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A catalogue of fantasy lands, islands, cities, and other locations from world literature, from Atlantis to Xanadu and beyond. This dictionary takes readers on a tour of more than 1,200 realms, invented by storytellers from Homer’s day to our own.
Here you will find Shangri-La and El Dorado, Utopia and Middle Earth, Wonderland and Freedonia. You will fins Jurassic Park, Salman Rushdie’s Sea of Stories, and the fabulous world of Harry Potter.
The history and behaviour of the inhabitants of these lands are described in loving detail and are supplemented by more than 200 maps and illustrations.
Umberto Eco presents an enthralling illustrated tour of the fabled places that have awed and eluded us through the ages.
From the epic poems of Homer to contemporary science fiction, from the Holy Scriptures to modern mythology and fairy tale, literature and art are full of imaginary places we have at some time believed are real. Umberto Eco leads us on an illuminating journey through legendary lands and explores utopias and dystopias where our imagination can confront concepts that are too incredible, or too challenging.
In The Book of Legendary Lands the author’s text is accompanied by several hundred carefully assembled works of art and literature. It is translated from Italian by Alastair McEwen
Maps can transport us, they are filled with wonder, the possibility of real adventure and travels of the mind.
This is an atlas of the journeys that writers make, encompassing not only the maps that actually appear in their books, but also the many maps that have inspired them and the sketches that they use in writing. For some, making a map is absolutely central to the craft of shaping and telling their tale.
A writer’s map might mean also the geographies they describe, the worlds inside books that rise from the page, mapped or unmapped, and the realms that authors inhabit as they write.
Philip Pullman recounts a map he drew for an early novel; Robert Macfarlane reflects on his Cartophilia, set off by Robert Louis Stevenson and his map of Treasure Island; Joanne Harris tells of her fascination with Norse maps of the universe; Reif Larsen writes about our dependence on GPS and the impulse to map our experience; Daniel Reeve describes drawing maps and charts for The Hobbit trilogy of films; Miraphora Mina recalls creating ‘The Marauder’s Map’ for the Harry Potter films; David Mitchell leads us to the Mappa Mundi by way of Cloud Atlas and his own sketch maps. And there’s much more besides.
This lavish, colour atlas is a complete guide to the weird and wonderful geography of Tolkien’s world. Packed with full page maps and illustrations of events in the annals of Middle-earth, it is the perfect companion to the bestselling A Dictionary of Tolkien.
This book is available on Kindle but somehow the authors have not linked it to a free preview.
From Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot to superhero Wakanda, from Lilliput of Gulliver’s Travels to Springfield in The Simpsons, a wondrous atlas of imagined places around the world. Locations from film, tv, literature, myths, comics and video games are plotted in a series of beautiful vintage-looking maps.
The maps feature fictional buildings, towns, cities and countries plus mountains and rivers, oceans and seas. Ever wondered where the Bates Motel was based? Or Bedford Falls in It’s a Wonderful Life? The authors have taken years to research the likely geography of thousands of popular culture locations that have become almost real to us. Sometimes these are easy to work out but other times a bit of detective work is needed and the authors have been those detectives. By looking at the maps, you’ll find that the revolution at Animal Farm happened next to Winnie the Pooh’s home.
Each location has an extended index entry plus coordinates so you can find it on the maps. Illuminating essays accompanying the maps give a great insight into the stories behind the imaginary places, from Harry Potter’s wizardry to Stone Age Bedrock in the Flintstones.