Guide to imaginary places
Guide to imaginary places -or Guide of imaginary places, by its original name in English—is a brief encyclopedia oriented toward “tourism” of sites belonging to some of the most important fictions of the last 50 years. The work was written by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi and illustrated by Graham Greenfields and James Cook. The first was the draftsman of the general art, the second, of the maps.
It was published on November 1, 1994 by the Alianza publishing house, and had a translation into Spanish by Ana María Becciu, Javier Setó Melis and Borja García Bercero. After its launch, The book received mostly positive reviews and, to date, is one of the hundred best-selling titles on Amazon..
Synopsis of Guide to imaginary places
An encyclopedia for literature lovers
In ancient times, it seemed that beyond the Pillars of Hercules—a legendary element of mythological origin—everything was possible: beings, kingdoms, worlds and universes. However, today, in a context full of technology, pragmatism and solidity, It is very difficult to find space for magic or the extraordinary. The unknown lands don't exist anymore, do they?
The wonderful legendary territories where fantasy built its walls no longer live on our maps, or, at least, not on those that scholars label as “real.” Nevertheless, There are still writers with a level of wonder so developed that they are capable of bringing to life the geography of worlds created by authors like Tolkien., Borges, Homer or JK Rowling.
An atlas of the nonexistent
Enthralled with elements such as the sign for platform 9 ¾ at King Cross station in Harry Potter, the works of the Arthurian cycle or Arabian Nights, alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi decided to delve into another type of geography, and they planned a route that they would later explain in great detail in Guide to imaginary places, an encyclopedia of travel to other universes.
As lovers of literature, These authors began this journey one afternoon in 1977. It all started when Gianni Guadalupi proposed to Alberto Manguel that they write a tourist guide that would serve to delve into the imaginary and fascinating city of Selene, created by Paul Féval in his novel The vampire town. From that unusual idea came another that, perhaps, was much more ambitious and interesting.
An exhaustive compilation of magical places
This was to guide the traveler through other equally fictitious cities. Thus, from cities they went to countries, from these to islands and from the latter to continents. Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi combined years of literature research in Spanish, French, German, English, Italian, Russian and several oriental languages in the style of geographical encyclopedias of the 19th century.
To meet this monumental challenge, the authors they avoided cite places like Proust's Balbec, Ardí's Wessex, Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha and Barchester of Trollope, because, unlike the magical world of Harry Potter, for example, the first are pseudonyms or disguises for sites that already exist.
More than a thousand imaginary places to visit
It is difficult to think of a literature lover who would not be able to enjoy a project like Guide to imaginary places, one that encompasses the geographic layout of most of today's most popular fictional worlds. Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi, In the company of their illustrator and map designer, they recreated more than a thousand dream or nightmare locations.
Guide to imaginary places It is not only a reference for readers to locate themselves within the spaces that they love so much, but also a compendium that allows you to discover new novels or authors, at the same time as revisiting those books that marked a before and after in the lives of many, rethinking trips that they have already taken and that they can redo thanks to the memory.
What does the criticism say about Guide to imaginary places?
The genius of Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi is undeniable, both managed to evaluate unique literary pieces and exposed their worlds in a more exact context: that of the space between lands and kingdoms. However, more than one critic has raised an eyebrow at this work, although, it is worth saying that their words are almost always directed towards the organization of the book and the location of the references.
En este sentido, some claim that, although they do not find it a negative thing that the places are located alphabetically, the organization of the sites could have been more creative. On the other hand, the spaces discussed always appear at the end of the entry, which seems inconvenient, considering that readers might prefer to know what they are going to read about before doing so.
About the authors
Alberto Manguel
He was born on March 13, 1948, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He lived for some years in Israel, where his father was an ambassador. When they returned to Argentina, The author met the famous writer Jorge Luis Borges, who was 58 years old and already blind, so he asked young Manguel to go read books to him in his apartment, which he gladly did.
Although Alberto did not complete his degree at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, He was awarded for several of his stories in the Argentine newspaper La Nación, in Paris. From then on she received job offers from media outlets such as Kapelusz Plan y Franco Maria Ricci, where he met other colleagues with whom he has collaborated on several occasions.
Gianni Guadalupi
He is an author little known in Spanish, since his works have been little translated into this language. Most of his books are guides travel and exploration compendiums such as Castles of the world (2005) y Zero latitude. Travelers, explorers and adventurers around the equator (2006)
Other books by Alberto Manguel
Non-fiction
- A history of Reading (1996);
- The bride of Frankenstein (1997);
- Read images (2000);
- In the mirror forest (2002);
- How Pinocchio learned to read (2003);
- Reading diary (2004);
- With Borges (2004);
- lonely vices (2004);
- the book of praise (2004);
- The library at night (2006);
- New praise of insanity (2006);
- The city of words (2007);
- Homer's legacy (2007);
- The dream of the Red King (2010);
- Conversations with a friend (2011);
- Monsieur Bovary and other tenacious friends (2013);
- The traveler, the tower and the larva (2014);
- A natural history of curiosity (2015);
- While I pack up my library (2018);
- Don Quixote and his ghosts (2020);
- Maimonides (2023)
Fiction
- News from abroad (1991);
- Stevenson under the palm trees (2003);
- The return (2005);
- The extremely picky lover (2005);
- All men are liars (2008);
- The return of Ulysses (2014)
Anthologies
- Variations on a theme by Dürer (1968);
- Variations on a police theme (1968);
- Anthology of Argentine fantastic literature (1973);
- black water (1983);
- The gates of paradise (1993);
- Mario Denevi: Secret ceremonies (1996);
- Julio Cortázar: Animalia (1998);
- Gilbert Keith Chesterton: Running after one's own hat (2004);
- Robert Louis Stevenson: Memory for oblivion (2005);
- The adventures of the baby Jesus (2007);
- Brief treatise on passion (2008);
- Rudyard Kipling: Stories (2008);
- Thomas Browne: The Garden of Cyrus (2009);
- jaguar sun (2010)