Customer Reviews

The Early Illuminated Books (The Illuminated Books of William Blake, Volume 3)

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I recommend that any fan of William Blake buy this volume and the other 5 in the series. The books are beautiful, large, and handsomely bound. Each book is reproduced in full color, using a six-color printing process rather than the standard four. The pages are heavy, opaque and have a gorgous lustre indicating very high quality paper. The text of each book accompanies the color reproductions in standard typeface with very competent commentary to boot.

I recommend that any fan of William Blake buy this volume and the other 5 in the series. The books are beautiful, large, and handsomely bound. Each book is reproduced in full color, using a six-color printing process rather than the standard four. The pages are heavy, opaque and have a gorgous lustre indicating very high quality paper. The text of each book accompanies the color reproductions in standard typeface with very competent commentary to boot.

This beautifully produced volume contains five of Blake's early works in relief etching (his illuminated books from 1788 to 1793 save "The Songs of Innocence" from 1789 - published in volume 2 in this series). They are the early tract like "All Religions Are One" and "There Is No Natural Religion", then the fable of "Thel", the magnificent "Marriage of Heaven and Hell" (one of Blake's most popular works), and the beautiful "Visions of the Daughters of Albion".

This volume really four books bound in one. The tracts are treated as one book, then each of the others individually. Each sub-volume has its own introduction and commentary and each plate is given its own page and most have the text on the left page with the plate on the right.

There are also alternative plates provided for additional study.

As with all the volumes in this series, the production values are high, as is the scholarship. A volume you can be proud to have on your shelf.