Foot: A Playful Biography (Hardcover)

by Kathy Vanderlinden (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This tribute to an unsung part of the body collects a closetful of fascinating lore about the physical foot, foot fashion, and foot fetishism. Author Kathy Vanderlinden has collected every imaginable kind of fact and fancy about this all-important part of the anatomy. She explains the giddy pleasure, the lust, and the therapeutic value of shoes for the shoe lover, with such examples as the stiltlike chopine of 15th-century France, the outlandishly wide duckbill of 16th-century England, and the gorgeous Manolo Blahniks of today. Foot’s tantalizing tidbits cover foot rituals, foot fairytales, and foot beauty treatments, illustrated with a wealth of photos of beautiful, grotesque, and sexy shoes; images of the foot in art; famous feet; and foot ornamentation.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Greystone Books (September 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550549863
• ISBN-13: 978-1550549867
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,095,429 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very short book, some good pics, basic factoids, December 29, 2004

A Kid's Review

This is a small hardcover book, and very short at about 50 pages. It's NOT a foot fetishist book (especially considering that there are only about 5 or 6 photos of women's feet within), it really is what the title conveys: a concise bio of the foot and footwear in history, from the ancients up to a brief mention of the Internet foot fetish craze. If you can get it used here (I found it under one of the marketplace sellers for like $3.50) it's worth it for the short read. Truth be told, the factoids that make up the text are usually basic common knowledge thingies like Chinese footbinding, descriptions of foot diseases, shoe crazes through history and snippets from poems that mention feet. I was actually interested in more on the erotica of female feet but can't blame Ms. Vanderlinden (a children's book author apparently!) since this wasn't the goal. A very nice format and a curiosity for the shelf...if you're ready for your houseguests' questions, especially when they see the "playful" jacket photo.