Mummy's Foot and the Big Toe

In this quirky and surprising history, Alan Krell addresses the absurd and abject, the banal and the nastily subversive, and the romantic and 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 elite runners such as Abebe Bikila and Zola Budd, and the surprising representation of the foot in films such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939) and Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003). 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.

Alan Krell was recently Associate Professor in Art History at UNSW Art and Design, Sydney, where he worked for over two decades. He now lives in London. His books include Manet and the Painters of Contemporary Life (1996), The Devil’s Rope: A Cultural History of Barbed Wire (Reaktion, 2002) and Burning Issues: Fire in Art and the Social Imagination (Reaktion, 2011).