Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable (1855)

Bullfinch has written a sort of crib notes for The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Upanishads, The Vedas, plus information about myths without primary books, like the Druids. The information is fascinating, and the amount of work put into the project is overwhelming. Gods and goddesses throughout the ages are shown to be just and unjust, proud, vain, supportive, vengeful, faithful and arbitrary. It's a little amusing to see him use Christianity as the basis of truth while he refers to all the other religions as superstitions, but what a wealth of information never the less. He gives both the stories of gods and heroes and how they have been referred to in literature, up to that time. Now when I hear of someone's reading Stones For Ibarra, I know who Ibarra was.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in classics, literature, religion or geography. ( )

Bulfinch's Age of Fable is a classic reference work that lives up to its reputation. The book is packed with anecdotes of deities, monsters, and heroes, some of whom I had never heard of before. Thanks to the "Index of Names", it will be my first reference when I come across an unfamiliar character (okay, my second after Wikipedia).

The book attempted to do two things: acquaint the reader with the legends, and show how they are alluded to in poetry. While the legends were terse and informative, I found the poetry references tedious and arbitrary.

I was also confused by the scope of the book. The contents are overwhelmingly stacked toward Greek and Roman mythology, but there's also chapters on Egyptian, Norse, and even Eastern myths. These chapters felt like unnecessary additions that didn't do justice to their subject matter.

I should also say that my edition (I scanned my own cover, above) is beautiful. The fabric wrapping on the hardcover is embossed. The maps inside both covers are printed in two colours. Even the pages themselves are printed on high quality paper. Unfortunately, this edition isn't in print—the link directs to a mere Dover Thrift edition. ( )

Loved all three sections but the Legends of Charlemagne was a great ride. ( )

[This book] is a brilliant reconstruction of the traditional myths which form the backbone of Western culture.

Here are the legends of Greece and Rome; here are quarrelsome Jupiter, Juno, and their Olympian companions who adventured amorously among lesser gods and heroes…brought vividly to life by [the author]. His tales of antiquity also include the warlike Norse Gods…heroes of the great Northern lore which is part of Europe’s heritage.

Palmer Bovie provides a historical and interpretative Foreword to [the book] in which he traces the origin and purpose of the great scholar’s work….

Another Bullfinch, focusing on presumably the most popular type of mythology as far as that going, being Greek, or, the Romanised version of the same, anyway.

Pretty much the same as the other, a bit dry and old-fashioned, but a definitely useful reference. ( )