Anthropology: And a Hundred Other Stories

Anthropology: And a Hundred Other Stories is a book by British author Dan Rhodes published in 2000 by Fourth Estate. It has since been republished by Canongate who have made it available as an ebook.[1] It consists of 101 tales; each of 101 words,[2] all about girlfriends and has been published in seven languages.[3] It was written between October 1997 and November 1998 whilst the author was fruit picking on a farm.[4] It has been compared to Roland Barthes' A Lover's Discourse.[5]

Anthropology: And a Hundred Other Stories
First edition (UK)
AuthorDan Rhodes
Cover artistChris Shamwana
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreShort stories
PublisherFourth Estate (UK)
Villard (US)
Publication date
2000
Media typePrint & ebook
Pages208
ISBN1-84115-193-9

Reception
  • the Complete Review assessed the collection having "some clever bits, but too much that's forced and unimaginative" and concludes: "Anthropology is an uneven collection. Readers' patience presumably will vary, but it's hard to think of more than a fifth of these as successful. Too often they are wildly but not well imagined. They are such small, quick reads that the many failures and disappointments can be overlooked, but it still makes for a mighty thin read".[4]
  • Lori Leibovich in The New York Times Book Review writes "Rhodes should be commended for his economy of words and his outrageous humor. But after a while, the stories become predictable and the one-note theme - the irony and agony of relationships - grows tired. Reading these tales is like sitting at a bar next to a lonely heart who won't stop rattling on about his amorous woes. At first you're sympathetic, then you start to wish he'd go away".[6]

But other though reviews were more positive :

  • Gareth Evans in The Independent: "Effortless to read, amusing, and yet coloured by a deep sadness about the passing of things, these prose haikus display a psychological and verbal precision that ranges across anecdote, character and, sometimes, a whole compressed life."[4]
  • Elizabeth Judge in The Times: "A hilarious exploration of the challenges posed by the fairer sex. Despite being written from a male perspective, it will entertain any woman who can laugh at her own foibles."[4]

Film adaptation

Five of the stories have been adapted into short films by Victor Solomon, and there are plans to produce thirty in total to be released exclusively via mobile/tablet App for which funding is being sought.[7]

Publication history

The list below is incomplete; for full listing (including images and foreign editions) see the author's webpage

  • 2000, UK, Fourth Estate, ISBN 1-84115-193-9, Pub date 02 Mar 2000, Hardback
  • 2000, US, Villard, ISBN 0-375-50421-4, Pub date Sep 2000, Hardback
  • 2001, UK, Fourth Estate, ISBN 1-84115-194-7, Paperback
  • 2005, UK, Canongate, ISBN 1-84195-614-7. Pub date 5 May 2005, Paperback
  • 2010, UK, Canongate, ISBN 1-84767-550-6, Pub date 04 Feb 2010, Paperback

[8]

gollark: They can just send JSON-serialized messages or whatever, it's just slower than using one binary.
gollark: Not really.
gollark: I mean, programs are written in Java, C(++), Rust, Python, whatever else, some of them run in browsers with their own totally different system, and none of them are particularly binary-compatible.
gollark: What, so then you introduce piles of overhead communicating between them?
gollark: Plus, how do you deal with the myriad of different frameworks each one uses?

References
  1. Anthropology eBook: Dan Rhodes: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store Retrieved 2011-07-11.
  2. Anthropology 101 Retrieved 2012-11-19.
  3. Anthropology and a hundred other stories « Dan Rhodes Blog Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  4. The Complete Review Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  5. Newcity review quoted in http://www.danrhodes.co.uk/anthropology.html Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  6. The New York Times, September 24, 2000, book review by Lori Leibovich
  7. anthropology: thirty films about love Retrieved 2012-11-10.
  8. www.fantasticfiction.co.uk Retrieved 2012-11-18.
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