Wed 29 Nov 2006
The Raven
Posted by anaglyph under Art, Poetry
[16] Comments
I thought you might like to see one of my favourite and most valued treasures – an 1884 edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s dark and beautiful poem The Raven, illustrated by Gustav Doré.
This is an imposing large format book about 380mm x 470mm (15in x 18.5in) and is profusely illustrated with Doré’s astonishing engravings. The cover is detailed in gold leaf.
Doré famously used a technique of overprinting with white ink to make his bright areas glow. The method is not in use in his interpretations of The Raven unfortunately, but this means that the images are even more marvelous for the incredible dynamic range of brightness and darkness they achieve.
16 Responses to “ The Raven ”
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May 1st, 2008 at 2:26 am[...] The Raven. Look! Images from an 1884 edition of Poe’s The Raven! From ‘TCA’ [...]
The mysterious substance on the wall in the Guildford Miracle House is:
evenstar
Now THAT is cool!
Thanks Rev – I always loved that poem! Where did you come across such a treasure? And do you still have both arms and legs?
Wow!
Cissy Strutt adds:
i visited a New York Public Library book art exhibition in May. A highlight was an 1875 Stephane Mallarme illustrated Edgar Allen Poe “Le Corbeau”. (Naturellement, il quoth “Jamais plus”.)
anaglyph
evenstar: I found it in an antiquarian book shop called Berkelouw in Los Angeles. Yes, it was very expensive, the most expensive book I own, but it was worth every penny…
Bean
Oh it’s beautiful Rev! I bet it smells good too. I just can’t get over those pictures…
That kind of ups the ante on treasures in general really.
jedimacfan
Almost as awesome as the illustrated version of Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code, huh?
Bean
Wait a second… what happened to my comment? It got EATEN!
:(
I said, let me see if I remember:
“Oh, it’s beautiful Rev! I bet it smells good too. I just can’t get over those pictures.
That ups the ante on treasures in general, really.”
Oh, and something awesome about pirates :p I’m pretty sure.
Bean
Oh that’s it. Second eaten comment. The cows hate me.
Bean
What did I say?!! Rev does your spam filter block things like “beautiful” and “smells good” and “pirates”?
anaglyph
Bean: Akismet has flagged them as spam. Now this is really peculiar, since some of your comments got through and some didn’t. Something in those phrases you used trips up Akismet. Very very weird.
A comment on another post was tripped as well, also for no apparent reason. Usually Akismet strips out nothing but spam (and anything RaJ has to say, but that’s obvious), but today it’s on a bender apparently…
Sorry Bean!
Joey Polanski adds:
My Douay Bible got Dore illustrations innit.
Its also ottagraffd by John th Baptist, I thinkski.
Terrapreata
Oh, wow. I’m jealous!
It’s beautiful Rev.
tp
~spam Jam
Hey! I respamble that remark.
amazed adds:
Rabbi, how in the world did you manage to take possession of one of those?
anaglyph
Well, of course you of all people should know the answer to that amazed: I sold my soul for it.
Purple Dragon adds:
Ooh! Beautiful, man. So detailed. Especially love the Grim Reaper in the last frame. :) He’s cool.