An extraordinary book, giving seminal insights into such diverse matters as Amazons and aardvarks, and the mythical or legendary Eve (of Eden), Helen (of Troy), and Joan (of Arc ). Of great importance is the clever Table of Contents - located conveniently for Americans near the beginning of the book - setting out the subjects of the book’s twenty-seven categories, together with the page numbers that each of these categories begins on. As an additional aid the publishers have included an Index at the end of the book, listing, in very sensible alphabetical order, the countless selected words or phrases which are defined (1,654 times, or perhaps more), clarified, or otherwise articulated in the preceding pages, although not in the Table of Contents. Saying anything else, at this stage, would be entirely superfluous, and probably an insult.