungry sharks, to narrowly avoiding submarine torpedoes in order to get the perfect shot, this book is remarkably insightful, entirely accessible to readers with an elementary knowledge of the sea, endearingly humane (barring the occasional, unfortunate killing of nurse sharks, whales and porpoises), and at turns hilarious and terrifying.
I can't wait to hang out with my dad again, get tipsy on wine and revel over the book's greater moments, as he has been encouraging me to read it for ages.
However, I did not expect the experience to be as immensely enjoyable as it turned out to be. Cousteau was already a man of incredible experiences and stories - not to mention his considerable contribution to scuba diving. But on top of that, he is an absolutely top-notch writer.
From charting the lightless depths of inland water caves and nearly dying, to exploring the richly forested floors of the Mediterranean, to encountering hungry sharks, to narrowly avoiding submarine torpedoes in order to get the perfect shot, this book is remarkably insightful, entirely accessible to readers with an elementary knowledge of the sea, endearingly humane (barring the occasional, unfortunate killing of nurse sharks, whales and porpoises), and at turns hilarious and terrifying.
I can't wait to hang out with my dad again, get tipsy on wine and revel over the book's greater moments, as he has been encouraging me to read it for ages.
February 27, 2010
Wow. Scuba diving, the Red Sea, exploration ... what else can a girl ask for? This girl, anyway! My favorite bits of this book were the ones that revealed how much diving (and biology) has changed in the past 50 years. No more riding turtles, ripping out gorgonia, or petting cuttlefish. The "crunch of coral" is a bad thing these days. And oh, this book is so French - Cousteau talks about all the bottles of wine they brought with them on their adventures. Point me towards the ocean!
August 16, 2014
Fantastic book. As a deep water diver, I found Cousteau's autobiographical recounting of the early days of diving to be informative and moving. While Cousteau has long been a hero of mine, reading his own account of the incredible pioneering that he, Dumas, and Tailliez performed only built my appreciation for their deep sea trio as well as for those others who met with death along the course of discovery. This book will inspire even those who have never reached below the depths.
June 27, 2018
A pretty good (warts and all) story of Cousteau's early dives and how they developed aqualungs and new types of equipment that are still the foundation for diving today. As a kid, I watched The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau every week, so this book was a little bit of a retro experience for me.
If you have even the mildest interest in biographies, diving, or anything to do with the undersea environment, you should read this book. It is also a very interesting look into Post-WWII Europe.
Find it Read it!
If you have even the mildest interest in biographies, diving, or anything to do with the undersea environment, you should read this book. It is also a very interesting look into Post-WWII Europe.
Find it Read it!
May 3, 2015
One of the great explorers who dares to leave the sunlight and plunge down to visit lobsters in the crevice of a reef or rebuff a curious shark by hitting it on the nose with a camera. An amazing story of undersea adventures of Cousteau and his fellow explorers, the rewards of genius and courage. Fascinating illustrations.
June 16, 2010
The joy of this book is the discovery of the underwater world. Though Cousteau made these discoveries decades ago, they are new to you when you pick up the book. It's a wonderful read if you can get ahold of a copy.
December 9, 2016
This book was very good. I loved how the divers never gave up. They were courageous to offer to be the first ones who tried multiple "artificial lungs". They were the first to be able to move around without having to worry about interrupting nature with huge, metal suits. AWESOME!!!
September 1, 2014
The book has beautiful descriptions that continue to make me say to myself "that's so cool!" Although I know that scuba diving is not the life for me, this book made me harbor a new understanding and appreciation for the mysterious and adventitious beauty of the silent world below the waves. I loved his writing, and the beautiful and human nature of the book. I love the fact that his curiosity and nonchalance just bubbles itself through the entire book, making the book and its contents even more intriguing. Here is my favorite passage in the whole book:
"During the summer of Liberation I came home from Paris with two miniature aqualungs for my sons, Jean-Michel, then seven, and Philippe, five. The older boy was learning to swim but the younger had only been wading. I was confident that they would take to diving, since one does not need to be a swimmer to go down with the apparatus. The eyes and nose are dry inside the mask, breathing comes automatically and the clumsiest kick will do for locomotion.
