The Book of Sea Monsters: Leviathans of Literature

by Prema Arasu

Overview

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…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399414524
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	09/16/2025
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	8.55(w) x 9.55(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Dr Prema Arasu is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre. They completed a PhD in creative writing at UWA in 2022 and have a master's degree in Modern and Contemporary Literature and Culture from the University of St Andrews. Prema's postdoctoral 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

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

A delightful tour through the literary Leviathans and symbolic sea serpents of our oceanic imaginations. In the collection are lesser-known gems as well as familiar greats, which together form a rich picture of our passionate entanglements with the seas.” —Natalie Lawrence

From the Publisher

2025-05-30
Creatures from the deep.

This beautifully illustrated anthology introduces us to, or reacquaints us with, passages or complete stories and poems about sea monsters. It presents the sources in chronological order “so as to trace a narrative of maritime and cultural history as sea monsters move from highly speculative, primordial entities to the apocalyptic cryptozoologist imaginings in modern science fiction in the Western imagination.” To that end, we start with a Babylonian creation myth, excerpts fromThe Odyssey andThe Aeneid, with ports of call inThe Book of Jonah andBeowulf, all presented in readable prose translations. We then move to more modern examples, including Victor Hugo, H.G. Wells, and Ezra Pound. The selections conclude with Arthur Conan Doyle. The extract fromMoby-Dick tells us that Ahab recognized that a giant squid is not a whale, since he had read Erik Pontoppidan’sThe Natural History of Norway, which—fortunately for us—is also included. Each text has a brief preface and is suitably illustrated by either a maritime reference (fish, boats, sea monsters) or a representation of the featured author. It functions as a sort of Great Books seminar for readers with a short attention span. The book reminds us of how great some of the poems are and where “water, water everywhere / and not a drop to drink” actually comes from. The anthology also prompts musings about erotic and psychological elements pertaining to sea monsters; an example may be a possible feminist critique of mermaids. Just as Thoreau escaped the desperate city for the desperate country, so humankind fled the monsters among us only to succumb to their nautical cousins—escaping the devil, so to speak, for the deep blue sea.

A wonderful aquarium of sea monsters.

Kirkus Reviews