Customer Reviews

Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Calla Editions)

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I have been keeping an eye out for this book since I first saw it in my High School Library in the early '60s. What was memorable were the surreal illustrations, and were the best effort I had ever seen in capturing the mood of Poe's stories. This book is a very fine production. It is a black cloth hardback, and the pages are oversized and heavy bond paper slightly yellow off-white color. Most of the illustrations are black and white pen & ink, with a few in color. All of the illustrations are single page, that is the other side of the page is blank; a mark of high quality. This is the definate 'Must Have' edition for anyone interested in Poe's works. I would also rate this book as a 'Best Buy', given the price to quality ratio.

Bibliographical Note (Quote)
'Tales of Mystery and Imagination', first published by Calla Editions in 2008, is an unabridged republication of the edition originally published by Tudor Publishing Co., New York, in 1933.

From the Publisher (Quote)
The works of Edgar Allan Poe, in the rarefied company of Thoreau, Hawthorne, Twain, and Melville, represent the full flowering of American literature in the nineteenth century. By itself, this edition would be an outstanding collection of 29 tales of mystery, suspense, and the macabre; but what sets this volume apart are the magnificent illustrations of Harry Clarke. Many artists have attempted to illustrate Poe, though it is no easy feat to match graphically the powerful effect of Poe's words on the reader. Harry Clarke's ambitious attempt is widely regarded as a resounding triumph. While his color-plate work here is excellent, it is Clarke's fine-line full-page Pen & ink drawings that superbly bring to life the intense phychological dramas so central to Poe's storytelling. These richly atmospheric and densely textured creations make this the definitive illustrated edition of an undisputed giant of the American literary canon.

Poe is one of my favorite authors of the macabre, and I have various editions of his works, especially the "collected" works editions. This particular edition by Calla is quite a treasure, containing 29 of Poe's tales. The quality of the book is impressive, especially at the reasonable price offered here (even at retail it would still be a bargain in my opinion). The book is in hardcover with black cloth binding, and the quality of paper is of fine, and heavy stock. Some of the illustrations are in color, but most are pen and ink drawings in B&W. The stories contained within this book are complete and unabridged. The main highlight of this book are the intricate illustrations by Harry Clarke which vividly capture the emotions and Gothic horror of Poe's stories, an extraordinary feat indeed. This is a handsome edition of Poe's stories, and makes a perfect gift for Poe fans and avid collectors. I for one look forward to hours of pleasure spent browsing through the magnificent illustrations and re-reading these wonderful, insightful stories of mystery and the macabre.

Truly beautiful on every level. I am a book collector and illustrator. I love books. This edition was everything I'd hoped it would be. The art is inspiring.

In 1936, my father's great-aunt took him to a bookstore on his tenth birthday and told him he could have any book he wanted. He picked "Tales of Mystery and Imagination," and it's lucky his great-aunt was wealthy: five dollars was a lot of money back then.

Seventy-five years later, we were still reading from that book, but it had become the worse for wear, so I checked Amazon to see how many hundreds of dollars I'd have to lay out for a replacement. When I saw the low price for the Calla edition, I assumed it must be a cheap knockoff (or have poor illustrations, or some other negative), but the reviews were good, so I took a gamble. Am I glad I did!

The print of the Calla edition is every bit as good as that of the 1936 edition, though the pages are not quite as heavy duty (they're still quite good, though). The illustrations in the 1936 edition were printed separately and attached to the pages with glue; in the Calla edition, they are printed on the page. (Still, as another reviewer points out, there's no print on the reverse.) The colors are a little more varied and a bit bolder than in the old edition; maybe Calla worked from originals that had yellowed or faded a bit, as the brighter reds and blues are noticeably weaker, and everything is tilted a bit (in comparison) toward yellow-green. I am pleasantly surprised, however, that the detail in the Calla editions is at least as good and perhaps slightly better. Also, the blacks in the old version are darker.

I'd have paid five times the price for this treasure. I'm sure that the modern Calla edition will someday be an heirloom.

I have collected several Calla edition books, but this is definitely the best one of the bunch. It's a massive heavy book and the quality of the paper, print, drawings, and paintings is outstanding. A few of the Calla editions were a disappointment (Wilde's, "The Happy Prince" has dull illustrations) - but this one is a true knockout. Buy a copy before they are gone.

Even before Dover began this new series of "Calla" hardbacks, I felt their top management deserved an invite to the White House for tea and crumpets and a tasteful award ceremony where they would be honored by The President for advancing the great traditions of the American publishing industry and American Culture in general. And these new Calla books make that mandate for recognition all the more imperative. Not only are these perfectly executed, they are bargain-priced--and actually printed here in the good old USA. Amazing.