We went to the seashore and I delivered a short technical lecture, which the boys did not hear. Without hesitation they accompanied me to a shallow rocky bottom, amidst sea wrack, spiny urchins and bright fish. The peaceful water resounded with screams of delight as they pointed out all the wonders to me. They would not stop talking. Philippe's mouthpiece came loose. I crammed it back in place and jumped to Jean-Michel to restore his breathing tube. They tugged at me and yelled questions as I shuttled between them, shoving the grips back between their teeth. In a short time they absorbed a certain quantity of water, and it was apparent that nothing short of drowning would still their tongues. I seized the waterlogged infants and hauled them out of the water.
I gave another lecture to them that the sea was a silent world and that little boys were advised to shut up when visiting it. It took several dives before they learned to hold their volleys of chatter until they had surfaced. Then I too them deeper. They did not hesitate to catch octopi with their hands. On seaside picnics Jean-Michel would go down thirty feet with a kitchen fork and fetch succulent sea urchins."
"During the summer of Liberation I came home from Paris with two miniature aqualungs for my sons, Jean-Michel, then seven, and Philippe, five. The older boy was learning to swim but the younger had only been wading. I was confident that they would take to diving, since one does not need to be a swimmer to go down with the apparatus. The eyes and nose are dry inside the mask, breathing comes automatically and the clumsiest kick will do for locomotion.
We went to the seashore and I delivered a short technical lecture, which the boys did not hear. Without hesitation they accompanied me to a shallow rocky bottom, amidst sea wrack, spiny urchins and bright fish. The peaceful water resounded with screams of delight as they pointed out all the wonders to me. They would not stop talking. Philippe's mouthpiece came loose. I crammed it back in place and jumped to Jean-Michel to restore his breathing tube. They tugged at me and yelled questions as I shuttled between them, shoving the grips back between their teeth. In a short time they absorbed a certain quantity of water, and it was apparent that nothing short of drowning would still their tongues. I seized the waterlogged infants and hauled them out of the water.
I gave another lecture to them that the sea was a silent world and that little boys were advised to shut up when visiting it. It took several dives before they learned to hold their volleys of chatter until they had surfaced. Then I too them deeper. They did not hesitate to catch octopi with their hands. On seaside picnics Jean-Michel would go down thirty feet with a kitchen fork and fetch succulent sea urchins."
August 10, 2017
What impressed me the most about Cousteau was his ability to write simply. He obviously had a great passion for the technical, scientific side of things but at no time during my reading of the book did he show it. He made the sea, and everything in it, seem simple, delightful, elegant, and worthy of a childlike curiosity. This really comes through with his simple language; a child could read this and feel something an adult would, probably even more. At the same time it isn't boring or naive. Cousteau just had a way of framing nature that makes me believe he was born to write books and make films.
I read this book at sea. The Pacific to be specific. That really added to the magical effect it had on me. I was deeply interested despite having no passion for this subject before. That's credit to the writing and storytelling.
Any fan of Cousteau, Wes Anderson, or ocean-life will find this essential. Everyone else will only find it immensely enjoyable.
A breezy, informative read. Timeless in implication and joy.
I read this book at sea. The Pacific to be specific. That really added to the magical effect it had on me. I was deeply interested despite having no passion for this subject before. That's credit to the writing and storytelling.
Any fan of Cousteau, Wes Anderson, or ocean-life will find this essential. Everyone else will only find it immensely enjoyable.
A breezy, informative read. Timeless in implication and joy.
April 30, 2022
I read this as part of an Adventure Book Club. It's not ordinarily something I'd be drawn to, but I like that it was so different from my usual reading. It definitely wasn't written as a narrative, rather a documentation of events. It took me a while to get into it, but once I did I really enjoyed it. It was insane hearing about the experiments that these men went through to figure out how to breathe under water at such depths- a technology that I honestly had never really thought of before. Some of their experiences are terrifying, and it only further solidified that I am a land creature. I loved reading about sunken ships, the animals they encountered, and cave dives, in particular. I gave it a lower score because it's not necessarily one I'd read again or actively recommend to others, but I did enjoy it.
My favorite quote from it:
"Sometimes we are lucky enough to know that our lives have been changed, to discard the old, embrace the new, and run headlong down an immutable course. It happened to me at Le Mourillon on that summer's day, when my eyes were opened on the sea."
My favorite quote from it:
"Sometimes we are lucky enough to know that our lives have been changed, to discard the old, embrace the new, and run headlong down an immutable course. It happened to me at Le Mourillon on that summer's day, when my eyes were opened on the sea."
