Plotted: A Literary Atlas

by Andrew DeGraff, Daniel G. Harmon (Essays)

Lost in a book? There's a map for that.

This incredibly wide-ranging collection of maps―all inspired by literary classics―offers readers a new way of looking at their favorite fictional worlds. Andrew DeGraff's stunningly detailed artwork takes readers deep into the landscapes from The Odyssey , Hamlet , Robinson Crusoe , Pride and Prejudice , Invisible Man , A Wrinkle in Time , Watership Down , Moby Dick , Around the World in Eighty Days, A Christmas Carol , Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Waiting for Godot, and more. Sure to reignite a love for old favorites and spark fresh interest in more recent works as well, Plotted provides a unique new way of appreciating the lands of the human imagination.

"A unique, display-ready volume of great allure and pleasure."―starred, Booklist

"[A] rewarding excursion across the literary landscape that will be cherished by map enthusiasts as well as bibliophiles."―starred, Publishers Weekly

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Art, Maps, Classics, Reference, Essays

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2015

Reviews

[Book Riot Community]

EPIC NERDPURR ALERT. This is a collection of beautifully detailed maps of literary places, including Watership Down, A Christmas Carol, Pride and Prejudice, and more. This is a MUST for book lovers. And a perfect gift - I wouldn't wait until the holidays to get it. My retail bookstore experience radar tells me this will be hard to get come December. IT'S SO COOL.


Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/category/all-the-...

[Athena Shardbearer · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The writer is an explorer. Every step is an advance into new land."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books are life...right? And art/design is my life, so when you bring the two together I just start throwing money at whatever company/person/designer/author. What makes this book unique are the maps of major events that happen in literary classics. Imagine a map of what and where Odyssey is in his adventure, or the different scenes in Hamlet and how they played out. To be fair, I haven't read all the stories of all the maps in this book but this encourages me to pick them up and have some sort of map that will move me through the story.

"You need to understand the big picture in order to see what you still have to learn. You need to know how things fit together before you'll be able to take them apart."

As a designer, I was taught to map out my ideas and thoughts and sometimes those thoughts and ideas will take you places you least expect. You know why I love fantasy and scifi so much, one, I love the setting and the lore, two, these books almost always come with a map. I have some sense of where the story is, where its going and where it will end up. I know where the bad guys and good guys are and what side I want to be on. I have a more realistic concept of the characters and I have some kind of connections to them because there is this visual.

These literary maps are beautiful and raw and they have a Monument Valley feel to them. (If you haven't played Monument Valley...I HIGHLY recommend it. I wish they would add more levels to that game.) The more you look into the map, the more you find. All design and art work has to have a flow so your eyes can travel from one side to the other bringing you full circle and that is the job of the designer to make that happen. It also reminds you of important scenes in the book and bring you back to when you first read them. I love that, bringing back old memories that you thought you had forgotten. It's like visiting an old friend that you haven't seen in years and even though its been so long you still are best friends.

I love this book, the only thing that bothered me was the quality of the paper. I'm a graphic designer and if you met one that isn't a paper fanatic then something isn't quite right......

Read this book, enjoy it, and I HOPE HOPE HOPE the designer decides to create a second book and include the Dune map that didn't make the cut. I WANT IT!!!! GIVE ME DUNE!!!!!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw the beautiful cover of this book at the library and had to grab it off the shelf on an utter whim. Plotted is a book of literary maps, but not the type you might see at the beginning of a fantasy novel. The artist has mapped out the plot, often with arrows indicating the actions of the main characters throughout the settings of the book. They should be wall art or t-shirt art. And I want more of them for my favorites. I've definitely been inspired to do some re-reads of books like The Odyssey and Huckleberry Finn. Some of these, I've read in the last year. Some of the maps are underwhelming, but the great ones still make it worth taking a look.

The novels, poems, and stories that are mapped in this book are:
The Odyssey ... need to re-read, a favorite map
Hamlet
Robinson Crusoe ... a favorite map
Pride and Prejudice
A Christmas Carol
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass ... need to read, a favorite map
Moby Dick
"A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" by Emily Dickinson
Around the World in Eighty Days
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ... need to re-read, a favorite map
Report to the academy
The Library of Babel
The Lottery
Invisible Man ... need to read
Waiting for Godot
A Good Man Is Hard To Find ... a favorite map
A Wrinkle in Time ... a favorite map
Watership Down ... map reminds me why I couldn't finish this book
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

For a sneak peek, check out this article about the book: http://www.citylab.com/design/2015/10...

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There's no escaping the fact that maps today are used primarily as a means for locating ourselves and our destinations. But those are the kinds of maps that we also discard upon arrival. These maps are different, I hope. These are maps for people who seek to travel beyond the lives and places that they already know (or think they know). The goal here isn't to become found, but only to become more lost."

