This book would have fitted well within the roster of Manticore Press perhaps even from the hand of helmswoman Gwendolyn Taunton. It focusses on the dark side of ancient Roman and Greece culture. The weird ways of magic. Instead, the book is published on the large art publishing house Thames & Hudson.
Perhaps there is too much humour in Matyszak’s book for Manticore and perhaps it is not scholarly enough either. As a matter of fact, the book makes fairly light literature. Sure, the book is about all kinds of dark magic, necromantia, extreme love spells, summoning demons, but as the book continues, the authors thought to have to pour in more and more silly remarks. Often they are funny, mind you, but the book is an amusing account of ancient magic that reads like a ‘normal book’, not an in depth investigation into the different kinds of magic.
That said, the book makes an amusing read with funny anecdotes and weird accounts from famous literature and art.
2019 Thames & Hudson, isbn 0500052077