November 17, 2008
It's so good! From the time that Cousteau INVENTED the SCUBA from old car parts to a whole bunch of his dives, it's hard to find someone who wrote so elegantly and descriptively of the underwater. Cousteau was such a wonderful man, and the proof is in this book.
October 20, 2024
I found the descriptions exquisite and lyrical in places. It's like being along with a explorer seeing and experiencing a new world that man has never visited before (or at least very few times). It's amazing the risks they took and the places that they they were the first men to ever to visit.
December 29, 2018
There are a lot of interesting things in here, but I couldn’t get over the misogynistic comments (really, women are “suspicious of diving”?), and how often he discussed killing sea creatures just for research.
July 10, 2017
Fantastic. One of those books that transports you to a time past and a place you'd like to be.
October 3, 2017
The beginning of aqualung , pretty fascinating.....from a different time.
November 24, 2024
4.5 stars
I don't know specifically when I became fascinated with the sea and the creatures within it. But I know the two people who drove my interests, Steven Spielberg, who made my all-time favorite movie, Jaws, and Jacques Couteau, who's documentaries enthralled me. For non-fiction November, it seemed like the perfect time to read about the latter, an underwater legend who changed the world of diving and exposed the world to creatures never seen before.
The first half of this book focuses on Jacques and his team experimenting with breathing equipment to allow them to dive deeper, longer. I don't know how this team didn't face more medical issues, with some of the pressures they put their bodies through (i.e. the bends). They clearly were brave, if not reckless. However, their willingness to push themselves and try new technologies ultimately changed the way underwater studies are completed.
This leads to the second half of the book, which I really loved. This part focused on the new aquatic creatures they encountered, including sharks. Once again, this group showed how willing they are to take risks. But those risks, like before, paid off, giving them exposure to some creatures rarely studied.
For fans of this amazing man, this book is a must. For me, it definitely cemented his legendary status.
For more reviews, visit
I don't know specifically when I became fascinated with the sea and the creatures within it. But I know the two people who drove my interests, Steven Spielberg, who made my all-time favorite movie, Jaws, and Jacques Couteau, who's documentaries enthralled me. For non-fiction November, it seemed like the perfect time to read about the latter, an underwater legend who changed the world of diving and exposed the world to creatures never seen before.
The first half of this book focuses on Jacques and his team experimenting with breathing equipment to allow them to dive deeper, longer. I don't know how this team didn't face more medical issues, with some of the pressures they put their bodies through (i.e. the bends). They clearly were brave, if not reckless. However, their willingness to push themselves and try new technologies ultimately changed the way underwater studies are completed.
This leads to the second half of the book, which I really loved. This part focused on the new aquatic creatures they encountered, including sharks. Once again, this group showed how willing they are to take risks. But those risks, like before, paid off, giving them exposure to some creatures rarely studied.
For fans of this amazing man, this book is a must. For me, it definitely cemented his legendary status.
For more reviews, visit
December 27, 2018
Dancing with the Much Slandered Octopus
An invasion of the silent world under the Mediterranean Sea; Jacques Cousteau's deep sea diving left behind a wealth of photos, movies, and Science about the world that flows around our dry land. For the reader who loves to discover shipwrecks from an armchair, or the aquarium lover who can visualize the denizens of the sea by mere words; this book will suit readers of all ages.
Jacques is the French hero of the sea who has tantalized generations around the world with his television series of diving. (Some of them are now on Amazon Prime free.) Even as beautiful and dramatic as the newest Aquaman movie is, The Silent World is perhaps as intriguing... seeing that it is the reality of the sea. To place it among similar works, I would say that he writes as well as Sir Edmund Hillary or Col. John Hunt about their Everest expeditions, though not quite as good as William Beebe writes about both his jungle excursions and sea diving. But, Jacques work was just slightly more modern, since here he is writing about his dives during and after the German occupation of France.
Somewhere in the midst of the sea-life: merou, red corals, violets, ugly camouflaged scorpion fish, dog's teeth clams, pinna mussels, sponges, eels, sharks, and porpoises, you catch glimpses of the machinations of war and the land tyrant Hitler. Jacques and his divers set up a Science exploration center, explore shipwrecks, search for archeological treasures, and he describes it all in picturesque language. Included throughout are intriguing black and white photographs.
