Charles MountfordCríticas

Lending

Lending

I wanted a collection of Dreamtime myths from the moment I arrived in Australia, but it took me almost 10 years to find it and when I did, it was from a Canadian bookseller.

I picked it up today and read it all in about 90 minutes. The introduction, written in the mid-60's, tries to be respectful, and succeeds for the most part, but the style was at times hard to swallow: it sounded like one of those wildlife tv shows from the 70's.

The stories themselves, and the paintings that pair with them, are mostly well told, though I noticed areas of geography are referred to by their colonial names. The art is wonderful, sometimes haunting and sometimes disturbing, but always beautifully executed.

This series by Mountford and Roberts are beautifully illustrated with gorgeous haunting paintings. I have the original editions and the Dreamtime stories come from all over Australia.

This series by Mountford and Roberts are beautifully illustrated with gorgeous haunting paintings. I have the original editions and the Dreamtime stories come from all over Australia.

This series by Mountford and Roberts are beautifully illustrated with gorgeous haunting paintings. I have the original editions and the Dreamtime stories come from all over Australia.

This series by Mountford and Roberts are beautifully illustrated with gorgeous haunting paintings. I have the original editions and the Dreamtime stories come from all over Australia.

The subtitle of the book is "Australian Aboriginal Myths in Paintings by Ainslie Roberts". The author, Charles Mountford, is an ethnologist who enlisted the help of artist Ainslie Roberts to illustrate the traditional stories of the native people of Australia. How close the author's interpretations are to the true meanings of the aborigines, i cannot say, but it is good that someone has taken the time to record this unique culture in a way that a non-aborigine can experience it.