The animal kingdom has been celebrated in literature with an enthusiasm equalled only by our insatiable curiosity about the creatures with whom we share this planet. The Oxford Book of Creatures selects from the work of naturalists, both professional and amateur, explorers, philosophers, novelists, children's writers, diarists, and, outstanding, poets. It covers many periods and countries, and includes the work of writers ranging from Aristotle to Orwell, Montaigne to Johnson, Darwin to Miriam Rothschild, Ackerley to Tanizaki, John Clare to Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll to E. Nesbit. The anthology is arranged thematically, and embraces the function and beauty of the design and movement of creatures, their various habitats, mating and rearing of young, work (both for their own communities and when harnessed to man's purposes), and their roles as prey and predator; extinct species are included, and fabulous or invented ones. About 250 creatures, from the least significant to the most majestic, can be found, fish, birds, mammals, insects: fleas and centipedes, pigs and cows, horses and elephants, unicorns and salamanders, kraken and leviathan crowd these pages. We react to animals with a variety of emotions: love, fear, disgust, and amazement. We domesticate them, befriend them, hunt them, and eat them, and above all, as this absorbing anthology shows, observe them with fascination and respect.