A glorious, full-illustrated collection that delves deep into the inception, influences, and literary and historical underpinnings of 100 of our most beloved fictional realms.<div><br><div><i>Literary Wonderlands</i> is a thoroughly researched, wonderfully written, and beautifully produced book that spans two thousand years of creative endeavor. From Spenser's<i>The Fairie Queene</i> to Wells's <i>The Time Machine</i> to Murakami's <i>1Q84</i> it explores the timeless and captivating features of fiction's imagined worlds including the relevance of the writer's own life to the creation of the story, influential contemporary events and philosophies, and the meaning that can be extracted from the details of the work.<div>With hundreds of pieces of original artwork, illustration and cartography, as well as a detailed overview of the plot and a &quot;Dramatis Personae&quot; for each work,<i>Literary Wonderlands</i> is a fascinating read for lovers of literature, fantasy, and science fiction.</div></div><div><br></div><div>Laura Miller is the book's general editor. Co-founder of Salon.com, where she worked as an editor and writer for 20 years, she is currently a books and culture columnist at<i>Slate</i>. A journalist and a critic, her work has appeared in the<i> New Yorker, Harper's,</i> the<i>Guardian</i>, and the <i>New York Times Book Review</i>, where she wrote the &quot;Last Word&quot; column for two years. She is the author of<i>The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia</i> and editor of the <i>Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors</i>.</div></div>