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I am currently reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
Page 130 mentions a book made out of human skin called The Chronicles of Nawat Wuzeer Hyderabed, found in the the palace of the King of Delhi in 1857. Page 131 mentions a cannibal cookbook called The Raw and the Cooked. I wonder if these are real books. I will investigate.
25 comments:
welcome, welcome...
i look forward to more of your posts... and reading that book.
investigate I would love to know, there have been books written about stranger things. Have you ever wondered what books dissappered forever in the fire of the great library af Alexandria?
hmmm some amazing ones i'm sure
The Raw and the Cooked is an album by the Fine Young Cannibals...probably the inspiration for it. Not sure about the other one.
I found quite a few cookbooks called The Raw and the Cooked but none were for cannibals...which is actually a good thing!
I have heard of a wallet made of human skin, but not a book bound as such. It isn't in the Newberry's catalog. Excellent book, BTW.
I suggest, just read the book, enjoy it and don't be a nitpicker. Leave that to the trekkis. Barbara
Excuse me! I read the Raw & The Cooked by Levi-Strauss in college in the 60's. If the Fine Young Cannibals are true to their name, they weren't around them, and therefore the album is named after the book, and not v.v.
Just Google "The Raw and the Cooked" "Levi-Struass". I got 11,200 hits...
Excuse me! I read the Raw & The Cooked by Levi-Strauss in college in the 60's. If the Fine Young Cannibals are true to their name, they weren't around them, and therefore the album is named after the book, and not v.v.
Just Google "The Raw and the Cooked" "Levi-Struass". I got 11,200 hits...
About Nawat Wuzeer: gross, but search Google for "Anthropodermic Bibliopegy".
I have just finished reading the time travellers wife and its one of the best books that i ahve read...simply magnificient....and i also was curious about what henry mentions on page 130 about a book made of human skin....i checked on google but found nothing....any tips as to where i can look it up...?or maybe its fiction???
it's fiction
Yeah I'm in the middle of Reading The Time Traveler's Wife too. and So I got to the page where they mentioned the book made of human skin so I googled it and your site came up..and I was like whoa!
re the ending of TT's wife (which I won't give away!)... I have just been re-reading it and thought that the comment that henry makes about not being able to take anything with him, and being grateful he doesn't wear glasses was quite prophetic.
RE the book made out of skin, what about the nazi's and their human skin lampshades?! yuck.
Hi just an FYI there are books bound in human skin. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0411_060411_skin_book.html
here is a link with an image and article of such a book. I assume that they're not very popular but there are a few.
After searching the internet and e-mails with the Newberry Library in Chicago I am sad to report that there is no such book, let alone that it is in Chicago. However, there are quite a few human bound book in existence. From the 16th to 18th century is was popular to bind a criminals trial papers in their own skin. Not a great way to go. some of these books are still being found. On was uncovered in the UK in 2006. So watch out what leather books you find in grandmas attic.
thank you for your comments everyone. very interesting!
Interestingly enough, perhaps with the forthcoming Movie and increased interest in the Novel, the Newberry Library in Chicago now hosts a FAQ regarding items from "The Time Traveller's Wife" attributed to the Library. This book is there, in fact, but the professional opinion is that it is bound in goat-leather, despite an inscription inside the book claiming it's human skin:
http://www.newberry.org/collections/timetravelers.html
I was reading the same, and thought of investigating.... Google results directed me to you.... :)
The books might not be true but, Time Traveler's Wife is a very interesting book....
I searched and found one book that had the cover made by human skin but not the pages...
I read TTTW quite a few months back, and since then, I've had this "fact" about the human skin book on my mind.
Today, I finally got down to searching- and the results led right to this post. And it appears that the "fact" was actually fiction, although I can't imagine why on earth Audrey Niffeneger would think of something that gross. I mean, yes, there have been fictitious stuff about cannibalism (think Hannibal Lecter), but a book bound in human skin??
But then, going by smee's comment about the Nazis, Rosy's comment on human skin books, and the anonymous comment about criminal trial papers, anything can be possible. But being from India, and having a workable knowledge of the country's history, I have to say that I haven't ever heard of such a book recovered from Delhi in 1857. (Plus, Niffeneger's got the spellings wrong- it should be "Wazeer", and "Hyderabad".)
Maybe William Dalrymple's book "The Last Mughal" can shed some light on this matter...
ternyata bukan saya saja yang terobsesi dengan time traveler wife dan menyelidikinya... :)
If you follow the link somebody posted below to the library website the book does exist. After examining the book under microscope they found it was a highly altered goat skin and were prompted to do this because on the inside of the book it says it is Human skin. But it begs the question of if it was human skin would they want to advertise this? Interesting. Great book by the way just at page 130 ;)
oWoah! Seems like I'm travelling back in time since the original comment was made in 2005! I too googled 'the chronocles of nawat wuzeer hyderabed' whilst reading TTTW and found this link! There is a book call 'The Book of Human Skin' - but that came out in 2011!
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