THE OCEAN AT HOME - AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE AQUARIUM

Princeton Architectural Press, New York 2005

An Updated edition by Reaktion Books London 2011 (distribution in North, Central, and South America by the University of Chicago Press).

Other editions: Germany (Verlag Klaus Wagenbach), Japan (Hakusui-sha).

"Public and private, amateur and professional, Brunner's illustrated history of marine and freshwater aquaria is a history indeed. ... His cultured but unpretentious style carries with it a real sense of the Victorian drawing room..." THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, (cover review)

"Nineteenth-century displays now look almost mundane, amounting to mere arrays of tanks on table. But as Bernd Brunner shows in an elegant recent book, THE OCEAN AT HOME, the sense of visiting another realm was still palpable."
Edward Rothstein, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Fascinating. Engaging, well researched"
Zahid Sardar, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"A slim and informative study, well-paced and surprisingly pleasing"
David Takami, THE SEATTLE TIMES

"An instructive and beautifully designed book"
DE VOLKSKRANT

"This is a truly fascinating and most charmingly illustrated history of the aquarium"
Juliet Clutton-Brock, ANTHROZOOS

"The concept of the glass-encased aquarium filled with exotic fish had a long and strange gestation, according to Bernd Brunner in his fascinating and beautifully illustrated THE OCEAN AT HOME. A fun and educational read."
E/THE ENVIRONMENTAL MAGAZINE

"Can't afford that midwinter scuba-diving holiday? Console yourself by gazing at the fish and aquariums on display in this charming, and charmingly illustrated, look at domestication of the deep, from the burgeoning Victorian intrest in oceanography to the huge present popularity of aquaria." GLOBE & MAIL

"A thoroughly enjoyable introduction to the early history of the aquarium ... a pleasure to hold and behold, and its 144 pages are packed with a remarkable amount of interesting information. In an era when the history of popular natural history, and especially the history of living animals, continues to grow, the history of the aquarium has remained a backwater. As a result, although this work is aimed at primarily at general readers and aquarium enthusiasts, it will also be useful to scholars. ... It stands as a little jewel on the shelf."
Lynn K. Nyhart, HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES

"Bernd Brunner’s slim but fascinating and beautifully illustrated book sets out to explore the history of this phenomenon, which he memorably describes as “Noah’s ark in reverse”. In the process, Brunner, a German writer of measured, slyly humorous tones, reveals much about how we relate to our greater environment."
Philip Hoare, THE TELEGRAPH

"Ein grandioses Buch"
Julia Voss, FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
(this review relates to the German edition)

Jürgen Kaube, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, on the updated German edition:
www.dradio.de/dkultur/sendungen/kritik/1443811/ "

"Überaus vergnüglich und anekdotenreich beschreibt der Autor die Geburt des Aquariums aus dem Geist höfischer Wunderkammern und bürgerlicher Neugier. ... Sein Buch macht uns Lesern die bisweilen nicht minder merkwürdige Kulturgeschichte des Aquariums transparent. So, wie der Betrachter damals staunend vor der exotischen Fischwelt hinter Glas stand, so ist man heute bei der Lektüre ein ums andere mal verblüfft, was Brunner an Wissenswertem aus den Untiefen historischer Aquaristik fischte."
Thomas Köster, NZZ AM SONNTAG

"Eine wunderbare Kulturgeschichte"
Florian Welle, SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG

"(An) intriguing history of this peculiarly English subject."
PD Smith, THE GUARDIAN

"Who knew that the little, algae-lined glass jar on your child's dresser, the one that contains a yellowy-orange fish named Penny, is an important cultural object? Bernd Brunner does, but that's not surprising. The Berlin-based author has devoted his other books — on the moon and bears in the woods — to things that are easily taken for granted and overlooked. And now, with "The Ocean At Home" he turns to the common aquarium and finds an electrifying nexus of human obsessions — with cabinets and curiosities, a passion for exploration and scientific discovery and an abiding fear of (and love for) the ocean. His book begins, as his others do, in myth and ends in fact."
Nick Owshar, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

" 'The Ocean at Home' beautifully fills an important gap in social as well as in natural history." James Hamilton-Paterson