Customer Reviews

The Oxford Book of Dreams (Oxford Books of Prose)

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I bought this book from the bargain bin at our local bookstore, glanced at it only briefly, and stashed it away and promptly forgot about it. I dug it out much later, considerably mustier, and at last decided to give it a go. I was delighted to discover that it's nothing less than a collection of quotes and passages on dreams throughout literature and the ages--both accounts of dreams by persons famous and not so famous, and usage of dreams in fiction, for example those in works by Shakespeare, Joseph Heller, Lewis Carroll, and Vladimir Nabokov.

On the surface, this sounds as if it could make for some pretty dry reading--what's so interesting about reading other people's dreams, right? And every good writer knows that the usage of dreams in fiction is a weak character-illustration device, best avoided nowadays if you wish to be taken seriously (or so I was informed on a well-known writing message board--a main reason why I left, after having a dream that no one there would miss me!). However, I devoured the book in under two weeks (very fast reading, for me), I found the detailed descriptions of dreams both mundane and bizarre to be so utterly fascinating. It's like taking a peek into the minds of others, occasionally seeing what inspired them to create the works they did, and once in a while even realizing that their sleeping thought processes aren't that different from our own. (Even famous people, for example, have strange tooth loss dreams; and an excerpt from "Lolita," featuring the narrator riding an invisible horse, is eerily similar to incidents in a couple of dreams of mine.) Plus, it was good to see that I'm not the only one who believes dreams have their proper place both in fiction and in daily life--there are some pretty big names, and some pretty famous fictional works, quoted here.

The dreams are carefully selected so as to be most readable and enjoyable (there are no terribly longwinded or meandering, jumping-here-and-then-there accounts that all too often typify dreams--every selection is short enough to be read in mere moments), and are categorized under such topics as "Love & Sex," "Animals," "Creativity," and "The Absurd." Occasionally, one dream account will even tie in to the next although the authors and their backgrounds may be vastly different and from different time periods. Unfortunately, only more "modern," mostly Western literature is represented--as explained in the introduction, dream accounts from more "primitive" cultures such as African and American Indian are not included--but this is understandable given that there is only so much room in one book. Still, the assortment makes for incredibly intriguing reading, and all sorts of viewpoints on dreams and dreaming--from pondering the dream as a reality all its own, to dismissing it outright as meaningless--are represented. Some of the samples were so fascinating that they've prompted me to look into reading up more on such authors I've never heard of before, such as Ann Radcliffe and Jorge Luis Borges, and I can only hope that what else I might read will be as captivating as the snippets offered in this book.

All in all, a riveting collection and a riveting book, and well worth the price--bargain bin or not.