Items related to Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
A serious and seriously entertaining exploration of the dark and varied obsessions that the “civilized West” has had with decapitated heads and skulls.
The human head is exceptional. It accommodates four of our five senses, encases the brain, and boasts the most expressive set of muscles in the body. It is our most distinctive attribute and connects our inner selves to the outer world. Yet there is a dark side to the head’s preeminence, one that has, in the course of human history, manifested itself in everything from decapitation to headhunting. So explains anthropologist Frances Larson in this fascinating history of decapitated human heads. From the Western collectors whose demand for shrunken heads spurred massacres to Second World War soldiers who sent the remains of the Japanese home to their girlfriends, from Madame Tussaud modeling the guillotined head of Robespierre to Damien Hirst photographing decapitated heads in city morgues, from grave-robbing phrenologists to skull-obsessed scientists, Larson explores our macabre fixation with severed heads. 25 illustrations"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Frances Larson is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Durham and the author of An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World and Severed. She lives in Durham.
Review:
“Larson delves into the grotesque yet wildly fascinating topic of decapitation... [Her] lively, conversational tone turns these morbid objects into something more meaningful than a mere expression of the macabre.”
- Publishers Weekly
“[W]ide-ranging and thoughtful... In an age where so many taboos are fading, the severed head retains its dreadful and sacred power.”
- Mike Jay, Wall Street Journal
“No need to explain why this nonfiction book made the top of my list... Despite the ghoulish subject, this is a closely researched, indeed, scholarly study of the bizarre customs of hunting, collecting, trading, displaying and otherwise bonding with other people’s heads.”
- Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
“This idiosyncratic history of decapitation... jumps between historical and recent examples, from the invention of the guillotine in the French Revolution to Damien Hirst’s self-portrait in a morgue... This morbid obsession, [Larson] argues, is common to all cultures―a realization that dawned on her when she worked at a museum that exhibited shrunken heads. Her book shares in this fascination―‘dangerous but irresistible’―and makes some distinctions between the forms it takes.”
- New Yorker
- Publishers Weekly
“[W]ide-ranging and thoughtful... In an age where so many taboos are fading, the severed head retains its dreadful and sacred power.”
- Mike Jay, Wall Street Journal
“No need to explain why this nonfiction book made the top of my list... Despite the ghoulish subject, this is a closely researched, indeed, scholarly study of the bizarre customs of hunting, collecting, trading, displaying and otherwise bonding with other people’s heads.”
- Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
“This idiosyncratic history of decapitation... jumps between historical and recent examples, from the invention of the guillotine in the French Revolution to Damien Hirst’s self-portrait in a morgue... This morbid obsession, [Larson] argues, is common to all cultures―a realization that dawned on her when she worked at a museum that exhibited shrunken heads. Her book shares in this fascination―‘dangerous but irresistible’―and makes some distinctions between the forms it takes.”
- New Yorker
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherLiveright
- Publication date2014
- ISBN 10 0871404540
- ISBN 13 9780871404541
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages336
- Rating
Buy New
Learn more about this copy
US$ 14.00
Shipping:
US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Stock Image
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
Published by
Liveright Publishing
(2014)
ISBN 10: 0871404540
ISBN 13: 9780871404541
New
Hardcover
First Edition
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES. The human head is exceptional. It accommodates four of our five senses, encases the brain, and boasts the most expressive set of muscles in the body. It is our most distinctive attribute, and it connects our inner selves to the outer world more evocatively than any other part of the body. Yet there is a dark side to the head's preeminence. In Severed, anthropologist Frances Larson takes readers on a serious and seriously entertaining tour of the dark and varied obsessions that the "civilized West" has had with decapitated heads and skulls. Over the centuries, this fixation has taken the form of human heads that decorate our churches, festoon our city walls, and fill our museums. Long regarded as objects of fascination and repulsion, they have also been props for artists and specimens for laboratory scientists, trophies for soldiers, and items of barter. Today, as grisly videos of decapitations circulate on-line and scientists promise the wealthy among us that our heads may one day live on without our bodies, the severed head is as contentious and compelling as ever. Frances Larson examines the perennial question of just how long one retains consciousness following a successful decapitation and relates chilling tales of "experiments" conducted by scientists and executioners alike. A book that includes discussions of shrunken heads, trophy heads, framed heads, frozen heads, and even heads that have a more active social life in death than their owners ever had while alive, Severed investigates the ways in which the head represents our most savage but also our most human characteristics. From the Western colonists whose demand for shrunken heads spurred brutal massacres to the troops in the Second World War who sent the remains of Japanese soldiers home to their girlfriends, from the memento mori in Romantic portraits to Damien Hirst's With Dead Head, from grave-robbing phrenologists to enterprising cryonicists, Severed explores the bizarre, often gruesome and confounding history of the severed head. THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES. Seller Inventory # 001606
Buy New
US$ 14.00
Convert currency
Stock Image
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
Published by
Liveright
(2014)
ISBN 10: 0871404540
ISBN 13: 9780871404541
New
Hardcover
First Edition
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover, illus. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition; First Printing. Book and DJ New. NO notes. No names or ANY markings. New DJ not price clipped ($27.95) ; 317 pages. Seller Inventory # 61568
Buy New
US$ 18.00
Convert currency
Stock Image
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. Brand New Copy. Seller Inventory # BBB_new0871404540
Buy New
US$ 19.60
Convert currency
Seller Image
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found by Larson, Frances [Hardcover ]
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780871404541
Buy New
US$ 22.92
Convert currency
Stock Image
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found Format: Hardcover
Published by
WW Norton Publishers
(2014)
ISBN 10: 0871404540
ISBN 13: 9780871404541
New
Hardcover
Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 9780871404541
Buy New
US$ 19.12
Convert currency
Stock Image
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. This is a hardcover copy This book is Bookstore New; never been used and opened but may have some slight imperfections Fast Shipping - Each order powers our free bookstore in Chicago and sending books to Africa!. Seller Inventory # 5D4W940009G2_ns
Buy New
US$ 15.99
Convert currency
Stock Image
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0871404540
Buy New
US$ 21.21
Convert currency
Stock Image
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. 0.74. Seller Inventory # 0871404540-2-1
Buy New
US$ 27.95
Convert currency
Stock Image
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard0871404540
Buy New
US$ 25.85
Convert currency
Stock Image
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0871404540
Buy New
US$ 28.53
Convert currency