The Dictionary of Imaginary Places (1980; 1999)

This is a wonderful book, the kind you're grateful someone actually made this. This is, in fact, a compilation of imaginary places in fiction, from a wide berth of literature, from Homer to Rowling. Perhaps because the authors are Argentinian and Italian, it seems Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino's books, in particular the latter's Invisible Cities, were the great instigators to this work. On the other hand there are very few non-european or north american authors.

The dictionary is presented like an encyclopedia, in alphabetical order, a description of the place, occasionally a map or illustration, when it is so described and the reference work. The fact that the reference comes last is perhaps my only criticism as descriptions are long and often go beyond the same page. It makes more sense to me that they would list the original author and work right at the beginning, rather than having to skip to the next page and go back.

The authors' self-imposed rules are simple in that only locations on planet Earth and in the past or present are included: nothing in the future or other planets thus excluding a lot of science fiction and its more otherwordly themes. As you'd imagine there is a lot of JRR Tolkien but also the likes of Rice Burroughs, CS Lewis and non-English writers like Borges or Rabelais. It's a real treat that the authors took upon themselves to review such a wealth of literature and condense it in encyclopedic form, describing each location thoroughly in terms of place, population, customs and any other objective or subjective information. There is also an authorial feel to it. The commentary has an artistic slant rather the objectiveness to a fault present in most dictionaries. The illustrations are often surrealistic. And the selection as well, being in concept an unfinishable book has to take into account the sensibilities of the authors. Thus, rather than a dictionary it is something you can casually read from start to finish rather than just as a reference book.

The fact that it is centered on planet Earth and in present or past times was a good idea. The descriptions become a little more believable, with an air of surreality. In fact, I was often reminded of 80 Days or Savannah or the strange worlds from Cyan (Worlds) - themselves very familiar and human-like, but odd all the same - applicable, of course, to all fantasy realms. A limitation, due to the subject matter, is that even though there is the odd smattering of 18th and 14th century literature, the bulk is XXth century. As it is somewhat intrinsically related to a literature style, some periods are void of these sort of places and imagination. I found especially odd that they consider Middle-earth and Earthsea as being on Planet Earth, particularly as they take up quite a bit of entries by themselves. Perhaps due to being "earth" places? I will put it down as a director's cut type of decision...

I should also add that there are some non-literature entries, like film (Freedonia from Duck Soup), the land from Tannhäuser (play/opera) ... You would imagine a revised edition would include a few from video games. In all a real treat of over 700 pages (excluding index and references) which should appeal to any book afficionado.