Human Oddities: A Book of Nature's Anomalies

by Martin Monestier, Robert Campbell (Translator)

Book by Monestier, Martin

189 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1987

Reviews

[Rainboe Sims-Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is primarily a pictoral depiction of human beings throughout history with conditions considered monstrous. Brief biographies accompany hundreds of pictures and drawings documenting people who were excessively fat or thin, tall or short, hairy, horned, tailed and more. There are photos of people with various degrees of limblessness, conjoined twins/triplets varying in degree from the two-faced to the parasitic sibling, people with joints that bent in opposite directions and people with melded bones. Also included are hermaphrodites and those with overly large, numerous, or oddly placed sexual organs. Skin conditions are also covered, including albinos and people who voluntarily modified their bodies or were preconditioned to sickness and deformity due to radiation. Briefly discussed are cinematic monsters and humanoid monsters in European mythology. Human Oddities depicts the widely varying conditions that the human body is capable of producing. Pictorially it is quite authentic, however the photos are not traditionally credited nor is copyright information given for them. The supplemental biographical information is not cited nor is there a bibliography included, so that information is not as reliable. The book is translated from French which may account for some of its oversight. The pictures expand the readers' base of knowledge of human oddity in areas where words alone would not suffice, however the words themselves seem slightly degrading at times. The pictures could easily be considered degrading as well, but that is not under the author's purview.

[Fishface · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big picture book of all kinds of sideshow attractions, with brief biographies. Overall well written, but at some points I wonder how carefully the author did his research -- there's a photo in there of Grady Styles's wife, captioned "Grady Styles," with his lobster-claw hands obviously snipped out of another photograph and pasted onto her wrists. That kind of goofiness doesn't stop me from loving this book!

[Don Gillette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely interesting and semi-exploitative view of some of the more interesting "freaks" throughout history.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sensational and sensationalistic introduction to the wonderful world of freaks. I read this over and over again in high school.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

some good high contrast photos in here of folks you don't see much of. relic of the 1980's here.