The Unending Mystery: A Journey Through Labyrinths and Mazes [Paperback]

David W. McCullough (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2005

According to legend, anyone who wandered into the labyrinth in Ancient Crete never came out again. Some labyrinths may have offered patterns for an erotic spring dance. Those on the floors of Medieval cathedrals represent mathematical perfection–and walking their paths was a symbolic approach to the divine. From ancient Mediterranean coin patterns to the great French cathedral labyrinths to contemporary cornfield mazes, labyrinths and mazes have appeared all over the world, but never have so many been created as in today’s revival, on farms, and in parks, churches, hospitals, and spas across the country. In his charmingly quirky investigation of an image that has inspired countless beautiful patterns and mysterious practices, David Willis McCullough offers an irresistible way to enjoy their enduring appeal.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his brief and rather sketchy guide to the history and enduring attraction of labyrinths and mazes, McCullough (Brooklyn and How It Got That Way) shows how the labyrinth—"a single uninterrupted circuitous path leading to a center"—differs from the maze, a puzzle made up of numerous forks that demands choices for its successful navigation. McCullough traces the evolution of the labyrinth form from its obvious starting place—the Cretan myth of the Minotaur—to its Christianized appearance in European cathedrals such as Chartres. Citing various interpreters of the Minotaur myth, from Homer to Robert Graves, McCullough suggests the original Cretan labyrinth may have owed its design to a whirling erotic dance performed on a specially marked floor. He races on to describe the crude outdoor labyrinths made of earth and stone that appear across northern Europe, outlining some of their folkloric associations. Turning his attention to the origins of the maze, McCullough evokes the 16th-century fashion for landscape gardening, with its craze for so-called "knot gardens" and hedged mazes. He ends with a rambling series of glimpses into the contemporary "maze craze," profiling New Age enthusiasts who use labyrinths in prayer and some of the foremost commercial maze designers. Although he packs his story full of information, McCullough's historical and anthropological accounts can feel slight and simplistic. Illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The enigmatic labyrinth, from which the mythical hero Theseus rescued Ariadne from the Minotaur, inveigles people even today. McCullough takes a leisurely chronological ramble through the designs and meanings invested in labyrinths, starting with the puzzle Theseus confronted on Crete, continuing with a great Egyptian labyrinth Herodotus reported visiting, and extending to floor labyrinths in Gothic cathedrals, hedge labyrinths in England, and more. Geographically widespread, the design is distinct from a maze; as McCullough explains, it has a single path toward a center, whereas a maze is filled with dead ends. Because of its aspect of journeying toward something, the labyrinth has been endowed with a spiritual significance: Is that why the utopian socialist communities set up in nineteenth-century America had them? The author declines to draw a conclusion while admitting he has felt a sense of introspection in the hundreds he has visited. McCullough also discusses history, appearance, and mojo, producing a light amalgam of serious and frivolous fads in the story of the labyrinth. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (November 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400031648
• ISBN-13: 978-1400031641
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #623,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unrevealing, December 31, 2004

By 

Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Unending Mystery: A Journey Through Labyrinths and Mazes (Hardcover)

I was fascinated by mazes when I was a child. I still have books of complicated mazes that I solved with notes on how long it took me to solve them. Mazes are great fun. And they are interesting too. Which is what first attracted me to this book, subtitled A Journey Through Labyrinths and Mazes. But I was hesitant about reading this for one main reason: what was there about mazes and labyrinths to talk about for over 200 pages? Not enough, it turns out.

The book starts out well enough. Mr. McCullough takes us through some interesting points: the difference between a labyrinth and a maze, the variations of the Cretan labyrinth myth, the labyrinth as a meditative tool (for example, the Chartres labyrinth), the rise of the labyrinth as a garden sculpture, and much more. The problem is, there just isn't enough known about this subject to make a book this long.

Mr. McCullough would have been better off condensing this text to 150 pages or less. He ends up repeating himself quite a bit as the book goes on and the "new age" applications of the labyrinth that is discussed at the end of the book I found mostly uninteresting. Also, his discussion of the appearance of the labyrinth figure across ancient cultures is handled quite poorly and never gets developed as it should.

The labyrinth, by its very nature, is mysterious and books should be written about this subject. Mr. McCullough has made a valiant attempt that has its pluses but it repetitiveness and superficiality weaken it. I'm still waiting for something more in-depth, revealing...better.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read for ... well, anyone!, April 10, 2010

By 

Jeremy P. Johnson "Psykick" (Boone, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Unending Mystery: A Journey Through Labyrinths and Mazes (Paperback)

This book is a fantastically well written account of one of the world's most ancient symbols. The author does an excellent job of keeping the tone light and easy to read, an area in which most historians fail miserably. I flew through the book as I pondered each turn in the symbol's labyrinthine journey through history and found myself deep in the heart of a beautiful mystery. The author allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions after leading them on a wonderful journey through time.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All you ever wanted to know about labyrinths - and then some., January 20, 2010

By 

Erik Skov (Cool, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Unending Mystery: A Journey Through Labyrinths ansd Mazes (Kindle Edition)

Purchased this thinking it was by "the famous David Mccullough" but it turned out not to be a disappointment. Admittedly, the perspective of the book is quite narrow and it may not appeal to many. It is, however very well written, contains a multitude of links to other subjects and should therefore be of interest to history lovers - even if they do not care to learn the difference between a labyrinth and a maze.