Author/illustrator Andrew DeGraff has created maps for nineteen books and short stories including The Odyssey, Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, Invisible Man, A Wrinkle in Time, Watership Down, A Christmas Carol, and more. Some were delightful, surprising, and wonderful; some were less so.

[Pao Galindo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro fue desarrollado principalmente por el cartógrafo y también lector Andrew DeGraff, contiene una sinopsis muy bien elaborada de 19 obras clásicas de todos los géneros y por supuesto 19 mapas que acompañan cada historia, entre las que podemos leer: Hamlet, La Odisea, Orgullo y Perjuicio, Moby Dick y otras.

Este libro toma obras clásicas que no cuentan con una representación visual para sus lectores, es decir, no son libros que ya contienen un mapa, como Juego de Tronos; o bien libros que ya tienen un universo visual construido como Harry Potter. Más bien toma la idea de lo que el lector ya hace en su mente al introducirse a una historia poniendole cara a los personajes y escenario a las escenas y lo retrata, de una manera, debo decir, muy bonita y colorida.

En una página te narra la escencia del libro, el mensaje del mismo, y la descripción de visual que se pretende retratar y en una a cinco páginas te ilustra los mapas.

Personalmente solo he leido la mitad de las obras que presenta, y me encantó seguir los mapas y entender en una imagen toda una novela. En los otros casos considero muy buena la sinopsis hecha, pero los mapas, evidentemente carecían de contexto en mi mente.

Las ilustraciones me parecen maravillosas y mi favorita es Hamlet, me impresionó la representación de una obra de teatro de 5 actos en mapas. Wow

[RumBelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was, on the one hand, detailed and creative and on the other blank and uninformative. It had literary maps in it from such books as the Odyssey, Hamlet, Robinson Crusoe and many other classics. Some of these maps were multilayered, and extremely detailed. For example, the Odyssey map showed the Mediterranean, with all the locales from the poem on it, along with lines showing the path of Odysseus journey. The illustration of such places as Scylla and Charybdis, the Underworld and Circe's Island were bright, vibrant and energetic. Then, on the reverse side we have maps from A Christmas Carol. Each chapter has it's own map. Each map is just a picture of a village, with different colored lines for each character. The pictures of the village are bland and monochromatic, no structures or items within the village are labeled, so you can follow the lines, but you have no idea what they lead to. The book was, to me, conflicted in the amount of information it represented. The art, for the most part, was colorful and amazing, and before each map was a short informative piece by DeGraff talking about the book and what would be on the maps. Not the best, nor the worst, book of this type I have read.

[Gabriel Benitez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trazado es un bonito libro de mapas que no te va a servir de nada si no has leído las obras sobre las que marca sus rutas. Es un libro de lindas ilustraciones que son realmente mapas para el futuro, me refiero a mapas que cobrarán sentido en cuanto tu hayas leído las novelas o los relatos de los que muestra mapas: el castillo de Elsinore y las rutas de sus habitantes en Hamlet; el Londres invernal del Sr. Scrooge en Cuento de Navidad ; el pequeño pueblo con un secreto horrible de La Lotería de Shirley Jackson ; el plano del pequod y la disección de Moby Dick entre varios más.
Bonito y entretenido.

[Scott Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I am paralyzed by the wealth of another creator’s imagination and the dedication they’ve clearly committed to realizing their vision in that moment or work. In “Plotted”, DeGraff doesn’t just generate maps from works of fiction – there are lots of those in the world already. He plots character developments graphically, tracking the presence of players - or their ideas - in one space over another. Many of them are not maps in a traditional sense at all. Outstanding examples of this include the maps that comprise the evolution of Robinson Crusoe’s sense of the island he’s stranded on (and his state of mind), the necessary minimalism of Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”, and the head game that is an interpretation of Dickinson’s poem, “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass.” I’m glad I didn’t see it before my most recent book came out. It would have stopped me cold, trying to conceive of how else I might further manipulate the collection. This is aesthetically engaging, intellectually challenging, and tightly edited for maximum effect, which is to say it pushed all of my buttons.

[Tehanu]

Seriously, when a book comes with a map it's a huge bonus.
And this is a Literary Atlas, guys! Sounds amazing!!!
Besides, I spy with my little eye certain Austen couple in the cover *fangirls*

I mean, check this out:



Thats Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne for you.

WANT!!

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This original compilation is well-written and visually engaging. The brief essays are intelligent and pensive while the maps are eclectic and very imaginative. However, some representations are stronger than others. The cartographer states in the introduction that the duo originally conceived fifty literary entries; the included nineteen, however, seem suitable in length and artistry. And, unfortunately, the map I was most interested in (A Christmas Carol) contained errors and omissions worthy of an errata. Recommended but with reservations.

