- Hardcover: 48 pages
- Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books (1 Aug 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1845074742
- ISBN-13: 978-1845074746
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 17.2 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 177,808 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
The illustrator, known for her Narnia illustrations, has drawn the details from an impressive array of early bestiaries, listed at the back. Her text is entertaining and sometimes astonishing and, of course, beautifully illustrated. (Carousel )
Product Description
"Bestiaries" - small illustrated books on all the creatures thought to exist in the world - are perhaps the most entertaining literature to have come down to us from the Middle Ages. They included detailed descriptions of the characteristics and habits of animals, fish, birds, insects and mythological creatures, many of the 'facts' unproven, inaccurate and bizarre. Now the legendary illustrator, Pauline Baynes, has spun together a gloriously amusing text and delightful illustrations "with some liberty" from various bestiaries in England, adding a fascinating introduction to give the full, fabulous flavour of these mediaeval gems of misbelief.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
In the Middle Ages people believed implicitly in the written word. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
In the Middle Ages people believed implicitly in the written word. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Pauline Baynes is surely the foremost luminary of the English tradition of book illustration in our time and this book amply confirms her exquisite genius and gift for fresh, fluent and wholly beguiling imagery; ever since my childhood her work has been a continual inspiration, her line and forms are just beautiful, her colour sense subtle, vivid and remarkable and there's an indefinable quality which informs all of her work which is quite unique. I think J.R.R Tolkien put it best when he said that P. Baynes' work is unusual in that for all the magical and imaginative wonders she so ably portrays there's a very crisp-edged clarity about it, her work is never nebulous or indeterminate. Synthesizing influences from the best of English illustrative tradition, with the luminous wonders of Anglo-Saxon, Medieval and Persian manuscript illumination her illustrative oeuvre is truly part of our cultural heritage - this Bestiary witness to the graphic mastery of Pauline Baynes who is producing superb work charged with spiritual vitality, humour and profound imaginal richness which any aspiring illustrator should look to for inspiration. Genuinely brilliant stuff.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
For a lover of "the most gloriously entertaining books to have come from the Middel Ages" (the Bestiaries, of course) this book is a must-have. The drawings are truly fantastic, the accompanying stories very well told and the whole book is hugely enjoyable.
Don't question these creatures, simply enjoy them. One of my favorite children's books!
Don't question these creatures, simply enjoy them. One of my favorite children's books!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Lovely illustrations
2 Mar 2007
Format:Hardcover
Yes, it's for young readers. Gorgeous pictures, and text that explains what early bestiaries had to say. I use this with my history crafts classes.
3 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Nice pictures
19 Jan 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The highlight here are the illustrations. The text is minimal and superficial, and the beasts addressed are just a few, most of them actual, living, fauna. Maybe a book for a very young child to be read imaginatively by the parent? That's probably the niche, but the text is a dry collection of folkloric factoids and the creatures few.
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