Literary Wonderlands

978-0316316385OCLC943689406809.933LC ClassPN56.I44L58 2016

Literary Wonderlands: A Journey Through the Greatest Fictional Worlds Ever Created is a 2016 book edited by Laura Miller, co-founder of Salon.com. It is a compendium of "lands that exist only in the imagination," and covers 2,000 years of literary creation. For each work, an entry provides historical context, plot summary, and author biography.

The contents are divided into five chronological sections covering the following works:

Reviewing the book in The Sydney Morning Herald, Steven Carroll declared that "the sweep is impressive."^[1] Andrew Sean Greer, writing in The New York Times, found that the book "does its job admirably: succinctly describing each work in detail and providing enough illustrations to inspire delight." However, he found wide variability in quality among contributors, and he questioned the arbitrary choice of works to include.^[2] Alec Scott, writing in The Globe and Mail, faulted the book for not explaining the kinship between fantasy and science-fiction genres, and for its inclusion of "schlock" along with truly literary works.^[3] Kirkus Reviews said the book features "an encyclopedia’s breadth and lack of depth."^[4]

• The Dictionary of Imaginary Places
• An Atlas of Fantasy