Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death, and Happiness Paperback – Illustrated, 1 December 2010

Un livre très lisible et cependant très érudit. L'exemple-même de ce que les anglo-saxons arrivent à faire : un bouquin avec du contenu - de la mâche - mais écrit dans un style décontracté mais terriblement intelligent. L'auteur est réellement un génie modeste. Peut-être déplorerez-vous la misanthropie de certains passages. L'humour de l'auteur la compense largement, je trouve. Néanmoins, ce qui est sûr, c'est que si vous vous intéressez aux animal studies, si vous êtes intéressé par ce qui touche à l'évolutionnisme et à la psychologie, l'éthologie, vous allez vous régaler. Par contre le singe qui est en vous va grincer des dents. Disons que c'est pour son bien...

I've just read one-third of the book. But it's so interesting. At first, I thought it was an essay of the author who began to live with a wolf. Like light-touching episodes of the lives with the wolf Brenin. But this is a serious book of philosophy. For example, simian intelligence versus lupine intelligence. A mind-touching book!

it is a very interesting book, and very revealing as far as why people are the way the are, and how that came about, from our genetic history. I found the book really good up until the end, which I have not read after the climax of the book. It all seemed trivial after what happened, happened in the climax.If you have an interest in the topics in the title, and or dog or wolf hybrid raising, or what I would call "functional (read "useful") philosophy, then this is an EXCELLENT book. It was given to me by one of my mentors, a now 90 odd year old professor emeritus friend of the family. It was so good, that I bought my own copy (this one), and returned his to him. I found that in reflecting and reading the book, I could not help but look at myself and think that I was part wolf and part primate, in certain proportions, based on my reactions to some of the passages. This may be of benefit to you as well, as you read through this book. It is a very unique book that way, and too few authors can bring this kind of insightful topics to light and keep you turning the pages to see what is next.

The Philosopher and the Wolf is a profound and original book. But I never would have found it if it hadn’t been recommended to me.Even after I ordered it, it sat on my shelf for over a year before I finally picked it up.I can understand why the back cover copy didn’t grab my attention, because this is a rather difficult book to describe. It’s not quite an autobiography, because the author is often overshadowed by the wolf, and neither of them is the main character. It’s not quite philosophy — although Rowlands presents complex theories with a brilliant ease that makes them applicable to everyday life. And it’s not quite a nature book, either.And so we’re stuck with that vague catch-all term “memoir”. But this feels unsatisfying somehow. Because to me this book is so much more…The Philosopher and the Wolf is a beautiful and often hilarious story about a man’s relationship with a wild creature who became his friend and brother: Brenin was “…an extraordinarily well-travelled wolf, living in the US, Ireland, England, and, finally, France.” And because the wolf’s penchant for property damage meant he couldn’t be left at home alone, “He was also the, largely unwilling, beneficiary of more free university education than any wolf that ever lived.” Rowlands was a philosophy professor, and so he brought his wolf to work with him. Brenin sat beneath his desk each day, through all his lectures. And their constant companionship forms the underlying thread of the story.The prose is crisp and powerful. And Rowlands’s honesty — both about himself and his struggles — is admirable, and sometimes painful to read.This passage about the author’s reclusive misanthropic tendencies really spoke to me: “There is something lacking in me. And, over the years, it has slowly dawned on me that the choices I have made, and the life I have lived, have been a response to this lack. What is most significant about me, I think, is what I am missing.” He attempts to come to terms with these realizations through the lessons that his friendship with Brenin have revealed to him.But to label this book as a memoir would be to ignore so much else.The Philosopher and the Wolf is also about ourselves as a species: the ways in which we differ from the creatures around us. And how our simian cunning and deceptiveness gradually shaped our worldview in ways that set us on a developmental path which veered sharply from that of other animals.And The Philosopher and the Wolf is also about our constant search for happiness. In one of the most moving chapters of the book, as Rowlands struggles to come to terms with Brenin’s death, he writes: “The human search for happiness is regressive and futile. And at the end of every line is only nevermore. Nevermore to feel the sun on your face. Nevermore to see the smile on the lips of the one you love, or the twinkling in their eyes. Our conception of our lives and the meaning of those lives is organized around a vision of loss. No wonder time’s arrow horrifies us as well as fascinates us. No wonder we try to find happiness in the new and unusual — in any deviation, no matter how small, from the arrow’s path. Our rebellion may be nothing more than a futile spasm, but it is certainly understandable. Our understanding of time is our damnation.”And in the end, The Philosopher and the Wolf is about how to find meaning in a life that doesn’t have an intrinsic meaning of its own.Rowlands’s life with Brenin taught him what he was made of in his greatest — and most painful — moments.And this is something that not even time or futility or the void can take away from us. “What is most important in your life is the you that remains when your hope runs out.”

Frankly the book is a bit oversold, it's a very good book, but like every review was so full of praise that I thought this would be the BEST BOOK EVER !!!. I was a bit disappointed with the first few chapters, but I recommend it to anyone who loves animals. It's an excellent read. very well written