What do you think?
Rate this book
Death: A Graveside Companion
Death is an inevitable fact of life. Throughout the centuries and around the world, humanity has sought to come to terms with this sobering thought through art and ritual.
A volume of unprecedented breadth and sinister beauty, Death: A Graveside Companion examines a staggering range of cultural attitudes to death within seven themed chapters. Nineteen experts contribute thought-provoking essays on specific aspects of humanity’s cultural legacy of ideas concerning death. The essays are followed by gallery pages presenting a breathtaking variety of death-related imagery drawn from every major culture, from Neolithic China and Bronze Age Mexico to medieval Germany, 18th-century Nepal and 20th-century France.
From catacombs, crypts and bone-pits to reliquaries, embalmings and mummies, and from memento mori, vanitas and danse macabre to vernacular tokens, found photography and curios from bygone rituals, this astonishing compendium features more than 1,000 images and incorporates high art, kitsch and all points in between.
With a foreword by Will Self and featuring never-before-published photographs of many of the wide-ranging and eclectic art, artifacts and ephemera found in the Richard Harris Art Collection, Death: A Graveside Companion is a book like no other, packed with morbid inspiration and macabre insights to take to the grave.
A volume of unprecedented breadth and sinister beauty, Death: A Graveside Companion examines a staggering range of cultural attitudes to death within seven themed chapters. Nineteen experts contribute thought-provoking essays on specific aspects of humanity’s cultural legacy of ideas concerning death. The essays are followed by gallery pages presenting a breathtaking variety of death-related imagery drawn from every major culture, from Neolithic China and Bronze Age Mexico to medieval Germany, 18th-century Nepal and 20th-century France.
From catacombs, crypts and bone-pits to reliquaries, embalmings and mummies, and from memento mori, vanitas and danse macabre to vernacular tokens, found photography and curios from bygone rituals, this astonishing compendium features more than 1,000 images and incorporates high art, kitsch and all points in between.
With a foreword by Will Self and featuring never-before-published photographs of many of the wide-ranging and eclectic art, artifacts and ephemera found in the Richard Harris Art Collection, Death: A Graveside Companion is a book like no other, packed with morbid inspiration and macabre insights to take to the grave.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published October 26, 2017
53 people are currently reading
2383 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
June 29, 2019
You know, there's nothing like a graphic investigation into the imagery of death to provide a kind of mortal "oh, is that the time?" feeling in the reader. This is, undoubtedly, the role of the Ebenstein-edited tome on funerary fetishism and the culture of the crypt: to examine how humanity has dealt with its ceaseless tramp towards death through creativity. It's certainly the way I felt while flicking through its Grim Reaper-filled pages: tempus fugit. Death is coming, but hell, people have made some strange stuff to herald its coming. (Little trees of hair, anyone?)
Aside from this, the book reiterated that skulls are cool.
Ebenstein's book contains a bunch of essays about different types of death representation throughout the world, broadly broken up into themes: memorialisation, amusement, symbolism, personification and so on. There's a lot of food for thought in there, but it's more superficial than deep: each essay (there's two or three for each of the seven chapters, not counting Will Self's introduction) is only a couple of pages long. I certainly have my interest piqued, though I feel that I'm kind of left to my own devices to find out where to go from here.
That's understandable though, perhaps, given that the real draw of this book is its copious illustration. There's more than 1000 images inside, from ex libris plates to statuary, from bagpipe-playing deaths to properly grim reapers. And yep, you'll find something in here that you haven't seen before that'll prompt a little bit of contemplation of the way your sands are inevitably running out.
The bulk of the images here come from the Richard Harris Art Collection. (No, not the 'MacArthur Park' Richard Harris. The other one.) And they're clear and offer a survey of death that's pretty broad. Ancient history and modern gewgaws feature with a similar level of importance, offering plenty of fuel for consideration.
The layout choices of the book are, generally, impeccable. The colour reproductions are excellent, and the creators have elected to portray double-page spreads with gutters rather than bleed images across the centre, which means that though you're left with white-line interruptions, you never lose any detail of the imagery in the stitching or folds. It's thoughtful. The quality of photographs never falls below excellent, either. And hell, the book smells great, too. Thames and Hudson have created a very covetable artefact here.
The one thing that's a pain in the arse is the way text is presented in the book. Between each generous collection of images is a series of rougher-stock essays on various topics. The essays, while not especially rigorous, are entertaining enough, and convey a fair whack of information on topics ranging from reliquaries to theatre to memento mori. But they're printed in bronze type on dark paper, which is up there with yellow-on-red for difficulty to read. I needed very direct light on the book to get through these sections, and I'm not exactly a mole in the ocular department. I get it, presenting the information this way is indeed goth as fuck but it's irritating to the reader. I struggled through the essays but the difficulty made me feel as if the book wanted to be more of a picture-book than anything else, and that this presentation conveys the feeling that the text is secondary to the images, and could perhaps be brushed over.
