Customer Reviews

Audubon's Birds Of America (Tiny Folio)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having recently read the biography of Audubon, I was very interested in seeing the actual drawings. The book I read had a few of them in black and white, but I wanted to see a larger sample in color. I decided to see if Amazon had anything and was very surprised to see that they offered all of the original drawings in color for a very small price. I realized the book would be smaller than the original life size drawings, but was a little surprised to find that the book was so small. That is my main problem with the book. Otherwise - WOW. To see these birds in all their glory in full color is just breathtaking. Furthermore, when you consider the original size, to have shrunk them down and still maintain the detail and the beauty is quite impressive. One can appreciate the drawings without having read about Audobon's struggle to create and then publish them, but I would suggest this book as a companion to a good biography of Audobon. Once you have both, his accomplishment can be fully appreciated.

This "baby elephant folio" is indeed a tiny but complete book of Audubon's "Birds of America." It is a perfect edition to give as a gift to friends and family who are Audubon aficionados. It is great quality and the price can't be beat; I purchased several.

I am adding this note: I have been reading through all the reviews and comments to reviews and it is obvious that many of the reviews are referring to a different sized edition of "Audubon's Birds of America" that have been for sale on Amazon. The item I wrote my review for and what is titled for sale as "Audubon's Birds of America" (Tiny Folio) is not the same book most people are reviewing, so it is confusing. The so-called "tiny folio" is not actually the title of the book being sold here. The book, which IS tiny and measures 4.5 x 4.3 x 1.5 inches, is hard covered and contains 435 pages. It is small but fully packed! It is sturdy! The actual title is "The National Audubon Society BABY Elephant Folio Audubon's Birds of America." It doesn't say "tiny" anywhere, only in Amazon's description. This book is not a coffee table book, it isn't for scholars, it isn't so big it won't fit into a bookcase, it sits nicely in the palm of your hand, actually covering just the palm of your hand, and it is beautiful! It is a great gift for someone who has everything, or someone who has shown some interest in Audubon's major work but doesn't want a bigger book, it is great to have in your own bookcase or on the corner of the desk. I think Amazon needs to review its description for this BABY folio and take out the "tiny" from the description and then when they get other editions (which are sure to be larger) to be sure they have the correct description for them. BUYER BEWARE! This book is very small but you will love it!

It's tiny, but it has beautiful pictures with rich colors. All of the pictures are of great quality. It's as thick as a doorstop and includes every picture. If you love the art, but have limited space and budget, this is for you.

We are really enjoying this Audubon bird book! The size makes it easy to keep it out for enjoying during the day

This book reproduces the images of the Havell Edition of Audubon's BIRDS OF AMERICA. It is by far the most compact of the books that do so -- it is small and light in weight. Aside from a few exceptions, most of the plates have good color that approximates the originals well. My copy of this book (which I bought more than 25 years ago) is still in excellent condition and has been well used. For these reasons, I highly recommend this little book and consider it a treasure.

As is the case with all the books that attempt to reproduce THE BIRDS OF AMERICA in its entirety, there are things that I consider well done and some I wish could be different. By necessity, the small format results in some loss of the amazing detail of the original compositions, and even some of the detail you can see in the larger books of Audubon reproductions. Because the images are small and uniform in size (that is, they take up the same size page), you cannot see Audubon's work the way he wanted it to be seen -- with everything scaled to "life." This last point, of course, is a problem with any book of Audubon reproductions. For most of us, it would be highly impractical and extremely expensive to purchase a reproduction of Audubon's complete folio in the original size.

On each plate, the book provides the current species common name, the common name Audubon used, and the current scientific name. This is very useful information. My personal preference is for the books that reproduce the original prints with all the writing that appears on them. This includes plate and part numbers, credits to artist and printer, common and scientific bird and plant names (as Audubon understood them), and keys to the figures when multiple birds appear in the plate. I find the lack of such text to be the most serious flaws in many of the books that reproduce Audubon's work. In the case of this book, however, this omission is for the best -- there isn't room on these small pages for anything more.

If you are not on a strict budget, and you don't mind a heavier and larger size, I would suggest you consider a different book. But if you are curious about Audubon and want a quick and inexpensive introduction to the great variety of his bird images, this could be the right choice. Yes, this is Audubon pared down to the essentials...but that still leaves you with a lot to enjoy.

This book was a present for my husband. He really liked it, although it would be better if the size of the book could be a little bigger, so the paintings would be better appreciated.

This is a nice collection of very detailed naturalist paintings of birds by John James Audubon (and his apprentices). The cover work is typical of the quality of the paintings and I find myself pleased with this book. Looking at the plates is relaxing and educational. If I did have a criticism, it would be that the book is a little thick so it can be awkward to handle - but this is a minor issue.