The Mummy's Foot and the Big Toe

Book excerpt: In this quirky and surprising history, Alan Krell addresses the absurd and abject, the banal and the nastily subversive, and the romantic and the fetishistic, as he describes the appearance of the foot in literature, photography, art, sport and film. Discover the gothic tales of French writer Théophile Gautier, the disturbing photographs of Jacques-André Boiffard and the religious paintings by Giotto, Tintoretto and Caravaggio that exalt the foot. Marvel at the sporting exploits of the elite runners such as Abede Bikila and Zola Budd, and the surprising representation of the foot in film such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Kill Bill: Volume 1. Presenting new images and ideas of the foot in a tantalizing way, The Mummy's Foot and the Big Toe is for all those with an interest in the humanities, languages, social sciences and anthropology. --From front flap.