He talks about Nitrogen narcosis, the 'Rapture of the Great Depths.' He describes the impossibility of obtaining industrial helium from America, and the fact that there were no known databases of shipwrecks in those days. (Now we can see them on Google Earth.) He describes war efforts to diffuse bombs under the sea, and later experimenting with underwater explosions to see how close he could get to the blast. Much that he does seems insanely dangerous. He describes the look of a wreck after decades, and after centuries. He describes the layers of the sea and the temperatures of the layers. And, he details the equipment he helped develop and the medical problems divers can experience.
He talks about the so called monsters of the sea and how Victor Hugo slandered the octopus. He and his diving friends danced with octopi and even tried sticking their suction cups to their skin, but it clung about as well as today's cell phone holders stick to the windshield of our car.
I read the hard-back version. This was my one hundredth classic for 2018, and therefore my completion of my "Climb Mt. Everest Mountain or Molehill Challenge" for the year. But, more than that, I would consider it a must-read. A few quotations follow:
An invasion of the silent world under the Mediterranean Sea; Jacques Cousteau's deep sea diving left behind a wealth of photos, movies, and Science about the world that flows around our dry land. For the reader who loves to discover shipwrecks from an armchair, or the aquarium lover who can visualize the denizens of the sea by mere words; this book will suit readers of all ages.
"Iron Ships crumble away in the lifetime of a man."
Jacques is the French hero of the sea who has tantalized generations around the world with his television series of diving. (Some of them are now on Amazon Prime free.) Even as beautiful and dramatic as the newest Aquaman movie is, The Silent World is perhaps as intriguing... seeing that it is the reality of the sea. To place it among similar works, I would say that he writes as well as Sir Edmund Hillary or Col. John Hunt about their Everest expeditions, though not quite as good as William Beebe writes about both his jungle excursions and sea diving. But, Jacques work was just slightly more modern, since here he is writing about his dives during and after the German occupation of France.
"In coastal waters during rainstorms we have seen an extraordinary excitement among the fish. They go crazy in the rain. The little ones explode in all directions. From the bottom come sedentary sars, climbing and diving, moved to sensational exertions. Mullets and bass gig frantically under the boiling carpet of rain. They stand on their tails with mouths open as if sucking the fresh water. Rainy days in the sea are wild celebrations."
Somewhere in the midst of the sea-life: merou, red corals, violets, ugly camouflaged scorpion fish, dog's teeth clams, pinna mussels, sponges, eels, sharks, and porpoises, you catch glimpses of the machinations of war and the land tyrant Hitler. Jacques and his divers set up a Science exploration center, explore shipwrecks, search for archeological treasures, and he describes it all in picturesque language. Included throughout are intriguing black and white photographs.
"The 1st stage is a mild anesthesia, after which the diver becomes a god. If a passing fish seems to require air, the crazed diver may tear out his air pipe or mouth grip as a sublime gift." (Nitrogen narcosis- A gasous attack on the central nervous system)
He talks about Nitrogen narcosis, the 'Rapture of the Great Depths.' He describes the impossibility of obtaining industrial helium from America, and the fact that there were no known databases of shipwrecks in those days. (Now we can see them on Google Earth.) He describes war efforts to diffuse bombs under the sea, and later experimenting with underwater explosions to see how close he could get to the blast. Much that he does seems insanely dangerous. He describes the look of a wreck after decades, and after centuries. He describes the layers of the sea and the temperatures of the layers. And, he details the equipment he helped develop and the medical problems divers can experience.
He talks about the so called monsters of the sea and how Victor Hugo slandered the octopus. He and his diving friends danced with octopi and even tried sticking their suction cups to their skin, but it clung about as well as today's cell phone holders stick to the windshield of our car.
I read the hard-back version. This was my one hundredth classic for 2018, and therefore my completion of my "Climb Mt. Everest Mountain or Molehill Challenge" for the year. But, more than that, I would consider it a must-read. A few quotations follow:
"There was a furious fight in the dark, in sand clouds stirred up by the struggling bodies. At last Didi got control and turned the merou toward the exit. Then he held on to the spear like a tiller and the fish gave him a fast ride through the winding maze to the open floor. It was a hard way to buy fish, but we were hungry."
"It is unpleasant to go to war after the war is over a duty that falls to the minesweepers and demolition teams who grope in the water for lethal objects mislaid by the belligerents."
"The Gibraltar straights are a unique place to study sea mammals. Migratory thousands of whales and porpoises passed to-and-fro across the narrow sill between the Mediterranean and Atlantic."
"Fishing is one of man's oldest occupations and fish stories entered folklore very early. Poets and nature fakers added their touches to marine superstitions that persist to our day."
