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The Snow Leopard (Penguin Classics) Review

There is not much more I can add to this review that others have not covered. I am not a student of Zen Buddhism, but the author's explanations of the origins, myths, and whatnot of several types of Buddhism is very interesting to read. This book works on several levels, as a spiritual text, travelogue, and naturalist text. I would highly recommend it.

The book did lose one star for it's very wordy descriptions of the Himalayan environment. I suppose the author had a lot of time to minutely explore his surroundings, but it does not make for good reading, especially since he doesn't do a very good job of painting a detailed picture. However, don't let that stop you from reading what is one of the best travel books ever written.

The Snow Leopard (Penguin Classics) Feature

ISBN13: 9780143105510
Condition: New
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The Snow Leopard (Penguin Classics) Overview

An unforgettable spiritual journey through the Himalayas— now celebrating its thirtieth anniversary

IN 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Z en Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest—to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one, with a deepening Buddhist understanding of reality, suffering, impermanence, and beauty.

The Snow Leopard (Penguin Classics) Specifications

In the autumn of 1973, the writer Peter Matthiessen set out in the company of zoologist George Schaller on a hike that would take them 250 miles into the heart of the Himalayan region of Dolpo, "the last enclave of pure Tibetan culture on earth." Their voyage was in quest of one of the world's most elusive big cats, the snow leopard of high Asia, a creature so rarely spotted as to be nearly mythical; Schaller was one of only two Westerners known to have seen a snow leopard in the wild since 1950.

Published in 1978, The Snow Leopard is rightly regarded as a classic of modern nature writing. Guiding his readers through steep-walled canyons and over tall mountains, Matthiessen offers a narrative that is shot through with metaphor and mysticism, and his arduous search for the snow leopard becomes a vehicle for reflections on all manner of matters of life and death. In the process, The Snow Leopard evolves from an already exquisite book of natural history and travel into a grand, Buddhist-tinged parable of our search for meaning. By the end of their expedition, having seen wolves, foxes, rare mountain sheep, and other denizens of the Himalayas, and having seen many signs of the snow leopard but not the cat itself, Schaller muses, "We've seen so much, maybe it's better if there are some things that we don't see."

That sentiment, as well as the sense of wonder at the world's beauty that pervades Matthiessen's book, ought to inform any journey into the wild. --Gregory McNamee

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Customer Reviews

Made it to page 80, quit - D.E. Wray - Tokyo
I bought this (a) because I had wanted to read about snow leopards and (b) because the cover of the edition I have indicates it won both the American Book Award and the National Book Award. Well, it's not about snow leopards--at least not in the 80 pages I could manage to slog through--but no one promised me it would be, so fair enough.

What the book seems to be is a series of shallow meditations hung on a metaphoric frame of a journey. The ostensible topic of the writing is Buddhism and sundry "eastern" forms of religious belief and mysticism(s): the things Matthiessen writes about, however, are actually mid-20th century Western translations of or interpretations of "Eastern 'philosophy'." At least in the pages I read, he has nothing interesting to relate about these topics.

The prose is not particularly smooth, but it does not really intrude on the reading experience. What does intrude, however, and annoy, is the overuse of allusions to other literary works and the many attempts buttress poor thinking and analysis with poorly thought out interpretations of results of research in (obviously misunderstood) other areas. (Whenever writers who are not physicists start alluding to developments in 20th century physics, you can be pretty sure they don't know either physics or the topic at hand.)

Now, note well that I quit reading the book: maybe I am completely wrong, and the author's intent was to have the experience of reading the book reproduce a difficult spiritual journey, with the boring, unrewarding, pointless slogging coming first and the payoff later. I skimmed later sections of the book, however, and didn't see any hints of a payoff.

Don't bother with this book.

a lesson in how to use language - Anthony Creswell - Darwin, Australia
This is my favourite book of all time. I am in simple awe of the way Mattheissen uses language in this book. Poetry in a prose form.

Should be on everyone's "life list" - Joshua A. Steinitz - San Francisco, CA USA
I loved this book so much that I selected it as the first choice in our blog post on NileGuide (www.nileguide.com) about Top 50 Adventure Books of All Time (http://blog.nileguide.com/2009/01/21/top-50-adventure-books-of-all-time/). It's one of the few works of literature that has ever inspired me to underline passages and re-read them later. It's a journey of discovery on multiple levels, set against the most inspiring backdrop imaginable --- the Himalayas. The severity of the landscape only serves to amplify the author's message, and in some respects, it's central to the message itself.

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Sunday, September 19, 2010