The Illustrated Man and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Start reading The Illustrated Man on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Color:
Image not available

To view this video download Flash Player

 

Illustrated Man (Flamingo Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Ray Bradbury
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (272 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.


Summer Reading
Summer Reading
Browse the best books of summer including blockbusters, beach reads, and editors' picks in our Summer Reading Store.

Book Description

November 14, 2005 Flamingo Modern Classics
A classic collection of stories - all told on the skin of a man - from the author of Fahrenheit 451. If El Greco had painted miniatures in his prime, no bigger than your hand, infinitely detailed, with his sulphurous colour and exquisite human anatomy, perhaps he might have used this man's body for his art...Yet the Illustrated Man has tried to burn the illustrations off. He's tried sandpaper, acid, and a knife. Because, as the sun sets, the pictures glow like charcoals, like scattered gems. They quiver and come to life. Tiny pink hands gesture, tiny mouths flicker as the figures enact their stories - voices rise, small and muted, predicting the future. Here are sixteen tales: sixteen illustrations...the seventeenth is your own future told on the skin of the Illustrated Man.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo (November 14, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0006479227
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006479222
  • Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 7.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (272 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,083,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

That The Illustrated Man has remained in print since being published in 1951 is fair testimony to the universal appeal of Ray Bradbury's work. Only his second collection (the first was Dark Carnival, later reworked into The October Country), it is a marvelous, if mostly dark, quilt of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In an ingenious framework to open and close the book, Bradbury presents himself as a nameless narrator who meets the Illustrated Man--a wanderer whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos. What's even more remarkable, and increasingly disturbing, is that the illustrations are themselves magically alive, and each proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge. Or "Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship. Or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens have discovered a most logical ally--our own children. Even though most were written in the 1940s and 1950s, these 18 classic stories will be just as chillingly effective 50 years from now. --Stanley Wiater --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up-Paul Hecht's calm, assured voice narrates this classic science fiction anthology by Ray Bradbury that brings to life the social and political fears prevalent in post World War II America, when they were first published. The unnamed narrator in the introduction watches the Illustrated Man's tattoos come to life presenting the 19 short stories. Resonant with authority, Hecht's voice presents rocket men in difficult circumstances, and yet he is able to be detached from their impending deaths. This is contrasted with the gentle tones of devotion of religious clerics. His speech presents a full variety of techniques. He changes pitch for the women characters, and modulates volume and speed to depict the full spectrum of emotions. Efficient production so that most stories are completed on a single side of a tape will enable teachers to locate easily a desired story for class presentation. Only a few of the shortest stories are two on a side. The wicked, colorful tattoos make a very eye-catching cover. A must for sci-fi fans!-Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo (November 14, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0006479227
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006479222
  • Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 7.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (272 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,083,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ray Bradbury (August 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012) published some 500 short stories, novels, plays and poems since his first story appeared in Weird Tales when he was twenty years old. Among his many famous works are 'Fahrenheit 451,' 'The Illustrated Man,' and 'The Martian Chronicles.'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 43 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting Stories of Depressing Beauty February 27, 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Conceptually, The Illustrated Man is brilliant from the get-go, including its novel premise of 18 stories as told through the moving tattoos on a man's body; in addition to weaving intricate webs, the Illustrated Man's body art predicts the future.

And, oh, what stories are told. As a science fiction writer, it is no surprise that the majority of Bradbury's stories have to do with space and the future (heck, all of space was in the future when these stories were written in the early 50s). Additionally, the majority of the tales are pretty bleak, dealing with dark themes of revenge, futile searches for paradise, and Armageddon. However, save for their near-universal excellence, thought-provocation, and prescience, the similarities end there.

Among them: Mars is colonized by black people who have left Earth's prejudices, and await with apprehension the arrival of a white-piloted rocket ship from their former homeland; another planet's soldiers attack Earth and are surprised at the warm welcome they receive, only to learn that they can be conquered by Earth's lousy diet, sedentary ways, and shallow culture as easily as by the planet's military; an assembly of priests travels to Mars to learn about Martian sins, so as to spread God's word and earn converts of the Red plant; an entire city is built with the concept of vengeance in mind, by its citizens who were to perish before being able to exact that revenge themselves; the authors of classic tales of horror, whose works are banned on Earth, are themselves exiled to Mars and only kept alive by the few remaining copies not burned for censorship.

There are a couple of lame ducks herein, but even those are salvaged by the beauty of Bradbury's writing.... Read more ›

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Illustrating Human Nature June 8, 2003
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Sometimes it's hard to remember that Ray Bradbury approaches the art of the short story in a very unconventional way. His collections of short stories are often tied together by common sub-themes or settings, although each story could also stand on its own. Such is the case here, though the running theme to the Illustrated Man collection is mostly an abstraction. Apparently the stories here are told by a man's haunted tattoos, but don't worry about that too much. The true theme holding this group of stories together is examinations of human nature and mankind's place in the universe. Bradbury's frequent use of Mars (and occasionally other planets) as a setting, with the obligatory spaceships and technology, is merely his method of creating alternate realities to bring human nature into bold relief.