"...the villains of undersea myth are sharks, octopi, kongers, morays, stingrays, mantas, squids and barracudas. We have met all but the giant squid which lives beyond our depth range. Save for the shark, about which we are still puzzled, the monsters we have met seem a thoroughly harmless lot. Some are indifferent to men; others are curious about us. Most of them are frightened when we approach closely."
"The better acquainted we become with sharks the less we know them, and one can never tell what a shark is going to do."
"When the moon rises above the horizon fisherman know that the fish have deserted the sea."
December 28, 2021
This is really a moving book about early, consequential sea exploration. I did not know Cousteau did his earliest aqualung explorations off the coast of a France occupied in WW II. Some of his pre-War military experience is touched on and I would like to know more of this. I would also like to know more of the engineering details of the SCUBA-preceding aqualung from its precursors, but is fine that Cousteau is more moved to telegraph the wonder and awe of the stunning underwater environment. The engineering feat of the
Bathyscaphe
is explored. There is also a lot of cursory detail on a bewildering long list of marine life. (Cousteau's idea for squire ink is decoy, not obscuring.)
It is impressive that the moving experiences come across in translation to the English with effective prose.
It is impressive that the moving experiences come across in translation to the English with effective prose.
Read
April 21, 2021Cousteau is a great storyteller, and his great enthusiasm for his subject is one of the reasons: “One of the greatest joys of sea bathing, perhaps not realized by many, is that water relieves the everyday burden of gravity.”
May 9, 2024
"The best way to observe a fish is to become a fish." -Jacques Cousteau
This was pretty fantastic! I'm quite shocked at how much I enjoyed it, considering the fact that it's non-fiction, a genre I typically tend to stay away from.
To start, Jacques Cousteau is one of my role models for the career path I'd like to take (marine biology). I hadn't known that he aided in creating the first aqualung, which all the more made my respect for him go higher. He can be humorous at times, but yet he's very intelligent on the subjects he talks about and is most definitely educated on the facts that were discussed in this book. Although most of TSW was about dives or events alluding to that matter, it was a treat to read about little personal happenings here and there. My particular favorite was when he took his sons to go underwater for their first time. It was adorable when he mentioned that they both couldn't stop rambling about all the wonders they saw while being plunged under the waves.
Another aspect I throughly enjoyed was how the chapters were split up perfectly, and specific occurrences weren't jumbled up together. I liked how it was formated. It made my mind process the information easier and more clearly.
The only things I had trouble with was (I really hate to say this), but I did find it a bit boring at times. Only a little bit though. Not too much. I did keep the mindset that all of the events did happen and that everything was real. That helped greatly. The other thing was I felt that they treated marine life poorly. Every time Dumas brought a harpoon on one of the dives I winced. But besides those two things, it was perfection.
This book added fuel to my ocean-loving fire. At every detail, whether it was how the light softly bounced on the encrusted rocks or how the fish would observe the divers in a silent curiosity, it would fill me with more love for the sea. This book reminded me of why I want the ocean to become the center of my future career. Mister Jacques Cousteau, I thank you.
This was pretty fantastic! I'm quite shocked at how much I enjoyed it, considering the fact that it's non-fiction, a genre I typically tend to stay away from.
To start, Jacques Cousteau is one of my role models for the career path I'd like to take (marine biology). I hadn't known that he aided in creating the first aqualung, which all the more made my respect for him go higher. He can be humorous at times, but yet he's very intelligent on the subjects he talks about and is most definitely educated on the facts that were discussed in this book. Although most of TSW was about dives or events alluding to that matter, it was a treat to read about little personal happenings here and there. My particular favorite was when he took his sons to go underwater for their first time. It was adorable when he mentioned that they both couldn't stop rambling about all the wonders they saw while being plunged under the waves.
Another aspect I throughly enjoyed was how the chapters were split up perfectly, and specific occurrences weren't jumbled up together. I liked how it was formated. It made my mind process the information easier and more clearly.
The only things I had trouble with was (I really hate to say this), but I did find it a bit boring at times. Only a little bit though. Not too much. I did keep the mindset that all of the events did happen and that everything was real. That helped greatly. The other thing was I felt that they treated marine life poorly. Every time Dumas brought a harpoon on one of the dives I winced. But besides those two things, it was perfection.
