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A perfect gift for any book lover, young or old. An encyclopedic compendium of all the interesting places that never were; each entry is written like a travelogue in miniature.
There's always a chance that a reference might be missing but for each one that's missing you'll certainly find a dozen others that even your wildest imagination could not place. This is a beautiful and valuable book, exhaustive and informative. The dictionary's subject matter in itself is of course quite lovely.
Also get a copy of "An Atlas of Fantasy" by Jeremiah Post, which is devoted to reproductions of authentic imaginary maps. The maps in this book are generic line drawings, informative but unenchanting, and I can only guess that the authors were unable to negotiate reprinting permissions. We suggest buying a copy of the original 1980 edition along with the current one; the older book may not have Hogwarts, but it casts its own spell. Somewhat disappointed with this "newly updated and expanded" edition. Fairyland is documented with Bernard Sleigh's wonderful "Ancient Map of Fairyland" in a two-page spread, Tolkien's famous maps and some private conworlds and con-countries such as Thomas Williams Malkin's "Allestone" are included. For a book on imaginary places, it's surprising how little space was allocated to Fairyland, especially when compared with the several-pages-long entry on Hogwarts. Some entries that appeared in the original are omitted from the new edition. Maps are everything when exploring imaginary places; they provide atmosphere as well as information.
(These last three could have provided good descriptions of the many circles and denizens that Dante portrayed). And of course their Dantean equivalents: Paradiso, Purgagorio, and Inferno. A well-written and entertaining book. It does leave out three imaginary places, however: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.
An hour later you realize you've been reading for sheer pleasure and try to recall what initial question brought you to consult the volume. You open it as a reference book to see if it will help illumine some question in your mind in regard to a book (it probably will), but an oddly familiar name or interesting map will draw your attention as you search. The work principally concerns itself with literary locations, set on this earth, and should not be criticized for failing to list locales from every US television program to have ever aired. My greatest problem has always been the difficulty in putting it down.
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