Customer Reviews:
 A book to savour, not to rush October 6, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When you start reading THE OUTERMOST HOUSE, you soon find yourself in a world of waves and tides, weathers and seasons. I really do think this is a book to take slowly, in order to truly appreciate what Henry Beston's year on Cape Cod was like. And to savour the fine ( yet never overcooked ) and interesting writing ; I can't recall reading a description anywhere else of the sounds the sea makes, for example. Beston evokes the tough life of the lighthouse-keepers. He describes bird-migrations but also shipwrecks, tragedies ; this is no sentimental stroll along a beach in sunshine yet there is something of beauty on every page. The book is also a hymn to solitude.
I now want to read Thoreau's book CAPE COD. And to treat various people to both.
 Great reading if you are interested in nature writing March 14, 1999
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I read this book for my nature writing elective in highschool. Although I did not necessarily like nature writing before this class, the books we read, this in particular, heightened by appreciation for my natural surroundings. I highly recommend it and the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because its slow in some parts.
Look out on the sea from the windows of The Outermost House. April 10, 1998
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An enduring classic, Henry Beston's The Outermost House, takes the reader on a time journey through a year in the life of the seashore of Cape Cod. The passage of time is not recorded with the clock, but with the rhythms the sea, the cycles of the moon, and the changing seasons. The chapter on the headlong wave can make one a little seasick with Beston's undulating passages and rhythmic words. Not a leisurely stroll on the beach, The Outermost House portrays Beston's year-long observations of the sand and the sea as true partners, sometimes betraying one another, other times working in perfect harmony.
A classic of nature writing April 10, 1998
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Rachel Carson once described The Outermost House as the sole influence on her writing, and Henry Beston's account of a solitary year by the sea has the same combination of natural science and poetry. The theme is one of an isolation that modern man rarely experiences, where the passing seasons are evidenced by different varieties of seabirds, by subtle changes in the wind, the sea, and even the color of the sand. Especially memorable are descriptions of violent nor'easters, shipwrecks, and the perseverence of the quietly heroic coast guard. This is a book to be savored.
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