This book added fuel to my ocean-loving fire. At every detail, whether it was how the light softly bounced on the encrusted rocks or how the fish would observe the divers in a silent curiosity, it would fill me with more love for the sea. This book reminded me of why I want the ocean to become the center of my future career. Mister Jacques Cousteau, I thank you.
Read
June 6, 2023equipped with little confidence in myself and my youthful achievement of an advanced scuba qualification, plunged. I thought this would be an amusing little jaunt, possibly interesting, but it's turned out to be one of my favourites so far this year.
Cousteau is maybe known in the English world now as the guy who inspired wes anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. he was also a celebrity back in the day & one sees ethical concerns raised about his work, justifiably. I don't think i approach this with starry eyes. It's hard to be on his side when he describes the 'kidnapping' of a seal pup in the Indian ocean to sell to the Marseille zoo.
First of all I'd like to commend the melodrama of his chapter titles: 'Menfish', 'Rapture of the Deep', 'The Drowned Museum', 'Sea Companions', 'Monsters We Have Met', 'Where Blood Flows Green'.
'Menfish' is particularly telling, a beautiful theme. Cousteau is constantly aware of his, and his fellow divers' nudity, or near-nudity. In the water, it's a constant process of vulnerability - the word 'delicate' is often applied to his friends. Lungs are 'balloons in a flexible cage'. But I think 'menfish' is also a pathway to the nonhuman. Slipping into deep, uncannily clear water with his closest collaborator, Frédéric Dumas, the pair are 'seeing each other as gross, unfamiliar animals in that surgical water'. Dumas describes seeing a diver on the beach for the first time: 'I saw a real manfish, much further on in evolution than me'. Past a certain depth, divers are reported to suffer from 'l'ivresse des grandes profondeurs'. Here, there's a radical hubris, where the diver sees themselves as godlike, and then radical sympathy: 'If a passing fish seems to require air, the crazed diver may tear out his air pipe or mouth grip as a sublime gift'.
I'm not done with this one but I love its ways
I think placing this historically perfects it.
Cousteau is maybe known in the English world now as the guy who inspired wes anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. he was also a celebrity back in the day & one sees ethical concerns raised about his work, justifiably. I don't think i approach this with starry eyes. It's hard to be on his side when he describes the 'kidnapping' of a seal pup in the Indian ocean to sell to the Marseille zoo.
First of all I'd like to commend the melodrama of his chapter titles: 'Menfish', 'Rapture of the Deep', 'The Drowned Museum', 'Sea Companions', 'Monsters We Have Met', 'Where Blood Flows Green'.
'Menfish' is particularly telling, a beautiful theme. Cousteau is constantly aware of his, and his fellow divers' nudity, or near-nudity. In the water, it's a constant process of vulnerability - the word 'delicate' is often applied to his friends. Lungs are 'balloons in a flexible cage'. But I think 'menfish' is also a pathway to the nonhuman. Slipping into deep, uncannily clear water with his closest collaborator, Frédéric Dumas, the pair are 'seeing each other as gross, unfamiliar animals in that surgical water'. Dumas describes seeing a diver on the beach for the first time: 'I saw a real manfish, much further on in evolution than me'. Past a certain depth, divers are reported to suffer from 'l'ivresse des grandes profondeurs'. Here, there's a radical hubris, where the diver sees themselves as godlike, and then radical sympathy: 'If a passing fish seems to require air, the crazed diver may tear out his air pipe or mouth grip as a sublime gift'.
I'm not done with this one but I love its ways
I think placing this historically perfects it.
March 1, 2025
Absolutely fascinating and fun to read. Felt like I was transported back in time and allowed to experience diving and sea exploration for the very first time along with Cousteau and his mates. So educational and filled with great anecdotes that will make you feel all the emotions, excited, scared, sad and mostly curious! Loooved it
April 15, 2025
Obviously brimming with passion for adventure and the depths of the sea, but written with a dryness that rivals the Sahara, my feelings were mixed on this book. It reads like a series of essays describing specific trips or topics, and the breadth of the stories was illuminating and interesting, from testing the effects of underwater explosives by getting progressively closer to them to their experiences with all sorts of marine life. My greatest complaint is that these stories are marred by the driest, plainest writing imaginable, which sapped some of my enjoyment from the book. Overall, a decent and illuminating beach read for me after a week of tropical diving.
August 1, 2022
“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever”
This is definitely a book for those who enjoy diving and want a bit of history about it.
This is definitely a book for those who enjoy diving and want a bit of history about it.
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