The dancing horse; lament of the learned pig; the Feejee Mermaid; obituary of an elephant; Jumbo, king of elephants; animals on trial; the riddle of the basilisk; spontaneous generation; odd showers; toad in the hole.
Jan Bondeson is a physician specializing in rheumatology and internal medicine. He works at a major research institute in London and is the author of A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities, also from Cornell, and The Prolific Countess.
Bondeson has a keen eye for the recreational value of much of the
material he discusses. The reader will find Bondeson's wit and
style almost as engaging as British and American Victorians must
have found a good gawk at Jumbo the elephant.
*Isis*
Bondeson has written ten fascinating histories of various
exceptional creatures, some real (a dancing horse and a learned
pig), some hoaxes (like the mermaid of the title), some mythical
('vegetable' sheep that grow on a stalk and showers of worms and
frogs).
*Ottawa Citizen*
Jan Bondeson shares the impresario's glee in whipping off the
handkerchief or whipcracking up another curtain on another monster,
relishing the absurdity and the fun of it all.
*Times Literary Supplement*
This is a wonderful book about a wonderful subject—that is, the
marvels of nature, or rather, the marvels of the imagination as it
explores the world of nature.
*Virginia Quarterly Review*
With his historian's nose for authenticity and fascination with the
bizarre, Bondeson has produced a book that manages to entertain,
inform and occasionally repel. It is an intriguing study not only
of animals but also of human curiosity, credulity, ambition, and
greed.
*Times Higher Education Supplement*
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