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38 reviews for:
The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters
Scott G. Bruce
3.17 AVERAGE
38 reviews for:
The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters
Scott G. Bruce
3.17 AVERAGE
A fascinating collection of documents and stories talking about the undead.
dark
informative
medium-paced
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
dark
informative
slow-paced
slow-paced
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
If you are a Catholic scholar, you're going to eat this up. I found the non-catholic tales to be generally more compelling and interesting, but all of them had some merit. I did wish the author had more of an essayist's presence, his notes are very insightful, obviously, but I wanted to hear more of what he had to say in connection to all the compiled stories. When he had something to say, or a connection, it was very very interesting and I wish there was more of it.
While generally interesting, I found the large amount of Christian sources to be fairly uninteresting, just as a matter of personal taste. Unfortunately, Christian doctrine and storytelling had a large part in shaping the perception and history of ghosts and apparitions in the European, English-speaking world. I'd be much more interested in reading about ghosts and ghouls found in other cultures and religions.
informative
slow-paced
slow-paced
If you are into the Middle Ages, this book is for you. since like 75% of it has stories on medieval ghosts and such. However, the book promises stories from all over the western world and throughout history, which it does not deliver. Sure, there are some stories on the undead of the ANcient World and og Scandinavia, but there could have been so much more, and the modern times could have been explored where it not for all the time and space taken by the Middle Ages, which in my opinion did not have particularly interesting stories. So, all in all, my expectations were not met.