The Book of the Toad: A Natural and Magical History of Toad-Human Relations

A fascinating exploration of the toad, establishing the scientific facts and investigating its role in art, literature and folklore.

This comprehensive and entertaining compendium of toad lore surveys the history of the toad as biological entity, literary and artistic subject, mythological symbol, and threatened species. It brings to light a number of unexpected details regarding the life of the toad, ranging from its role as insect eater in gardens and pharmaceutical ingredient in shamanic hallucinogens, to its time honoured place in witchcraft and its apotheosis in stars as the constellation Bufo. Robert DeGraaff's offbeat history is exhaustively researched, scientifically precise, graced with high colour art reproductions and illustrations, and written with uncommon wit and humour. Far more than a volume for bufophiles, this is a uniquely insightful and engaging look at how humans through the ages have responded to and have been influenced by their amphibian neighbours.

Robert DeGraaff has been a professor of Victorian literature at St Lawrence University for more than twenty years. He is also an accomplished limericist and the tiller of a 5,000 square foot vegetable garden, in which he communes whenever possible with Bufo americanus, the American toad.