The Life of the Bee

First published in 1901, this long essay describes the honeybee colony as a working city. Maeterlinck follows the queen's nuptial flight, the labor of nurses and foragers, the fate of the drones, the building of comb, and the swarm by which the hive divides. He mixes apiary observation with reflections on instinct, intelligence, and the hive's impersonal will. The setting is the European hive rather than a single named apiary. The book is philosophical natural history, not a beekeeping manual.

Bound in pale brown cloth decorated in gold with a honeycomb pattern by Hartley. Pale brown endleaves. Pale brown slipcase.