Foot: A Playful Biography
by Kathy Vanderlinden
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Description
In FOOT, Kathy Vanderlinden has collected a closetful of fascinating information about the physical foot, foot fashion, foot fetishism and other aspects of that part of the body so many of us hate. Physically, our feet are unsung heroes, absorbing some five million pounds of pressure per day as they do their job of carting us from place to place. Then there is the giddy pleasure, the lust, the allure, the therapeutic value of shoes for the shoe lover, from the stiltlike CHOPINE of show more fifteenth-centur France and the outlandishly wide duckbill of sixteenth-century England to the gorgeous Manolo Blahniks of today. Vanderlinden also offers tantalising titbits about foot afflictions (bunions, corns, and calluses), foot rituals and symbolism (from foot washing to sipping champagne from a lover's shoe), foot fairytales and folklore (Cinderella being the pre-eminent example), and foot beauty treatments (Cleopatra had many of them). Throughout, portraits of provocative, playful, and painted feet; photos of beautiful, grotesque, and sexy shoes; the foot paintings and other works of art; famous feet; and foot ornamentation illustrate the many faces of the foot. This eclectic and enchanting compendium will delight all those who have despaired of their feet, been seduced by a pair of shoes, or spent time having a pedicure. show lessTags
Member Reviews
'According to one estimate, about one in 200 men have a special regard for feet or footwear.'
Well, I guess that makes for one in 200 men with good taste! And, counting among them Baudelaire, Thomas Hardy, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Tolstoy, Omar Kayyam, or again Dostoevsky (and that's only the ones the author mentions here!) such men of good taste can smile: they are in good company indeed! Same goes for those women who have a thing for footsies too -collecting shoes (the amazing collections some can have!) or the ones liking a bit of tickling when 'dot dot dot', they can smile too for being in good company too (both the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut and Catherine the Great, for example, are said to have liked their tickling when...)! show more :-)
Here's indeed the thing with this book: it gathers a lot of titbits and facts about feet that are a funny delight to uncover. Cinderella, fetishism, ceremonial ornaments (e.g. henna painting for wedding ceremonies...), foot-binding, women shoes' history... Illustrated by poetic quotations and beautiful pictures (some oh la la!) here's a playful, sexy and quirky compendium. It has no pretention whatsoever, so is a quick and easy read; but how entertaining!
Enjoy. show less
Well, I guess that makes for one in 200 men with good taste! And, counting among them Baudelaire, Thomas Hardy, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Tolstoy, Omar Kayyam, or again Dostoevsky (and that's only the ones the author mentions here!) such men of good taste can smile: they are in good company indeed! Same goes for those women who have a thing for footsies too -collecting shoes (the amazing collections some can have!) or the ones liking a bit of tickling when 'dot dot dot', they can smile too for being in good company too (both the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut and Catherine the Great, for example, are said to have liked their tickling when...)! show more :-)
Here's indeed the thing with this book: it gathers a lot of titbits and facts about feet that are a funny delight to uncover. Cinderella, fetishism, ceremonial ornaments (e.g. henna painting for wedding ceremonies...), foot-binding, women shoes' history... Illustrated by poetic quotations and beautiful pictures (some oh la la!) here's a playful, sexy and quirky compendium. It has no pretention whatsoever, so is a quick and easy read; but how entertaining!
Enjoy. show less
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4 Works 15 Members
Classifications
- Genre
- Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 306.4 — Society, government, & culture Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Social Behavior - Dating, Marriage, Divorce Specific aspects of culture
- LCC
- GT498 .F66 .V35 — Geography, Anthropology and Recreation Manners and customs (General) Manners and customs (General) Human body and its parts. Personal beauty
- BISAC
Statistics
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- 7
- Popularity
- 2,750,964
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