This is definitely a coffee-table book rather than an academic tome. You won't learn as much about a particularly concentrated area of death as you will by reading Jessica Mitford's An American Way of Death . But you will spend a very pleasant/unsettling couple of hours contemplating death in a way you most likely do not usually: that's a worthwhile accomplishment in itself.
Aside from this, the book reiterated that skulls are cool.
Ebenstein's book contains a bunch of essays about different types of death representation throughout the world, broadly broken up into themes: memorialisation, amusement, symbolism, personification and so on. There's a lot of food for thought in there, but it's more superficial than deep: each essay (there's two or three for each of the seven chapters, not counting Will Self's introduction) is only a couple of pages long. I certainly have my interest piqued, though I feel that I'm kind of left to my own devices to find out where to go from here.
That's understandable though, perhaps, given that the real draw of this book is its copious illustration. There's more than 1000 images inside, from ex libris plates to statuary, from bagpipe-playing deaths to properly grim reapers. And yep, you'll find something in here that you haven't seen before that'll prompt a little bit of contemplation of the way your sands are inevitably running out.
The bulk of the images here come from the Richard Harris Art Collection. (No, not the 'MacArthur Park' Richard Harris. The other one.) And they're clear and offer a survey of death that's pretty broad. Ancient history and modern gewgaws feature with a similar level of importance, offering plenty of fuel for consideration.
The layout choices of the book are, generally, impeccable. The colour reproductions are excellent, and the creators have elected to portray double-page spreads with gutters rather than bleed images across the centre, which means that though you're left with white-line interruptions, you never lose any detail of the imagery in the stitching or folds. It's thoughtful. The quality of photographs never falls below excellent, either. And hell, the book smells great, too. Thames and Hudson have created a very covetable artefact here.
The one thing that's a pain in the arse is the way text is presented in the book. Between each generous collection of images is a series of rougher-stock essays on various topics. The essays, while not especially rigorous, are entertaining enough, and convey a fair whack of information on topics ranging from reliquaries to theatre to memento mori. But they're printed in bronze type on dark paper, which is up there with yellow-on-red for difficulty to read. I needed very direct light on the book to get through these sections, and I'm not exactly a mole in the ocular department. I get it, presenting the information this way is indeed goth as fuck but it's irritating to the reader. I struggled through the essays but the difficulty made me feel as if the book wanted to be more of a picture-book than anything else, and that this presentation conveys the feeling that the text is secondary to the images, and could perhaps be brushed over.
This is definitely a coffee-table book rather than an academic tome. You won't learn as much about a particularly concentrated area of death as you will by reading Jessica Mitford's An American Way of Death . But you will spend a very pleasant/unsettling couple of hours contemplating death in a way you most likely do not usually: that's a worthwhile accomplishment in itself.
January 30, 2018
I can't tell you how weirdly comforting it was to connect with centuries of people confronting death for these 360 pages or so.
January 15, 2021
It was a little difficult rating this book so low, because it was quite lovely. But the choice to place a dark text on dark pages made it almost impossible for me to read without the aid of bright lights.
I'm surprised this wasn't addressed during the design phase of the book, since it would alienate anyone with poor vision. And going by the reviews, even people with better eyesight have struggled with this one.
I'm surprised this wasn't addressed during the design phase of the book, since it would alienate anyone with poor vision. And going by the reviews, even people with better eyesight have struggled with this one.
July 13, 2020
4 1/4 stars
October 24, 2021
The art in this book is good, I just don't think the quality of the essays is on average very good.
August 16, 2022
4.5/5 - Ce livre propose une étude de la mort par le biais de l'histoire de l'iconographie et de l'esthétisme. Très complet, on y découvre autant la danse macabre que la photographie spirite que la création de bijoux avec des reliques humaines. Très complexe, le rapport de l'homme à sa mortalité se transpose dans des oeuvres artistiques et des études anatomiques. Même si l'aspect religieux (au sens large) est toujours présent, on sent dans les oeuvres présentées cette volonté d'apprivoiser la mort, de lui donner un visage, de briser la solitude du mort. Édifiée en réelle divinité par plusieurs peuples, les traditions funéraires sont autant diversifiées que surprenantes. Le seul petit bémol tient, selon moi, de la mise en page très chargée ainsi que de la couleur du texte doré sur pages blanches qui rend ardue la lecture. À découvrir en duo avec "Cabinets de curiosités : la passion de la collection" de Christine Davenne.
November 21, 2025
This book didn’t meet my expectations but it is beautiful and well made. It’s a coffee table book with short, academic essays about how death is represented in art. Will use as decoration next year for Halloween but wouldn’t necessarily recommend.
