A DICTIONARY OF MYTHICAL PLACES

by Robin Palmer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1975

One of those whimsical glossaries with the power to inform, charm and irritate by turns. And since the genre is no longer quite a novelty, it's easier to be turned off by dilettantish definitions and half-specific provenances. We have to be satisfied with knowing that Ama is ""the Japanese heaven"" (is this from folklore, religion, or what?), with some myths that are identified simply as ""European"" and with continual references to a vague ""some"" who believe in Lemuria, Mu, Atlantis or wherever. Palmer includes literary locales--Erewhon, Flatland, Looking-Glass Land--as well as an international (but mostly Greek and Celtic) selection of mythological ones, and the annotations are acceptable but with too little meat to satisfy a researcher and none of the authoritative wit that unified, say, McHargue's Beasts of Never. Still, it's an easy jaunt back and forth between Dante's Inferno, Niebelungenland and the Little Prince's Asteroid B 612. For browsers.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Walck

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1975

Categories: NONFICTION