Maurice Maeterlinck’s Life of the Bee is a classic of its kind, and was the first book on bees to introduce the term the ‘spirit of the hive.’ This ageless work gives the reader a poetic and lively look into the life of bees, as well as a reflection upon the human condition. In this book Maeterlinck succeeds in showing us that “no living creature, not even man, has achieved in the center of his sphere, what the bee has achieved.” From their incredible hive architecture to their essential sense of self-sacrifice, Maeterlinck takes a “bee’s-eye view” of the most orderly society on Earth.
ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE HIVE
IT is not my intention to write a treatise on apiculture, or on practical bee-keeping. Excellent works of the kind abound in all civilized countries, and it were useless to attempt another. France has those of Dadant, Georges de Layens and Bonnier, Bertrand, Hamet, Weber, Clement, the Abbe Collin, etc. English-speaking countries have Langstroth, Bevan, Cook, Cheshire, Cowan, Root, etc. Germany has Dzierzon, Van Berlespoch, Pollmann, Vogel, and many others.
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