{"product_id":"a-dictionary-of-symbols-isbn-9781681371979","title":"A Dictionary of Symbols","description":"\u003cb\u003eA classic encyclopedia of symbols by Catalan polymath Joan Cirlot  that illuminates the symbolic underpinnings of myth, modern psychology,  literature, and art.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eJuan Eduardo Cirlot’s \u003ci\u003eA\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eDictionary of Symbols\u003c\/i\u003e is a feat of scholarship, an act of the imagination, and a tool for contemplation, as well as a work of literature, a reference book that is as indispensable as it is brilliant and learned. Cirlot was a composer, a poet, an art critic, and a champion of modern art whose interest in surrealism helped to bring him to the study of symbolism. Carl Jung, Mircea Eliade, René Guénon, Erich Fromm, and Gaston Bachelard also helped to shape his thinking in a book that explores the space between the world at large and the world within, where, as Cirlot sees it, nothing is meaningless, everything is significant, and everything is in some way related to something else. Running from “abandonment” to “zone” by way of “flute” and “whip,” spanning the cultures of the world, and including a wealth of visual images to further bring the reality of the symbol home, \u003ci\u003eA Dictionary of Symbols\u003c\/i\u003e, here published for the first time in English in its original, significantly enlarged form, is a luminous and illuminating investigation of the works of eternity in time.“This new edition could not come at a better time. . . . [T]he simple act of sifting through this sprawling book is a reminder of the underlying continuities between world cultures, despite upheavals, wars, and catastrophes. \u003ci\u003eA Dictionary of Symbols\u003c\/i\u003e guides us through what unites us across nations, religions, and literary and artistic traditions.” —Angelica Frey, \u003ci\u003eHyperallergic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[Cirlot’s] book is not merely a reference work for students of  symbology, but a book to be read at leisure. It does indeed provide  informative and interesting reading. The longer entries can be read as  independent essays, but it is only by reading through the volume  steadily that one can become aware of the intricate interrelations of  symbolic meanings.\" —Catherine D. Rau, \u003ci\u003eThe Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[This] is a volume which can either be used as a work of reference,  or simply read for pleasure and instruction. There are many entries in  this dictionary—those on Architecture, Colour, Cross, Graphics, Mandala,  Numbers, Serpent, Water, Zodiac, to give a few examples—which can be  read as independent essays. But in general the greatest use of the  volume will be for the elucidation of those many symbols which we  encounter in the arts and in the history of ideas. Man, it has been  said, is a symbolizing animal; it is evident that at no stage in the  development of civilization has man been able to dispense with symbols.\" —Herbert Read\u003cb\u003eJuan Eduardo Cirlot \u003c\/b\u003e(1916–1973) was born in Barcelona. In 1958, drawing on his vast erudition, which extended to medieval hermeneutics, Eastern art and religion, Sufism, and film, he produced the first edition of \u003ci\u003eA Dictionary of Symbols\u003c\/i\u003e, a book that he continued to revise and enlarge for the rest of his life. In the course of his life, Cirlot worked as a customs agent, for a bank, and in publishing. He was also known as an avid collector of medieval swords.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eValerie Miles\u003c\/b\u003e has translated such writers as Enrique Vila-Matas and Rafael Chirbes, among many others. She is the editor of \u003ci\u003eA Thousand Forests in One Acorn: An Anthology of Spanish-Language Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e and, with Azar Nafisi, co-editor of \u003ci\u003eThat Other World: Nabokov and the Puzzle of Exile\u003c\/i\u003e. She lives in Barcelona, Spain, where she teaches translation and creative writing at the Pompeu Fabra University.\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJack Sage\u003c\/b\u003e (1925–2018) enrolled at King’s College London in 1946, studying Spanish language and music and the theater of Golden Age Spain). In 1956, he was brought on as a lecturer in the Spanish department at King’s College, where he would work for the rest of his life. He retired in 1990 and spent the next two decades of his life consulting about the Spanish Golden Age for, among others, early-music ensembles, the BBC, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVictoria Cirlot\u003c\/b\u003e is a medieval scholar and professor of Romance  Philology at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Her recent books  include \u003ci\u003eLa visión abierta, Del mito del grial al surrealismo\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGrial. Poética y mito\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHerbert Read\u003c\/b\u003e (1893–1968) was an art historian, writer, and philosopher. A noted English anarchist, he coedited the British edition of \u003ci\u003eThe Collected Works of C. G. Jung\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302764663013,"sku":"NP9781681371979","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781681371979.jpg?v=1767720429","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/a-dictionary-of-symbols-isbn-9781681371979","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}