An Early History of the Soliton -- A Century and a Half Ago -- The Great Solitary Wave of John Scott Russell -- Relatives of the Soliton -- Nonlinear Oscillations and Waves -- A Portrait of the Pendulum -- From Pendulum to Waves and Solitons -- The Present and Future of the Soliton -- Frenkel’s Solitons -- Rebirth of the Soliton -- Modern Solitons.

The soliton, a solitary wave impulse preserving its shape and strikingly similar to a particle, is one of the most fascinating and beautiful phenomena in the physics of nonlinear waves.  In this classic book, the concept of the soliton is traced from the beginning of the last century to modern times, with recent applications in biology, oceanography, solid state physics, electronics, elementary particle physics, and cosmology. The Versatile Soliton is an appropriate title indeed. There is much new historical information in the book…The book is written in a lively language and the physics presented in a clear, pedagogical style. Most of the chapters require only knowledge of fairly elementary mathematics and the main ideas of soliton physics are well explained without mathematics at all…Yet it contains valuable information and offers a historical review of soliton physics that cannot be found elsewhere.  —Centaurus In summary, this book is a good elementary treatment of solitons and the related history of physics and mathematics, even for readers with little knowledge of advanced mathematics. For readers with the latter knowledge, it is still a good introduction to the physical ideas required for the understanding of solitons prior to the study of more mathematical treatments from other sources.  —Mathematical Reviews This engaging book is an excellent introduction into the wonderful world of soliton mechanics.   —Zentralblatt Math No doubt, everyone can get new information from the book. First, the book is strongly recommended to young researchers. In a certain sense, the book is unique and definitely will find a niche among numerous textbooks on solitons.   —Physicala