Human Oddities: A Book of Nature's Anomalies

by Martin Monestier, Robert Campbell (Translator)

Human Oddities

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!

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

***Graphic exploration of information not suitable for younger readers or sensitive readers

Human Oddities first of all is clearly an outdated book whose views, usage of certain terms and access to scientific information was restricted at its date of publication. As a result what one reads here should be taken into consideration and researched on one's own if you are interested in learning more.

The book itself explores the various conditions that led to the name of the book - providing informative discussions about the condition, providing some names of the better known individuals who had or may have suffered from it while providing a summary of their life but only if the information was found and uses the book's text to approach such important questions such as how.should we treat conjoined twins.

The book does start and end heavily with information sections with the back of the book exploring how society made these individuals for financial gain and exploring how these individuals may appear in film although usually replaced with the imaginary. The earlier sections explores the beliefs of earlier people and how they believed these births to come around as well as society's response to them, which means the author chose.to take a deep dive into beastiality.

Once you are outside these introductory pieces, the read is pretty quick with half the book being half black-and-white photographs with captions. Some capture the same individual in multiple ways such as a progression of years and others reach to provide more named individuals.

There were two parts in the actual book that worried me - the first is the book clearly uses hearsay and gossip without checking sources or leaving it out. And secondly the book's author changed part of the way using the word monsters more for his section on composite individuals instead of according them the respect as he did with those who were born as solo sufferers of their condition(s).

All in all it was informative and.a fascinating subject although most was not rather new to me given my prior interest in this subject.

[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.