- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Penguin; New edition edition (3 July 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140294805
- ISBN-13: 978-0140294804
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 853,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
A. C. Grayling, Financial Times
‘A beautifully written, fascinating, amusing, astonishing account, which illuminates the strangeness of the human mind and the wonder of the world’
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Jerome Boyd Maunsell, Evening Standard
‘A marvellous book … crammed nearly to bursting with arcane facts and descriptions of bizarre, exquisite objects’
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Full of stories on collections and cabinets of curiosities, this a a wonderful book. Like the cover, the book contains small tales of strange collections from far off worlds and excentric collectors. The book contains collectors of real, mythical and fictional objects and animals, where these were found and how they were displayed. Fasinating stories.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Stories and more..
18 Feb 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
At first I thought this was going to be a survey of some eccentric collectors in history, on which is does not disappoint, but it turns out to be a lot richer and contain some real pearls of wisdom about life in general, and flashes of historical insight.
Reading through the chapters of this book was a lot like rummaging through a private collectors cabinet of curiosities. The chapter titles alone don't provide direction and only after a few pages does it begin to reveal its treasure. Chapters cover aspects of collecting as diverse as: people who collected experiences with women (Casanova), the collecting of body parts (religious relics), collecting memories, American billionaires who bought up European heritage (JP Morgan, Hearst), collectors of mass-produced items (milk bottles, food wrappers), Princes and Kings such as Rudolf of Hapsburg (17th C) who filled his castle with the worlds greatest collections and slowly went mad, collecting as a madness, as a substitute for love, as a form of autism, as psychology, as crime - and in the end, as a warning to all those who take it too far.
Reading through the chapters of this book was a lot like rummaging through a private collectors cabinet of curiosities. The chapter titles alone don't provide direction and only after a few pages does it begin to reveal its treasure. Chapters cover aspects of collecting as diverse as: people who collected experiences with women (Casanova), the collecting of body parts (religious relics), collecting memories, American billionaires who bought up European heritage (JP Morgan, Hearst), collectors of mass-produced items (milk bottles, food wrappers), Princes and Kings such as Rudolf of Hapsburg (17th C) who filled his castle with the worlds greatest collections and slowly went mad, collecting as a madness, as a substitute for love, as a form of autism, as psychology, as crime - and in the end, as a warning to all those who take it too far.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Absorbing and fascinating
22 Feb 2007
Format:Hardcover
This is a book that takes you on a fascinating journey, is an enjoyable read and is also historically well-researched, so it can therefore be used by the student or academic as a useful reference. I came upon it quite by accident but now find it a very useful addition to my bookshelf. The story of the Ashmolean Museum's foundation was one of my particular favourites and really made my blood boil! Such stories are not often told about museum collections! I take my hat off to the author!
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Worlds of wonder
30 May 2003
Format:Hardcover
Absorbing and beautifully written, with a great bibliography to lead you on in your travels through this fascinating genre. Blom does for the general subject of collecting what Basbanes did for bibliophilia in A Gentle Madness. Well worth the read.
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