Four stars mostly for the volume of art, visual design and the construction of the book itself.
Four stars mostly for the volume of art, visual design and the construction of the book itself.
January 5, 2025
Ended up looking at the pictures.
September 14, 2022
An absolutely beautiful book of cultural depictions of, and reactions to death. Stunning.
April 11, 2020
Magnificent.
A truly superb tome, if you want to learn anything about death pick up this beauty and it will tell you, I even learnt some things and I am as morbid and as death obsessed as they come.
A thousand stunning pictures are enclosed in these covers and they take your breath away. You will go back to this time and time again, once, like me, you read it pretty much in one go.
So informative and beautiful and down right incredible, love love love.
🖤⚰️🖤
A truly superb tome, if you want to learn anything about death pick up this beauty and it will tell you, I even learnt some things and I am as morbid and as death obsessed as they come.
A thousand stunning pictures are enclosed in these covers and they take your breath away. You will go back to this time and time again, once, like me, you read it pretty much in one go.
So informative and beautiful and down right incredible, love love love.
🖤⚰️🖤
Want to read
January 7, 2018this book is straight-up goth catnip. it's great.
April 26, 2020
This should actually be called "The Art of Death" because it is mostly reprints of art depicting death.
September 9, 2020
This is easily one of my favourite books that I own (and I do indeed own many). Perhaps because I've always been fascinated by death, or more specifically, our attitudes as humans towards death.
I'm also a massive fan of art and of macabre and medical things in general, so this book really is a dream come true. There are depictions in here ranging from Theda Bara (cinema's first sex symbol) to the Romantic concept of Death And The Maiden and much, much more. Even if you do little reading, there are so many fabulous images in here to positively pour over. The book itself is also presented rather beautifully with a gilded spine and excellent quality paper stock, as you'd hope from an art book. I cannot recommend it enough for that.
My only complaint -and unfortunately, it's big enough to deduct a whole star- is that the essays are nigh unreadable to my eyes. Because of the relatively dark text against the dark brown paper, it's horrible to read as someone who is prone to migraines. In order to comfortably read it, I have to get out a magnifying glass and well... that's just absurd. This might not be an issue for everybody, mind you, but it was a big enough issue for me to make this book less than perfect; if this issue wasn't present, I wouldn't have thought twice about giving this book 5 stars.
I'm also a massive fan of art and of macabre and medical things in general, so this book really is a dream come true. There are depictions in here ranging from Theda Bara (cinema's first sex symbol) to the Romantic concept of Death And The Maiden and much, much more. Even if you do little reading, there are so many fabulous images in here to positively pour over. The book itself is also presented rather beautifully with a gilded spine and excellent quality paper stock, as you'd hope from an art book. I cannot recommend it enough for that.
My only complaint -and unfortunately, it's big enough to deduct a whole star- is that the essays are nigh unreadable to my eyes. Because of the relatively dark text against the dark brown paper, it's horrible to read as someone who is prone to migraines. In order to comfortably read it, I have to get out a magnifying glass and well... that's just absurd. This might not be an issue for everybody, mind you, but it was a big enough issue for me to make this book less than perfect; if this issue wasn't present, I wouldn't have thought twice about giving this book 5 stars.
April 3, 2020
I think what drew me slightly away from this book is that the subject of death in human culture is a field not many, including myself, are not as interested in. I also feel like it was often too heavily written to be as enjoyable as it could have been and focuses too much on the western perception of death.
What drew me to the book, to begin with, was my appreciation for the aesthetic and artistry of death. This book has plenty of that and even descriptions going into the symbolism of the images, which is all great, even if I do feel like the book is a bit too rigid when it comes to the interpretations it makes.
I would recommend it to those fascinated by both the cultural and aesthetic aspects of death, though I would first and foremost recommend it to someone who is keenly interested in both, even though it is a bit culturally limited.
What drew me to the book, to begin with, was my appreciation for the aesthetic and artistry of death. This book has plenty of that and even descriptions going into the symbolism of the images, which is all great, even if I do feel like the book is a bit too rigid when it comes to the interpretations it makes.
I would recommend it to those fascinated by both the cultural and aesthetic aspects of death, though I would first and foremost recommend it to someone who is keenly interested in both, even though it is a bit culturally limited.
January 28, 2023
A very good looking volume with some good information. The sections are particularly useful and cover a range of cultures (though some notably missing). I would, however, have liked specific sections on the beauty of death (depictions and perceptions) to balance the shock factor terror photos, something on coping mechanisms, and the positive and negative impact the fascination of death has on those still living. The essays seemed a little too conversational in places and missed some opportunities to really educate on the different taboos and preconceptions of cultural death practices. Whilst such volumes can never be exhaustive I felt this was a notable gap in a companion. Otherwise, a very interesting read. There is a real knowledge and fascination with this subject that will draw me to dip back into this book for some time. Recommend.
