Boundless Books: 50 Literary Classics Transformed into Works of Art

by Postertext

In this book, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. Within its covers are 50 literary classics, deconstructed and then put back together word by word to create singularly beautiful pieces of art. The silhouettes that emerge from the text illustrate the central characters, landscapes, and themes of each story. This collection ranges across the canon, from 620 BCE to 1937. Bibliophiles will find many of their favorite reads as well as lesser-known gems to discover or rediscover. Each piece of art contains an entire text in legible type, so that, with the help of the magnifying glass on a ribbon marker, readers can enjoy both the striking images and the timeless words themselves.

Genres: Books About Books

128 pages, Hardcover

Published September 20, 2016

Reviews

[Paul Bryant]

I saw this large item in my local Waterstones and it took me a while to realise what I was looking at and now it is taking me even longer to realise why anyone would want to do it. Here you have a book containing 100 or so very large black and white illustrations, one per page, none of them especially wonderful in themselves (see cover for example). Each one is supposed to represent a famous literary classic, like Frankenstein or Pride and Prejudice, etc. But the black part of the illustrations are the complete text of the book in question, reduced by the magic of modern printing techniques into such teensy-tiny size that your eye does not recognise these shadings and lines as text at all. No. To do that you have to squint through the helpfully provided magnifying glass and then - jeez, would you look at that, the words of the book are all right there, one after another.

And the point is? Heck, all I can come up with is that if something can be done it probably will be done by somebody at some point. A guy just recently ran 365 marathons in 365 days. Apparently a certain Jean-François Vernetti of Switzerland has collected 8888 different hotel ‘do not disturb’ signs. On June 8, 2009, 2510 students from Swansea University in Wales dressed up as Smurfs and thus became the largest idiots-dressed-as-Smurf grouping ever. Who knows why people do things.



Anyhow, this is a great Christmas present for anyone you think deserves a string of really bad headaches.

[Sarah]

This book contains 50 literary classics that have been transformed into works of art using the text of the story to create images. At first glance you won't even notice that the images are made up of words printed in the smallest of fonts but if you use the attached magnifying glass you'll realise that all of the stories are readable as well as gorgeous to look at.

I have several of the Spinless Classics posters on my walls so I had an idea what I'd be getting when I ordered this book and I do think that this is a great coffee table book but I've decided that I actually prefer having posters that can be displayed rather than a bind up book containing many stories. My copy was actually missing the magnifying glass so I had to return it but I doubt I'd bother buying a replacement. I think the main problem was that I didn't love all 50 designs, there were some really great images in there but I wouldn't say I loved even half of them so there were a lot that were just okay or pretty boring to look at.

Although you can technically read the stories that isn't really what this book is designed for and I think even using the magnifying glass you'd end up with a headache if you tried to actually read this book rather than just enjoy the art for what it is. These images are very cleverly done though so definitely something most bibliophiles would appreciate and they make a great talking point too.

It includes all kinds of stories from A Midsummer Night's Dream to Grimm's Fairy Tales, Frankenstein to War of the Worlds, Around the World in Eighty Days to Peter Pan, The Importance of Being Earnest to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many more besides. Here are just a couple of my favourite designs:

Aesop's Fables:


Aesop's Fables Close Up:
(to give you an idea how small the text actually is)


Beowulf:


Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:


A Study in Scarlet:


The Jungle Book:


The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:

[Anand Mandapati]

This is a gorgeous coffee table book. It takes 50 works of literature and turns each into an illustration, but, instead of inking each illustration the normal way, it's filled in with the words of the novel. They claim each illustration actually contains the entire text, but the font is so small and the included magnifying glass so poor, that it's hard to verify. Maybe I'll check once I get my hands on a much better magnifying glass. In the meantime, it's fun to enjoy a book that shows that a picture truly can be thousands of words.

[Hal]

This is quite a unique book. More of a conversation piece and a work of art really. The book features fifty classic works of literature printed out complete in an artwork design that caricatures the main theme. The type is quite small maybe half point so not especially practical for reading. It does come with an attached magnifier however. I was able to read the print with a bit of effort.

So what to make of this? I have never seen anything quite like it and it is beautifully crafted. The selection of the books, which are presented chronologically, was rather curious to me. Many are certainly recognized classics, but some were new to me. I have read a number of them but it peaks my interest now to investigate those I have not included here.

On balance the book is certainly one you will want in your library. It would also make a great gift for that book lover on your list.

[Sean McGurr]

First off, I haven't read all 50 books included in this book prior to my review. Rather, my review is off the collection itself and not the "literary classics" included. In fact, I'm not sure if it would be possible to read these even with the included magnifying glass. Some of the word art requires some odd text breaks and line inclusions.

Overall, the images are quite good. My wife has a similar poster of a Jane Austen book in our living room. I was impressed with the work that goes into these designs. I was a bit surprised at the selection of works. There are some deep cuts here: Eight Cousins by Alcott; Bartleby by Melville; Crome Yellow by Huxley; and Benjamin Button by Fitzgerald. Not exactly the ones I would expect.

This might serve as a nice coffee table book for those who want to appear literary.

[Shaoroun]

Got this as a gift, love the images and addition of the magnifying glass to help read the stories inside.

That being said I won’t be reading the stories because it’s very difficult to track even with the magnifying glass and certain words will be by themselves making the reading order more difficult to follow.

The stories that i’ve already read in this compilation (11/50) include;
Midsummer Nights Dream
Grimm Fairy Tales
Frankenstein
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Scarlet Letter
Around the World in Eighty Days
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Heart if Darkness
Wizard of Oz
White Fang
Metamorphosis

I hope to read the rest eventually

[Ethan]

I am writing this review simply because nobody else has corrected the general assumption that this book is set in type too small to read as much as a whole story. It is very much possible to read, even without the magnifying glass. I have read several stories out of this book myself, including "The Reluctant Dragon" by Kenneth Graham, My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie, and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This is a great book to look at or to read, as very few must be the people who have read all the words contained within, so practically anyone can find something new (or old) to love.

[Cat {Pemberley and Beyond}]

I get that this is going against the grain, but I adored the concept and reality of this book. It's incredibly meta to reduce a whole text to one image, and then create that image out of the book's text.

True, it's not the most practical format for reading the stories themselves (I got a copy for a fiver as the magnifying glass had got lost somewhere along the way). Luckily my mobile has a pretty nifty magnifying feature!

The book offers a lovely range of old school classics in a novel (heh) format. It's not for everyone, but it's right up my street and I love it!