[Dawnelle Wilkie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maps! Books! What more could you want?

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plotted: A Literary Atlas
Author: Andrew DeGraff and Daniel Harmon
Publisher: Pulp / Zest Books
Published In: San Francisco, CA
Date: 2015
Pgs: 126

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
Maps of literary classics. A graphic representation of character journeys. Providing a unique vision of novels from The Odyssey, Watership Down, Invisible Man, and more.

Genre:
Academics
Adventure
Behind the Scenes
Classics
Fiction
Maps
Non-fiction
Short stories

Why this book:
Maps and books...I’m in.
______________________________________________________________________________

The Feel:
While I like the concept of the book, it isn’t firing my imagination like I wanted it too. I expected maps of literary classics to awaken me. But...while I do enjoy it on some level, just not what I expected.

Your enjoyment of this book is increased in the maps of stories that you love as opposed to those you feel meh about.

Favorite Scene / Quote:
Surprisingly, the Pride and Prejudice map summarizes the story very succinctly with its broken bridges and roadblocks.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
The Hamlet maps of Elsinore would be better served if they were huge.

Hmm Moments:
The Robinson Crusoe maps are well done. Crusoe’s progress through the story is well laid out. And the first map taken in context with the 2nd and 3rd communicates his isolation so very well.

Rare book that is both Fiction and Non-Fiction.

WTF Moments:
The Odysseus map clearly shows us that our man, Ody, didn’t want to go home too soon. Either that or he was truly one of the first travellers to not stop and ask for directions.
______________________________________________________________________________

Last Page Sound:
The maps outshine the essays that accompany them. The maps are the book’s reason for being. Just wish that the writer or editor would have pushed a bit harder.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
it’s alright

Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library
South Campus
Irving, TX

Dewey Decimal System:
809.9332
D321p

Would recommend to:
genre fans
______________________________________________________________________________

[Carmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love maps and books, so I was very excited when I saw a review for this. The author creates maps for books in which they were not already included (so you won't find Narnia or Middle Earth here) which is an interesting exercise. The maps are also largely concerned with the characters' movements throughout the story. Some are beautiful (Around the World in 80 Days), some difficult to read (Christmas Carol and Huck Finn) and some look like maps reenacting old miliary manuevers (Watership Down.)
I don't know if it is due to paper or printing quality, but it seemed like much of the book was sort of hazy and out of focus giving it a muddy, hard to read quality which was a bit of a turn off.

[Sara J. (kefuwa) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review pending.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante. Hay mapas muy chulos y otros menos impresionantes. La elección de libros a mapear me ha parecido muy acertada.

[Katie Dantrassy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love maps. I love books. Maps + Books is my Mecca. How fun!

[Diptakirti Chaudhuri]

18. A cool concept... Andrew DeGraff makes beautiful maps of the journeys undertaken in classic English novels. From the obvious ones (Robinson Crusoe, Phileas Fogg, Huckleberry Finn, Odysseus) to some unusual ones which you don't think as journeys (Pride and Prejudice, Hamlet).
The illustrations are detailed and bring in perspectives that one may have missed.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books and maps and this book combines them in a creative way. The maps are lovely.

[Lisajean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful!

[Shannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to return this one to the library before I could really complete it - not a cover to cover read anyway, at least not for me.
Just spending time exploring each map of books you have already read is a pleasure enough.

You can find new books and rediscover old ones. Amy has done a stellar effort linking all the works in her review. I plan to read some of the ones I've not heard of before and if I ever see this at a book fair I will snap it up for my curio collection.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book! Looking forward to finding his others. The text is fine. Wasn't blown away as the real charm of this book lies in the illustrations, though I did enjoy the essays that accompanied them. But I have to give it five stars for the artwork. Especially for Watership Down!

[Peggy Tibbetts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story inspires the imagination of the reader. In the mind of artist Andrew DeGraff, a great story inspires mapmaking. DeGraff’s conceptualization of story via mapmaking – as in the mythic structure of story as the hero’s journey – was what initially piqued my interest in this book. “Plotted: A Literary Atlas” contains maps of 19 classical works of literature that seemed to be chosen for what each reveals about humankind during the era in which it was written.

Like the literature these maps are based on, each map is a work of art full of brilliant colors, stark contrasts, and unforgettable images. The maps trace the characters’ journeys, be they Odysseus’ long way home to Ithaca or Hamlet’s descent into madness behind the castle walls of Elsinore. Not all of these are maps in the true sense of the word. Melville’s “Moby Dick” is illustrated with diagrams of the Pequod and the whale, while Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” comically depicts Vladimir and Estragon as empty conversation bubbles huddled in a reddish-orange void.

