Amarant: The Flora and Fauna of Atlantis by a Lady Botanist

by Una Woodruff

Drawings depict imaginary plants, supposedly growing on the island of Atlantis, that whimsically resemble insects, birds, and animals

Genres: Art, Fantasy

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an intriguing addition to my Paper Tiger collection. The book itself purports to extracts to a series of journals Una discovered which date back 300 years. The story of the artist and her adventures are told at the start of the book, oh how she found her wat to Amarant and her life there and the subsequent cataloguing of the flora which adorn these pages.

The book itself is filled (to almost the exclusion of everything else) with amazingly creative fantasy plants the work that went in to these pieces is beyond measure. However I do wish there was more material on the plants life and environment as I felt there as so much more material to be had.

That said as a journey through fantastic plants and the marvellous and to be honest utterly bizarre creations there is a lot of fun here. You can tell that there is a love of painting flora almost as much as there is for telling a tall tale.

This is a beautiful addition to the collection and one I am please to have added - I just wish there was more to it/

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite books of all time. I found my copy in a secondhand shop in Oxford when I was 12 and have been hauling it around with me ever since.

[Morpheus Lunae · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of a 3.4 but GR has a really useless rating system.
Let's get the negatives out of the way: The framing narrative is not very well written, full of tropes, cringy things, and, to be honest, the book would be much better if the introduction had been no more than three pages. There is also quite a bit of repetition in the drawings/paintings but that's just a minor thing.
On the other hand, this work was released in the same year as the (in)famous Codex Seraphinianus and it's very interesting how similar some of their ideas are (even though, of course, the Codex is more vast in its world-building and so much work and ideas put into it) when it comes to merging every day objects - in this case: plants and animals. The pictures in the second half of the book are quite a sight and very inspiring. If the whole book had been of that quality I would've really loved it. Woodruff also seems to have released a similar work even before this one. So I guess I will have to track that one down as well.

[Kest Schwartzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

three stars might be harsh, but the frame story, while only a tiny portion of the book, is truly terrible. The illustrations are great, though, and this book is well worth picking up for them (just... don't read the story. Seriously. It's bad enough to marginally cut into the potential enjoyment from the speculative evolution of the illustrations)

[Raechel Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The illustrations are gorgeous and the descriptions clever. The frame story is the weakest part of the book, with two dimensional characters and cliched motivations.

[Sion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the idea and drawings. Haresfoot fern is still one of my favourite illustrations ever. Originally picked this book up from a remainder table for $2, just bought a friend a copy because she (the only other person I've ever met who knows what the book is) had been wanting it for years.