The crow spelled death for medieval Europeans, but for Native Americans it represents a guide from the spirit world. Dictionary of Symbols explores 1,000 symbols from across the world's cultures and throughout the ages. Unlike other books on the subject, it is truly comprehensive, including entries, arranged alphabetically, for everything from amaranth (a Greek symbol of immortality) to ziggurat (a temple-shaped Mesopotamian icon). Indexed, cross-referenced, and packed with over 100 drawings, this is an indispensable reference for writers, artists, and anyone intrigued by the power of primal metaphors.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
With its gorgeous layout, slick paper, catchy cover, and French flaps, the Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems is exactly what you'd expect from Chronicle Books (the publishers of Griffin and Sabine). It's a perfect gift book right down to the small trim size and new-book smell; the blue, black, and white illustrations, inset feature panels, and margin cross-references combine to make it an irresistible browse.
Romp through the alphabetic arrangement for access to informative histories of hundreds of symbols, from "eleven" (which signified sin to St. Augustine but fecundity to African shamans) to "trickster," from "mistletoe" to "monkey" to "mimosa" (the certainty of resurrection in Western traditions). Consult the "Index of Supplementary Words" to track down the hoards of additional terms that are referenced in main entries.
Beware that the two-column layout detracts somewhat from the clarity of the text (the writing is too dense to be read easily in short lines), and that no bibliographic citations are included. For a less beautiful, more academic option, consider the Dictionary of Symbolism: Cultural Icons and the Meanings Behind Them. But is it a combination of entertainment and erudition that you seek? Then there's no need to look any further. --Elizabeth Briskin
About the Author
Jack Tresidder was born and educated in New Zealand. A writer and art historian, he now lives in a remote valley in the French Alps.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Infatuated with Universals,
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This review is from: Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems (Paperback)
I would call this dictionary an average reference book. It contains pictures to keep the graphically inclined happy. The marginalia directing readers to related topics is helpful. The longer articles giving more general descriptions are fun to read. On the other hand, Tressider seems to try too hard to come up with universal meanings for the symbols he describes, pointing out the common elements while ignoring instances where a symbol may have radically different meaning. His articles are often short and incomplete. This is not as comprehensive a book as Chevalier's Dictionary of Symbolism (which I would recommend for the serious student of art and literature over this one), but many readers will find it's clean format and short explanations entertaining and attractive. It deserves to be part of a library of symbolism, but I would not make it my only source.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Useful and I got it on sale so....,
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This review is from: Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems (Paperback)
I found the book useful for my publishing business ( an RPG company) and I have used the book to stir the grey matter as it where when coming up with ideas.
3.0 out of 5 stars
not enough,
This review is from: Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems (Paperback)
This book has a lot of useful information, but a lot of it is general. First of all, this book is supposed to be illustrated - and it is to an extent, small blue line drawings or several icons/symbols, but I expected more. Also I found that a lot of the explanations of symbols were not complete, or fully explained. Not only that, but there is a lot of symbolism left out. Several times, I have gone to look up an item in the book and it wasnt even there, I feel like there wasnt enough research done in the production. (but then again, to have a more complete book of symbols, you would need a VERY LARGE BOOK, and this book is tiny.) Good for quick general referances, but not good detailed information about the different interpretations of symbols.
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