Review by Booklist Review
When he was a senior medical student, in 1985, Bondeson stumbled across Gould and Pyle's classic Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (1897). Curious, he decided to explore some of Gould and Pyle's subjects further. The report of his studies includes fascinating accounts of the subjects themselves and discussion of contemporary--especially medical--attitudes and how they have changed over the course of centuries. Fans of Dickens will appreciate Bondeson's excellent account of spontaneous combustion, and the followers of the misnamed bosom serpent of European medical lore will enjoy getting thoroughly wound up in their favorite subject. Some of Bondeson's subjects (e.g., Mary Toft giving birth to rabbits, the Cardiff Giant) seem rather shopworn, but they are balanced by the three remarkable specimens Bondeson found in the Hunterian Museum and the pathetic story of Julia Pastrana, the Baboon Lady. A most readable book that may also serve as a reference on medical oddities for years to come. --William Beatty
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Long before The-X Files or the Weekly World News, our ancestors were fascinated by unexplained phenomena. Bondeson, a Swedish physician who works in London, goes back through European history to reexamine some of the most persistent legends. The result is sometimes disjointed, but entertaining in the simultaneously creepy and amusing way of a carnival sideshow. In some chapters, Bondeson writes as a detective, discovering the medical basis for cases of spontaneous combustion or stories of tailed people. With more outrageous legends (such as the "bosom serpents" that could grow and reproduce comfortably inside a human stomach), he is more a social historian, explaining why such beliefs were so widespread. He also includes bios of freak-show stars such as Julia Pastrana, the "Ape Woman" whose preserved mummy toured Europe long after her death. Bondeson is quick to acknowledge absurdity, and his wry humor, along with his strong personal judgments, spice up the book. He describes a lurid 19th-century magazine as a "loathsome periodical" and dismisses the "Fred Flintstone version of history" espoused by creationists who believe giants walked the earth at the time of the dinosaurs. But scoff as we may at such naïve beliefs, Bondeson regularly emphasizes that contemporary society is just as fascinated with the bizarre. 71 b&w illustrations. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The title of this work is also a metaphor for Bondeson's study, invoking a trip to an old-fashioned museum where visitors gaze in amazement at displays of "the odd, the bizarre, and the unexpected." Bondeson "exhibits" such specimens as the Ape Woman, the Two-Headed Boy of Bengal, giants, and people with tails. Other gruesome medical mysteries appear as well, including premature burial, spontaneous human combustion, and stomach-infesting snakes. Bondeson, a physician and medical researcher, regards his exhibits with a careful scientist's eye, discovering misinterpreted evidence, tragic genetic mutations, and, occasionally, outright fraud. Bondeson's book, unfortunately, shares one of the same drawbacks that doomed the museums he celebrates: Although individual exhibits are interesting and entertaining, chapters read like discrete journal articles, and the thoughtful visitor may yearn for more coherence and context that an introduction or conclusion could have provided. Nevertheless, this is a useful addition to medical history collections.Kathleen Arsenault, Univ. of South Florida-St. Petersburg Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
YAThis clutch of essays covers topics one is likely to see in supermarket tabloids: spontaneous combustion, premature burial, tailed people, and serpents living within the body. Bondeson presents these topics in their historical perspective, based on copious research and illustrated with archival drawings, and then explains the more likely cause for the phenomenon or belief. His dry wit makes for entertaining reading. The remaining essays describe some documented cases of human odditiesa giant, a two-headed boy, an extremely hairy and deformed woman, and a child no larger than a new-born infantand illustrate the physical and emotional baggage carried by these unfortunate people. Notes for additional reading are provided for each chapter; there is no index. Thus, accessibility as a research tool will rely on detailed subject cataloguing, but the book is worth the effort because it provides teens with a source for accurate medical information about some unusual human conditions and ideas.Carol DeAngelo, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Eight history-laden essays on bizarre beliefs, fears, and behaviors, plus two additional pieces on several unfortunate human anomalies--all serving as reminders of human gullibility, mendacity, and cruelty. Bondeson, a London-based physician who specializes in rheumatology and internal medicine and has a Ph.D. in experimental medicine, appears to have a genuine love for the weird: Many of the illustrations in this odd little work bear the note ``from the author's collection.'' Those fascinated by tabloid journalism's sensational reports of spontaneous human combustion or the birth of nonhuman creatures to human mothers will, however, probably be disappointed by Bondeson's rather scholarly approach. He traces the rise and decline of beliefs in these and other strange phenomena, reveals the motives of the parties involved, and offers a medical explanation where appropriate. Among his topics are the fear of premature burial and the extraordinary mechanical precautions taken by some to avoid that fate, the notion that a race of giants once walked the earth, and the belief in a race of people with tails. Bondeson then dwells on the cases of four unusual individuals whose fate was to be exhibited like sideshow freaks. Today the Hunterian, a London museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, houses the double skull of the Two-Headed Boy of Bengal and the skeletons of the huge Charles Byrne, known as the Irish Giant, and the tiny Caroline Crachami, a dwarf known as the Sicilian Fairy. The mummy of the fourth individual, Julia Pastrana, known as the Ape-Woman for her hairy body and misshapen face, is in a medical museum in Oslo, Norway. With its numerous illustrations of these poor creatures, this in-depth Believe It or Not can be seen as a continuation of the exploitation that marked their lives.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
