Customer Reviews

Ornamentation and Illustrations from the Kelmscott Chaucer (Dover Pictorial Archives)

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This is a really phenomenal work, with page after page of great Burne-Jones illustrations, all in his signature style. If you like his paintings you'll love these illustrations. IMO they stand as some of his best compositions - nearly every one of them could have been turned into a painting on par with his best work.

The Kelmscott Chaucer is very famous because William Morris poured such meticulous craftsmanship on the production of the original book. Getting a chance to see one of the only 438 copies of the book isn't going to happen, but this reproduction is inexpensive and well worth acquiring. Morris included ALL the designs and letters used in the other books from his Kelmscott Press. The book includes all 87 of the woodcuts by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. The book is NOT the full text of the original Kelmscott Chaucer, but the book includes 111 slightly oversized pages. Calligraphers, graphic artists, and many other people would find this book fascinating.

While owning an original edition of this book is destined to remain a pipe dream for most of us, Dover have provided the next best thing here in a lovely paper back. The book will delight those interested in Morris, Burne-Jones and indeed Chaucer. Anyone interested in the era that produced "the book beautiful", a time that saw the work of Aubrey Beardsley, Walter Crane and Charles Ricketts amongst others, will discover much here of interest.

The only fault I can find with this and indeed with all Dover books of this kind, is that they cannot be laid flat due to the "perfect binding". This makes photocopying and enlarging awkward. But for sheer virtuosity of design few books approach the Kelmscott Chaucer.