I first fell in love with Dover about fifteen years ago when a eccentric Bohemian friend of mine recommended their paperbacks for both the subject matter of the titles and book build-quality. Even Dover paperbacks are built for a lifetime, with superior bindings and acid-free paper. But it was the eclectic array of Dover titles which fueled my evolution in all types of fascinating and arcane areas: Egyptology, American Indians, occult studies, arms and armour, castles, railways, primitive art, explorers and adventurers of every sort throughout the centuries from Marco Polo to Captain Richard Burton, fossils, travel, African exploration, lighthouses, tools, engineering, Victorian architecture, world folk lore and mythology--on and on the list goes. I really found a kindred spirit with the Dover catalogue and I must have purchased over 200 of the Dover titles. These books are older classics and I suspect the fact that most of them are out of copyright has helped Dover produce them at a bargain price, but the high-end execution always gives the title the respect it deserves. I will immediately buy a Dover edition over any other publisher for any given book I'm thinking of buying.

Then, about a year ago, I was perusing the inventory of Logo's Bookstore in Santa Cruz, California and I noted a spectacular copy of "The Knave of Hearts." This is illustrated by Maxfield Parrish, and some may say it has some of Parrish's best art ever. The quality of this book was truly impressive, and I was staggered to see it was a Dover book, under the "imprint" of "Calla." I had never seen a Dover hardback before. As other reviewers have noted, the paper quality is first-rate, and the prints are probably better than the original first-printing way back when. I bought the book immediately. For some reason I didn't think to search for other Calla titles, but when I received a recent Dover catalogue I noted they had numerous other titles.

I just received "Arabian Nights" and "Tales of Mystery and Imagination." These are thicker, heavier books than the "Knave of Hearts." Like Knave, they are cloth-bound books with fabulous illustrations. I have a few versions of "Tales of Mystery and Imagination," and none comes close to this edition. Quite simply, they don't make books like this anymore!! Overall quality is 10/10. As a basis for comparison: I was collecting Folio Society books for several years, and they are likewise astonishing creations. (Until I realized that I had all their titles that I really wanted; and their annual list of new titles was becoming a little staid; and their membership "gifts" were far from compelling.) The build quality on these Calla editions is at least as good as the Folio Society titles, but at one-third the price. (Folio Society does provide protective slip-cover box which is a nice enhancement to the book.) Rest assured, as others have noted, these Calla volumes are stone-cold family heirlooms we're talking about here. Buy them while you can, there's no guarantee these will be around forever.

So, old Dover shook things up in my bibliophile scheme of things. It used to be: Dover for paperbacks which I read from cover to cover; Taschen for coffee-table-type collectable books, and Folio Society for a highly rendered edition of the classics. Now, Dover dominates two out of three of these realms.

I've been a fan of Poe's stories since I first began to read them in high school. I'd left them behind for many years until I came across this edition from a new publisher called Calla Editions. The quality of the book--replicating an early original edition--is outstanding. Calla appears to be bent on recreating the period look of fine books before dust jackets came along, when bindings were rich cloth, stamped in gold or silver. The Calla edition carries a sticker on the front cover, which with a bit of research I see was also a feature of the original edition. All that said, my rave for this book is about being exposed for the first time to the illustrations of Harry Clarke. I have also been an Aubrey Beardsley fan from early on, and I learned that Clarke was a contemporary of Beardsley. But where Beardsley exaggerated sexuality and decadence, Clarke's forte is the exaggeration of dread and horror. He doesn't do it in terms of blood and gore, but in much more subtle ways that suggest something ominous and foreboding in the works. He does in imagery what Poe was the master at conveying in storytelling. The two artists could not be a better match. I'm pleased to add this volume to my shelf of treasured books that will someday be passed on to my children.

Bought this book after seeing some of Harry Clarke's illustrations and reading about his work. This book does not disappoint! I am still amazed at how cheap it is for such a beautiful, thick, hardcover book, not to mention it's filled with stories by E.A. Poe complemented by dozens of gorgeous line drawings by Harry Clarke. No more needs to be said. This should be on everyone's shelf, either for reading or looking at the pictures; it is a classic and there is no excuse for you not to own it.

All Edgar Allen Poe fans are familiar with the stories contained in this magnificent edition. In my opinion, the amazing illustrations are perfectly in tune with the author's intentions Each one is a complicated, beautifully rendered scene demanding several viewings, which reveal fascinating details that enhance the stories. This is a treasure for anyone's library and the price offered by the seller is irresistable!