The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. Rev. ed.

Sue Giles was a librarian at the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto.

It is hard to imagine that there is anybody who could not get some enjoyment from this unusual book and the more widely read you are the more fascinating it becomes.

The authors have produced a “traveller’s guide to some of the places of literature.” Included are entries restricted “to places that a traveller could be expected to visit, leaving out heavens and hells and places of the future, and including only those on our own planet.” Places that are in effect disguises for existing locales — for example, Hardy’s Wessex and Trollope’s Barchester — are omitted. Yet even with these restrictions over a thousand imaginary places are described in the style of a travel guide.

Many places that were an important part of childhood are here — Narnia, Oz, Wonderland, and even Celesteville. Where possible maps have been included, and it is fun to see how they match one’s own personal memories or images of the imaginary places.

One of the delights of this book is the style that the descriptions are written in. For example, the entry for Wonderland begins, “a kingdom under England, inhabited by a pack of cards and a few other creatures. Access is gained through a rabbit-hole…” and concludes, “Should a traveller lose his way in Wonderland, information can be obtained from a knowledgeable caterpillar smoking a hookah.” Entries are drawn from literature in many languages and across the centuries. There is Cloudcuckooland from Aristophanes’ The Birds, 414 BC; Bluebeard’s castle (1697); Utopia (1516); and Ruritania (1894). Many other entries are less well known, such as Island of the Heathen, Neverreachhereland, Pestitz, Cucumber Island, Manoba, etc. Places mentioned in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, such as Difficulty, Slough of Despond, City of Destruction, and Devil’s Garden, are also included, as are entries relating to the Tolkien books and the series on Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin.

The dictionary is a fascinating and delightful book that should be kept on hand for dipping into as it is full of surprises. Reference librarians will find it a useful tool for answering a whole range of esoteric queries, while people buying the book should keep it on the coffee table as it is sure to lead to interesting conversations with guests.