February 23, 2020
Death is a heavy topic, and "Death: A Graveside Companion" is a heavy book, both physically and informationally. While it's not a carry-to-the-beach easy read, it's definitely worth the effort to read for anyone interested in the place of death in human culture. The text is well-researched and filled with details and fascinating tidbits (the only drawback is that it's kind of hard to read - brown ink on black background. I might urge the publisher to maybe rethink the colors in future editions). In between the section of texts are page after glossy page of beautiful illustrations, photos and drawings of all things connected to death and mortality. Read it, and savor it.
October 11, 2024
The essays included in this work are interesting and thought provoking, I particularly enjoyed the examining and memoralizing the dead chapters and was stunned to learn later in the work about death becoming a part of immersive entertainment in the early 1900's. The images selected cover a wide range of subjects that fall under the books title, from portraits and sketches to photographs they all offer a unique perspective and insight. My one tiny criticism was the many images featured under the 'Dance of Death' that could feel repetitive. Stood alone they are interesting pictures but all together they can merge.
April 11, 2018
This book has quite a few wide-ranging and well-written essays, and a phenomenal collection of Art. It's the Mutter on steriods. It's overwhelming and morose and morbid and death decadent. And I love it.
This tome has enough to serve as a daily Memento Mori. It covers the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Denaissance, Thanatos and Eros, Gothic lit, funeral efficies, the Last Judgement, Day of the Dead, Egypt, the Sacred Profane dichotomy, the Dance of Death, etc.
It's probably on of the most perfect coffee table books to exist.
This tome has enough to serve as a daily Memento Mori. It covers the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Denaissance, Thanatos and Eros, Gothic lit, funeral efficies, the Last Judgement, Day of the Dead, Egypt, the Sacred Profane dichotomy, the Dance of Death, etc.
It's probably on of the most perfect coffee table books to exist.
January 2, 2025
Memento mori & vanitas genres, post-mortem photographs, forget me not accessories, Dance Macabre, The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, Death & The Maiden, taphophobia, Homo bulla, guillotining, anatomic Venus/jesus, ossuaries, catacombs, relics and reliquaries, Teatrini della Morte, Triumph of Death, Les Diableries, death masks, fantasmagorie– haunted attraction prototype, morbidus ex libris, Grand Guignol theatre (A Crime in a Madhouse, 1925), Tête de mort postcards…
October 17, 2018
It's a very good introduction to everything related to death. I have love to read it and my expectations are fully fulfilled. The beautiful pictures inside are very interesting and they give a good overview about art and the topic "death" in every meaning. The different authors of the short essays have a clear and figurative speach. I highly recommend it to everyone who wants to start with the topic of death as a cultural and as an art topic.
November 29, 2018
This is a lovely collection of art that relates to death, as well as some well researched thoughts reguarding the subject. Described as a book of "1,000 macarbe images" this is one of the most beautiful books that I have read and explores a subject that I am particularialy interested in in a new way.
August 5, 2022
Very beautiful coffeetable book with plenty of art and paraphenalia concerning death, dying and the afterlife. The introductory essays to each chapter weren't always successful in getting their point across or making one in the first place. Nonetheless, it's an educating and impressive volume about a topic everyone should get a grip on individually in this day and age.
December 12, 2022
I would have like to be able to rate this book higher because I really liked the art and the concept but I didnt enjoy actually reading it because of the choice of letter and paper colouring.
The experience overshadowed the actually content because I found it hard to engage with the book due to its styling.
The experience overshadowed the actually content because I found it hard to engage with the book due to its styling.
May 12, 2019
Really wish they had not decided to print the essays in tan on brown paper. Very headache inducing. Luckily, the essays are pretty rudimentary (2 to 3 pages each, 3 in each chapter). One has this for the illustrations. They are gorgeous, if often a bit haphazardly grouped.
September 9, 2020
This is a really excellent assemblage of essays on the topic of death in arts and culture from around the world. The photos are beautiful and the essays well curated, I've added this book to my collection of absolute favourites!
February 9, 2024
this book took me ages to get through, but i found what the assorted contributors had to say very interesting, so it was worth it. one downside: the contrast between the text and the page color was generally very low, which made reading a difficult experience!
January 24, 2018
This book was lavishly illustrated. It was interesting but a little overwhelming at times.
February 9, 2018
Beautiful and macabre collection of photographs, art, essays, etc on death. Love me some dead bodies and apocalyptic scenes yo.
August 18, 2018
Fantastic book with a massive amount of reference for artists. I came across it by accident in a local shop and am very happy I did.
March 4, 2019
The essays are interesting and the visuals are gorgeous, plus it looks beautiful on your shelf!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews