Dictionary of Imaginary Places

From the island of Hermaphrodite, where May is celebrated every month, to the kingdom of Aleophane, where criminals are offered a choice of entering the church or becoming journalists, to the quaint town of Stepford, whose housewives behave very much like robots (which, in fact they are): This is a guide to more than 1,200 cities, islands, countries, and continents invented by writers and storytellers from Homer’s day to our own. Shangri-La and Atlantis are here, as are More’s Utopia, Swift’s Brobdingnag, Tolkien’s Middle-earth, and the Beatles’ Pepperland – their geography, history, and <i>very</i> unusual inhabitants described in fascinating detail. Here are worlds created to satisfy every desire for escape or perfection: dream kingdoms and vampire cities; intellectual curiosities and hilarious absurdities; architectural, musical, and feminist utopias; cities of impeccable virtue and unmitigated vice; cities that hang in the air or change at a glance. With over 200 original illustrations and maps, this remarkable book catalogs the imaginary worlds of a vast range of writers (and others): Lewis Carroll, Carl Sandburg, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Richard Wagner, L. Frank Baum, C.S. Lewis, Rabelais, Dostoyevsky, Melville, Gilbert and Sullivan, Jorge Luis Borges, and Graham Greene. A browser’s delight and first class reference tool that manages to be delightful and entertaining throughout, <i>The Dictionary of Imaginary Places</i> will bring back memories of favorite realms and lure you to lands unknown.