Cabinet of Curiosities: A Historical Tour of the Unbelievable, the Unsettling, and the Bizarre

“offers hours of entertainment in bites of a few minutes’ time. It will, no doubt, find a deserved place on many a bedside table . . .”

An excellent book for browsers, Cabinet of Curiosities offers readers hundreds of short accounts from history that will be new to most. While obscure, the stories are interesting and often surprising. Older readers will find them reminiscent of news commentator Paul Harvey’s long-running radio series, “The Rest of the Story.”

Like Harvey’s stories on the radio, these were originally written to be listened to, as the author, Aaron Mahnke, is represented as “One of the most successful podcast producers in the world” who “has produced a number of shows, including the chart-topping Cabinet of Curiosities.” The stories have been adapted for print, but the flow and pace and phrasing still seem more tuned to the ear than the eye. Still, the tellings are engaging and intriguing, if not always smooth.

Mahnke takes his inspiration for the book’s format from the Enlightenment Room at the British Museum: “The reason for this organization is pretty obvious: it helps visitors get a full experience. They can explore a particular category and really soak it in.” So, “My team and I have spent the past five years gathering the most entertaining and enlightening stories from history and placing them into a modern, digital cabinet of curiosities. Yes, every story is a little object sitting on a shelf by itself, and that’s all well and good. But it’s time for a bit of organization.”

The book is organized into several numbered “Parts,” each with a common theme underlying the stories. Included among them are “Curious Americana,” “Wild Coincidences,” “Unbelievable Stunts,” “Remarkable Inventions,” “Peculiar Places,” “Puzzling Crimes,” and “Wartime Wonders.”

In keeping with their spoken origins, the stories are told in a conversational style, most ending with a “zinger,” with varying levels of success. But the book’s organization gets in the way of the surprise endings in some sections, most particularly in the “Fantastic Beasts” accounts. The stories are rendered with a bit of misdirection, leading listeners to believe, most often, that it is a person they are hearing about, only to learn at the end (surprise!) that it is an animal. However, readers miss the opportunity to be surprised as they already know they are reading about “Fantastic Beasts.”

The author, as well, sometimes relies on cultural allusions in his telling that may or may not stand the test of time. For example, he writes in one story, “In a way, the Learned Pig became something all of us today might recognize: the first and longest lasting meme.” Whether the idea of “memes” will be meaningful in days to come is questionable—they may well go the way of citizens band radio “handles” and other passing fancies. Likewise, we read, “From medic to MacGyver, a soldier’s role can change . . .” assuming that “MacGyver” will mean something to future (or even present) readers. Even though the 1980s TV series it alludes to has already enjoyed one reincarnation, will it be, or is it still, meaningful?

There are also, here and there, errors that careful readers will sniff at. For example, in writing about a con artist, or swindler, the book says, “The mark agreed to give him $5,000.” Then, in the very next paragraph, we read that the con did not work, “. . . so Victor returned his fifty-thousand to him without a cent missing.” It seems more and more that careful copyediting and proofreading in book publishing are relics of days gone by, and mistakes and errors are no longer frowned upon as they once were. Perhaps one day accuracy and correctness in books will find a place in a future cabinet of curiosities.

Despite its minor flaws, Cabinet of Curiosities offers hours of entertainment in bites of a few minutes’ time. It will, no doubt, find a deserved place on many a bedside table or on a handy shelf in what German musician Max Reger once famously called “the smallest room in my house.”