Bradbury's classic examinations of the dark and melancholy side of humanity are well represented here as always, with his trademark poetic writing style and underlying sense of creeping dread. The classic virtual reality tale "The Veldt" is found here, with the typical misuse-of-technology theme presented in an unexpectedly haunting fashion. More evidence that the stock sci-fi themes are merely a thin backdrop can be seen in "The Other Foot," a chilling examination of race relations; or "The Rocket," which deals with the yearning of regular people to reach beyond the confines of Earth. Other winning stories include "Kaleidoscope" and "The Long Rain" which are haunting tales of how human nature can still undermine the greatest achievements of cold technology. So don't concern yourself with the typical sci-fi backdrop, and get in tune with what Ray Bradbury is really talking about.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic collection March 11, 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is one of those "must own" books that you always hear about, in a hundred years this and a handful of other Bradbury books will be considering classics of American literature. Basically a collection of about a guy who has all this illustrations on his body that shows the stories to an unnamed observer. Personally I have no idea why he bothered with the Illustrated Man concept, the stories stand on their own just fine, though it does give him the opportunity to give a great sucker punch ending. And the concept is basically ignored after the second story but hey when the stuff is this good who am I to complain? The stories themselves, like I said are all excellent, some more than others but it's mostly the distinction between "real good" and "really really really good". The highlights are the opening "The Veldt" which is classic Bradbury and some story about some guys on Venus who are going crazy from getting rained on and a few others. Most of his stories are science-fictional, often revolving in one way or another around rockets but Bradbury deals less with actual science and more about fantasy and dreams, leading to some real good touching moments, above all his stories are about people, they just happened to be set in the future on Mars. Some are sentimental, some are creepy, some are funny but all are good. And it's quick reading, so you have no excuse. Get it today
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Illustriously Illustrated May 19, 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A sad decorated wandering man stumbles into the life of another drifter.

The tattooed wandering man is a terrifying canvas of brillant skin art and darkened dreams. A hated circus performer "condemmed to be free" as a morbid living gallery- each tatoo moves and glows animately; this anthology treats us to the best of the pulp Bradbury of the fifties. As Rod Serling told us in his TWILIGHT ZONE introduction we are transported from the depth of our fears to the heights of our imagination. Rocketing from the past to the future to the subconscious we are invited to a world where...

A holographic Africa is so consuming that it...well... consumes.

Time travellers from the totalitarian future must travel to 1938 for vacation only to find that they can never escape the future.

An explosion rocks a spaceship... disgorging astronauts- making its crew satellites left to face their personal angst and collective end.

An artifical sun provides respite from the grey rain world of Venus, but only if the spacewreck survivors are willing to pay a price finding it.

A used rocket never travels to space but reveals the heart of a poor kind father,not the solar system,to his long suffering wife.

A man heals and performs miracles in world after world, yet can only be met through faith not a rocket trip.

A playground becomes a portal to the hell of childhood.

A couple go to sleep on the last night of the world and forget to set the alarm clock.

A man's robot duplicate has ideas of his own on where to vacation next.

Poe gets revenge against future thought police from a die hard fan who manages to make others die.
... Read more ›
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I had hoped for
The premise of this book is that a man is covered with tattoos and that tattoos come alive and tell stories. The stories are supposed to be glimpses of the future. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Dinah S. Young
5.0 out of 5 stars MIND EXPANDING
Ray Bradbury really wrote in my opinion the perfect book. I first read it in high school as a mandatory reading book, but have shared it with my daughter growing up and it never... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Saavy Sue
5.0 out of 5 stars CLASSIC! Sci-Fi for those of us who don't like Sci-Fi!
You'll never look at a multi-tattooed person the same way again! The stories are gripping. If I aged as well as these stories have, I could go back to high school with impunity!
Published 12 days ago by IH8FMS
4.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps not for this generation
While I enjoyed the book many years ago, my grandson for whom I purchased this was lukewarm in his response.
Published 12 days ago by Janet L. Hermann
5.0 out of 5 stars The story The Long Rain deserves a review and I give the story 5...
Off of the top of my head I can think of five Isaac Asimov stories I like better than 'Nightfall'. 'Nightfall' is considered one of the more famous stories in all of Sci Fi. Read more
Published 13 days ago by King of Controversy
5.0 out of 5 stars Soooo good
Any one of these words can describe what I thought of this collection: terrific, amazing, excellent. Read more
Published 17 days ago by AN AVID READER
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece of anthology fiction!
Some of the late Ray Bradbury's most memorable short stories are contained in this marvelous anthology and centered around a central theme... Read more
Published 20 days ago by James L. Newberg
5.0 out of 5 stars loved it
as good as ever . i wore it years ago. but how convenient on my kindle. i love that i don't have to find a place for my books
Published 23 days ago by sandi
5.0 out of 5 stars I love Ray Bradbury.
This book arrived in very good condition and on time. It is a timeless telling of short stories that make the reader think and the last story ties it all together. Read more
Published 24 days ago by J Beaudyne
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally Available on Kindle
An old favorite is finally available on Kindle. WooT! I never understood how a celebrated writer of science fiction could be so resistant to releasing his work in electronic... Read more
Published 1 month ago by SpinDoctor
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews



Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
 

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Forums

Have something you'd like to share about this product?
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions




Look for Similar Items by Category