1,001 Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Imagery and Its Meaning

Rating:
Summary: Thinking in pictures
Review: The author investigates imagery in literature, religion and art, making the connection to universal themes in the human psyche. The book lists the idea, quality or state symbolised and then discusses all the major imagery used to represent it under the topic. Important symbols with multiple meanings therefore appear under various different topic headings, whilst related topics are sometimes grouped together.

The book provides an overview of the various imagery used by different cultures that stand for concepts like happiness, joy, wisdom, goodness, evil, truth justice, freedom and salvation amongst others. The author claims that traditional imagery as a whole represents a relatively small spectrum of emotions and ideas that were seen as the keystones of civilisation, in order to emphasize the positive over the negative. The book includes many cross-references, an index and plenty of striking monotone and full colour illustrations.