Scan barcode
Reviews
Atlas der erfundenen Orte : die größten Irrtümer und Lügen auf Landkarten by Edward Brooke-Hitching
rabbithero's review against another edition
3.0
Exceedingly dry in some places, thrillingly wild in others. Some of the phantom as SMS included are nothing more than clerical errors, which is (for this reader anyway) supremely uninteresting. But some of the fictions are so inspired, so freakish and bizarre, that I'm astounded they haven't found their way into the pop culture zeitgeist (hmmm....)
jamiereadthis's review against another edition
4.0
Takeaway: some of these mapmakers/explorers/con artists could have written some excellent fantasy.
lordofthemoon's review against another edition
3.0
This is a quite interesting book of maps of places that don't exist. Whether by mistake, through hearsay or just plain lying, people were persuaded that these places were real enough to draw maps of, and Brooke-Hitching has collected a number of these, which he presents, along with their stories.
The book itself is lovely, with large, colour reproductions of the maps, often with boxouts of details (if the mistake is a tiny island on a map showing the whole Atlantic ocean, for example). I do feel that some of the entries could do with being longer, and I did get a bit tired of islands in the Atlantic that were probably just cloud banks. The book itself says that mythical islands are as abundant in the mythologies of Eastern cultures as that of the west, but it only devotes a single entry (Wak-Wak) to any of them. I would have happily lost a few of the Atlantic islands in favour of some stuff that wasn't centred around the West.
There was a lot of interest, though. The story of Gregor MacGregor and his shameless invention of a territory in Latin America is fascinating, not to mention heartbreaking for the people he hoodwinked. And the idea that people for a long time thought that California was an island isn't something that I had encountered before. Nor the belief that Australia had a huge inland sea, fed by a huge river network.
So a lovely book to dip into at random, but could have done with being a bit more balanced and less Euro- and American-centric.
The book itself is lovely, with large, colour reproductions of the maps, often with boxouts of details (if the mistake is a tiny island on a map showing the whole Atlantic ocean, for example). I do feel that some of the entries could do with being longer, and I did get a bit tired of islands in the Atlantic that were probably just cloud banks. The book itself says that mythical islands are as abundant in the mythologies of Eastern cultures as that of the west, but it only devotes a single entry (Wak-Wak) to any of them. I would have happily lost a few of the Atlantic islands in favour of some stuff that wasn't centred around the West.
There was a lot of interest, though. The story of Gregor MacGregor and his shameless invention of a territory in Latin America is fascinating, not to mention heartbreaking for the people he hoodwinked. And the idea that people for a long time thought that California was an island isn't something that I had encountered before. Nor the belief that Australia had a huge inland sea, fed by a huge river network.
So a lovely book to dip into at random, but could have done with being a bit more balanced and less Euro- and American-centric.
jrho's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.0
Very Eurocentric. All but one entry came from maps created by Europeans. I would have liked more from other sources.