A compendium of bizarre fictional Victoriana

See sample pages from this book at Wink.

They say that truth is stranger than fiction, so that may explain why The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities almost fooled me into believing its real. Were it not for the authors being well-known fiction writers writers like Alan Moore, China Mieville, Cherie Priest, Helen Oyeyemi I would have considered this a legitimate study of an eccentric, pseudoscientific collection of oddities. Even the introduction, which gives the history of Mr. Lambshead in a completely deadpan tone, in no way gives away the joke that everything is fiction.

Essentially, this compendium of bizarre fictional Victoriana brings together more than 50 of the most talented writers and artists of modern fantasy and weird fiction in a collection of the odd, esoteric, and occasionally frightening. Some pieces are written like a museum catalog, while others are stories inspired by the collection. The creators have taken full advantage of a long history of eccentric Victorian collectors and unbelievable inventions to assemble a cabinet in book form, stuffed to the brim with curiosities that may only exist in the imagination, and yet feel strangely real.

The stunning yet bizarre imagery sprinkled throughout the book mirrors the various styles of illustration, printmaking, and early photography that would have been found in the kind of 19th-century tome Cabinet takes as a model, reinforcing the otherworldly feeling of reading a history book from an alternate universe, where automatons educate our children and gorillas are raised by crocodiles in the sewer. Amber Troska

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities
by Ann Vandermeer and Jeff Vandermeer
Voyager
2012, 320 pages, 7 x 9.5 x 1 inches (softcover)
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