Edited with an Introduction and Commentary by Jonquil Bevan
by Izaak Walton
Clarendon Press Oxford, 1983
Comments: Several years ago I began collecting different editions of The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton. There's an interesting story behind the book that involves Walton's personal plight during the Interregnum in England and how his writing reflects a surreptitious expression of support for the monarchy and Anglicanism, while avoiding critical scrutiny by apparently making it a book about fishing. Beyond that, there's another intricate history surrounding the numerous editions of the book, with it having been edited and illustrated by so many notable writers and artists since it was first published in 1653. If you're a collector there's an appealing complexity to explore, with an ample supply of variations.
Bevan's edition leans towards scholarly in presentation, but it's certainly the best of the modern editions that I've found. The Compleat Angler can be very difficult to read, being written in an archaic seventeenth century form of English and containing many oblique references to now obscure people and events. There is also, of course, very much information about fish and fishing in the book, but the backstory is harder to approach without a good guide. If one is serious about reading it, then it helps enormously to have an edition that adds context and clarity to many of the passages. Bevan has masterfully provided that with this edition.
I had a fairly difficult time locating a copy of this book and it took me a few years to find and acquire one. It has now become one of the most prized books in my collection.
Copy Notes: Hardback, first edition, illustrated, with introduction and commentary
