Phiz! The Book Illustrations Of Hablot Knight Browne

by John Buchanan-Brown, Hablot Knight Browne (Illustrator)

extremely rare,very good condition

207 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

If a picture is worth a thousand words then Phiz!:Illustrator of Dickens' World by John Buchanan-Brown gives its readers many, many words. This text is comprised of 216 illustrations that cover a wide spectrum of Hablot Browne's work. Dickens, of course, is front and centre in this book, but there are also examples of Browne's work for Charles Lever and others.

One of the main strengths of this book is that it spans the life work of Browne and thus the reader/viewer has the opportunity to see the early work of Phiz as he experimented with his methods of expression, then through the glory years of his collaboration with Dickens, to the later years where Browne was unwilling to change his methods and style to meet the new demands of the reading public.

The narrative analysis of this book is not the focus of the author. A reader who comes to this book in the anticipation of an in depth commentary will be disappointed. If a reader wants to view and enjoy the work of Hablot Browne visually, this book will provide a good introduction to his life's work.

For some reason that I do not understand, the introduction to this book is printed on dark brown paper. Perhaps this was done to give the suggestion of age. Nevertheless, I found it mildly distracting. In any case, for the novice like myself this book offers much to view, much to think about and much to enjoy.