THE DICTIONARY OF IMAGINARY PLACES
Manguel, Alberto and Gianni Guadalupi: THE DICTIONARY OF IMAGINARY PLACES
New York: Macmillan, 1980. First edition.
Amazon.com
Like an ordinary geographical dictionary, The Dictionary of Imaginary Places
contains alphabetically organized entries for more than a thousand locales.
In this case, however, the locales in question are far from ordinary--they
range from the orc-ridden wastes of Tolkien's Middle-earth to the languorous
shores of Homer's Island of the Lotus-Eaters. Though for the most part these
fantastical lands are mapped and chronicled with straight-faced seriousness,
the encyclopedia is not without a certain deadpan wit. For example, the
entry for Oz describes "a large rectangular country divided into four small
countries.... As a famous visitor once remarked, Oz is not Kansas." This
handsome and whimsically charming book, adorned with fanciful line drawings
and maps, is rich with enough fictive detail to please the most inveterate
reader.
From Booklist
When this first edition of The Dictionary of Imaginary Places debuted in
1980 (followed by an expanded paperback edition in 1987), it aimed to offer
a balance between the practical and the fantastic by using the form of "a
nineteenth-century gazetteer." The sense of reality was heightened by
illustrations and maps.
Entries are arranged alphabetically and vary in length from a paragraph or
two to several pages for such destinations as Islandia, Middle-Earth, and
Utopia. They offer description, history, and travel tips. Source notes at
the conclusion of each entry provide author, work, and date of publication.
Authors range from fiction writers to essayists, playwrights, film
directors, and composers. The index lists places alphabetically under author
and cross-references titles to authors. In the index, titles are listed in
the original language followed by an English translation in brackets, with
the English translation also listed separately.
This guide to "places that never were" delights through the different
examples of the fantastic and imaginary, some familiar, such as Narnia and
Oz, and others more obscure, such as Carl Sandburg's Palace of Paper Sacks,
from Rootabaga Stories, and Margaret Atwood's Realm of the Jaguar Throne,
from Murder in the Dark. Besides being fun to browse, the book provides
serious support for literature collections. Copyright © American Library
Association. All rights reserved
Very Good with Very Good dust jacket. Illustrated by Graham Greenfield.
Edges lightly sunned. Red dot on upper page edges. Head of spine sunned.
Scuff on first free endpaper, former owner's gift inscription on half-title.
Dust jacket very lightly edgeworn, price-clipped.
starting bid: $15.00
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