Because of the uniqueness of each map, it is impossible to pick favorites. But readers will likely discover an emotional connection to those maps created from their favorite stories. For me the cosmic map of L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” comes eerily close to how I imagine the power of the tesseract enabled the Murry children to leap from one dimension to the next without the aid of a joystick. And Borges’ “The Library of Babel” map of exponentially expanding hexagons filled with bookshelves recalled my own fascination with libraries as a child.

What is most striking about these maps is how they not only portray the main elements of story -- setting, plot, characters, conflict and theme – but also the tone and mood, all of which is in keeping with DeGraff’s objective to depict the essence of what each story is about. And just as imagination draws readers into a good story, DeGraff’s maps, assisted by editor Daniel Harmon’s essays, lure readers into another literary dimension that is as challenging as it is satisfying. “Plotted: A Literary Atlas” opens an intriguing portal for readers to get lost in a good book.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visual representation is in a golden age right now. Everybody is all about the infographic, the efficient distillation of data and/or ideas into images that are easy to understand - and perhaps show that information from a different angle, one which gives us more insight into the material. Magazines plot trends onto hot-or-not axes, sandwiches are examined in exploded diagrams, hell, you can even try to parse the federal budget in a verrry complicated bubble chart.

The best of these products are art in their own right, hence everybody and their brother always trying to give me the U.S. Forest Service's Cocktail Construction Chart and Super Graphic. Firmly in this category is Plotted, a collection of essays and maps examining 19 works of literature. It's beautiful. Finely drawn and richly colored, full of detail, it invites the reader to sink in and examine every inch. The map of Crusoe's island evolves as the castaway explores it, names it and tames it. The cast of Hamlet creeps around the castle like little Billy dawdling on his way home in a Family Circle comic.

This book came into the house and I was thrilled, but I figured only I would be interested in it. Not so. Milo, who is 14, snatched it up. The first map is the Aegean as traveled by Odysseus in The Odyssey - an obvious choice, as the story correlates to place so closely, and a story that my son knows. However, once he got the concept - and this is where opening with The Odyssey is a genius move - he moved on to books that he doesn't know.

"Hey, mom," he says. "Who are the Willoughbys?" I was driving, so I asked him what he was looking at. "Well the guy's drawn their house like they're pretending they're fine and they have money, but behind the front wall it's all crumbling." So there you go. When and if he reads Pride and Prejudice he's going to be armed with insight into how the families jockey for stature and the consequences of the matches that the young people make.

All my picks for best books to give this holiday are at http://www.unadulterated.us/pink-me/2...

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for lovers of literature and illustrations.

Other reviewers talk about this as a map book. But I think Andrew DeGraff has produced, not a 'map' book per se, but a personal graphical interpretation for an eclectic array of literary works. He's somehow managed to capture the feel and essence of each book. These are not straightforward illustrations of characters going from point A to point B or simply maps of the setting. They're more like book reviews via illustration instead of words.

I read one review that commented on the fact that the maps (there's that word again) varied too much in quality - i.e. some were complex and dark, difficult to read, others were simple (an issue DeGraff admits to in his introduction). This, to me, is what makes the book work. It makes sense that the map of a dark and twisty story like Madeleine L'Engle's, A Wrinkle in Time should be vividly dark and twisty; and that the mapping of Robinson Crusoe should start out an unspecified green blob in the middle of the sea, progress to a dark and scary place full of unknown beasts and cannibals, finally to end up a bright and fully realized map of the island after Crusoe has settled in and made the island his home. The more I look at the illustrations, the more I see DeGraff's vision of each book. Fascinating stuff.

I should also mention the individual essays by Daniel Harmon that accompany each set of maps are very good. They provide useful background and context and, to me, were essential reminders of the individual works.

I have not re-shelved this book. I keep it out as a coffee table book - to be perused from time to time and to share with visitors who might find it interesting.

[Westminster Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

A unique book with synopsis of famous stories and the inclusion of a visual map or maps for each. This book is well worth a look through as the concept is so unusual. Everyone should recognize a few of the stories as ones you have read.

Find Plotted: A Literary Atlas at the Westminster Public Library.

[Juliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deserves five stars based on its creativity and ingenuity. I'm completely bias in that I love maps and naturally love books so read this in one sitting. I wish the book was published as a coffee table, large scale format. Already looking forward to its sequels.

[MadziaB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting approach to analysis of the great classics. As I was brought up in Poland, still have to read (should say want to read ;) a lot of them. Andrew DeGraff made a nice introduction, summary. Novel, and intriguing idea. Beautiful illustrations.

[Inky Frog · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of beautiful illustrations of unconventional maps. The essays included with each map are also great reads. This book would be a fun companion as you read any of the chosen books. The maps definitely sparked my interest in rereading some of the stories. I want more!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I haven't read many of the books featured, this was still an amazing feat of creativity to enjoy.

[két con · Rating 4 out of 5]

đẹp kinh dị! hehe