Plotted: A Literary Atlas

This is a great fun book. You should buy the print version, as the ebook version chops of the maps. Stories and history get retraced and reimagine in this volume of cartographic inquisitions.

The map of Oysseus' journey in the Mediterranean is colorful and suggestive, not showing the stretch for reality that other books have done for their maps. Crusoe's island is explored in ways I never thought of when I read the story some 50 years ago. Scrooge's London is more complex. The ship Pequod is drawn in dratsman detail as is the whale. Around the World here is fragmented, but does show all the railway adventures. Borges' mathematical side is demonstrated. A paean to New York City is done for Ralph Ellison. And so on.

19 chapters giving full colour maps as visual representations of famous stories, poems, and autobiographies. Definitely appreciated more if you read the books depicted first. There were a few I haven't read, but the ones I had read I particularly appreciated. The books covered are: The Odyssey, Hamlet, Robinson Crusoe, Pride and Prejudice, A Christmas Carol, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Moby Dick, A Narrow Fellow in the Grass, Around the World in Eighty Days, Huckleberry Finn, A Report to an Academy, The Library of Babel, The Lottery, Invisible Man (Ellison), Waiting for Godot, A Good Man is Hard to Find, A Wrinkle in Time, Watership Down, and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. I was inspired to read show more Charles Dickens and Emily Dickinson from this book. show less

Plotted: A Literary Atlas
Author: Andrew DeGraff and Daniel Harmon
Publisher: Pulp / Zest Books
Published In: San Francisco, CA
Date: 2015
Pgs: 126

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
Maps of literary classics. A graphic representation of character journeys. Providing a unique vision of novels from The Odyssey, Watership Down, Invisible Man, and more.

Genre:
Academics
Adventure
Behind the Scenes
Classics
Fiction
Maps
Non-fiction
Short stories

Why this book:
Maps and books...I’m in.
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The Feel:
While I like the concept of the book, it isn’t firing my imagination like I wanted it too. I expected maps of literary classics to awaken me. But...while I do enjoy it on some level, just show more not what I expected.

Your enjoyment of this book is increased in the maps of stories that you love as opposed to those you feel meh about.

Favorite Scene / Quote:
Surprisingly, the Pride and Prejudice map summarizes the story very succinctly with its broken bridges and roadblocks.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
The Hamlet maps of Elsinore would be better served if they were huge.

Hmm Moments:
The Robinson Crusoe maps are well done. Crusoe’s progress through the story is well laid out. And the first map taken in context with the 2nd and 3rd communicates his isolation so very well.

Rare book that is both Fiction and Non-Fiction.

WTF Moments:
The Odysseus map clearly shows us that our man, Ody, didn’t want to go home too soon. Either that or he was truly one of the first travellers to not stop and ask for directions.
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Last Page Sound:
The maps outshine the essays that accompany them. The maps are the book’s reason for being. Just wish that the writer or editor would have pushed a bit harder.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
it’s alright

Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library
South Campus
Irving, TX

Dewey Decimal System:
809.9332
D321p

Would recommend to:
genre fans
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Fun book if you love books, maps, and graphics.

A fun book of literary maps. Read our full review:

https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/11/08/book-review-plotted-a-literary-atlas-and....

Beautifully curated and made.

Review pending.