Inspiring Older Readers

posted on 11 Sep 2015

Inferno by William Blake

Blake can be difficult, especially if you have to deal with his own extraordinary mythology. Here though Blake is at his very strongest as an illustrator for Dante's Inferno. Blake has an immediately recognisable style when it comes to his watercolour illustrations and they can be astonishingly powerful. He does, however, really suffer when his work is reproduced on the cheap - usually the pages are too small, the paper too second-rate and the colour reproduction dowdy.

So it's a thrill when someone gets it right. This magnificent Folio Press edition was published in 1992 and comes with beautiful gold covered cloth covers decorated by Blake's drawings and is housed in a handsome slipcase. Inside the large folio edition the creamy white paper gives the verse, translated by Henry Francis Cary, plenty of open space to breath. The colour plates of Blakes work are given full page prominence and the colours are subtle and faithful to the originals.

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Some people might make the mistake of thinking of this edition as a coffee-table book but that would be a travesty. This is a book to be read on your lap, caressing the paper and exploring the depth of the drawings. You can buy this book for well under £50 and it would be money very well spent because it will stay with you all your reading life.

Terry Potter

September 2015

 

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