“It would sweeten a man’s temper at any time to read it,” wrote Charles Lamb some years after this book was first published in 1653. As the greatest classic on the art of fishing, The Compleat Angler has never been equaled. 

 

Filled with advice on the catching and cooking of fish, the efficiency of various baits, and the making of artificial flies, this work remains an invaluable guide. But it is also an eloquent portrait of the 17th century English countryside and the delightful life Walton and Cotton found there.

 

No book, other than the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, has been reprinted more often than The Compleat Angler. 

 

“It unfolds the heart and soul of the angler … a man who loves books as well as his art …”—from the Introduction by John Buchan