Frank Buckland (1826–1880)

A short but interesting selection from McSweeney's books regarding the reviews of Frank Buckland. Buckland made a habit of traveling around England inspecting and sometimes debunking bizarre claims about mysterious objects and happenings. Some of the chapters in this collection of Buckland's articles include The Ceiling Walker, Catch Pennies, Fleas to Meet You, and Petrified!, just to name a few. The book is not as relevant as perhaps it was during its time but its still interesting to read how one Victorian man of quality viewed the baubles of life. I wonder what he would say about the big foot corpses and balloon boys of today.… (meer)

One of the newest offerings in McSweeney's Collins Library Series is Curious Men, a selection of eighteen essays from the voluminous writings of Frank Buckland, a Victorian-era surgeon-zoologist and chronicler of all things odd.

Collins brings us Buckland's tales of giants, mummies, faux-mermaids, petrified hats, trained fleas, and people who walked upside down, in a short and accessible volume that can be read quite comfortably in a single short sitting (in fact, my only quibble with the book is that a few more essays might have been welcome).

Buckland's prose is quite pithy. Here, for example, is a short riff on mermaid attractiveness, which he found rather wanting in one particular specimen he examined: "If I were a merman I should decidedly not fall in love with any mermaid who was not a great deal more particular in matters of hairdressing than our friend under the glass case" (p. 69).

The perfect diversion for a weekend afternoon.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2009/03/book-review-curious-men.html… (meer)