Ten Thousand Wonderful Things / Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

45849

Title

Ten Thousand Wonderful Things / Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

A Victorian compendium of the marvellous, rare, and eccentric from all ages and nations. Edited by Edmund Fillingham King, this volume collects authentic yet often incredible incidents, curiosities of art and costume, and scenes from nature. It aims to amuse, startle, and astonish while preserving the unique value of unpolished facts and antique oddities.

Summary up to 500 words

Ten Thousand Wonderful Things, edited by Edmund Fillingham King, serves as a vast register of the uncommon, rejecting the ordinary to focus on the extraordinary. The text explores a diverse array of subjects, beginning with the intricate and superstitious practices surrounding Egyptian mummification. Here, wooden cases were adorned with plaster and painted figures to guide the dead, featuring human faces and sacred animal motifs that embodied Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife. The narrative shifts to the animal kingdom, highlighting the superior intellect and instinct of specific dogs and cows that displayed human-like ingenuity, such as a ship-dog who understood threats of drowning or a cow that could open gates for its herd. Historical artifacts take center stage, such as the legendary Bell of St. Mura, a seventh-century bronze relic revered in Ireland for its miraculous descent from the sky and its use in alleviating suffering. The book also details the fantastical drinking cups of the sixteenth century, often shaped like animals with detachable heads, and the opulent banquets hosted for Queen Elizabeth, where guards tasted food to ensure it was not poisoned. Natural phenomena are examined with a sense of awe, including the terrifying Great Fog of 1783, which brought intense heat, electric lightnings, and destruction across Europe. The volume further delves into the spiritual and artistic life of India, describing the eighty-four modes of Hindoo music and the divine attributes invested in their arts. Throughout, the text balances the bizarre with the instructive, presenting everything from ancient torture instruments and curious geological formations to the lives of eccentric individuals like the dwarf Jeffery Hudson. By curating these disparate wonders, the work offers a snapshot of a world where the boundaries between the natural and the supernatural were often blurred, celebrating the strange and the sublime.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

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https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45849.epub.noimages

Local file path

data/epubs/pg45849.epub

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Categories

• Folklore
• Encyclopedias
• Curiosities