The Dore Gallery: His 120 Greatest Illustrations (Dover Pictorial Archives)

Ah, if only Dore could have lived a lifetime, so many works would clamour for his illustrative hand, if they could but speak! This selection of his works cross-sections so many of his woodcuts, engravings, and illustrations that it is a veritable feast for the happily-critical eye! Covering a sample of many of his better-known as well as scarce-discovered subjects, this celebration of one of the greatest illustrators ever should hold an honored place on every art-lover's bookshelf! Dore covered subjects from Fairy-tales to the Crusades, such towering pillars of literature from Poe's "Raven"and Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" to Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" and John Milton's "Paradise Lost". They don't get much bigger and grader than that, unless it were The Holy Bible itself....and wonder of wonders, he even depicted numerous scenes from that! Angels and Demons, lovers and knights, dragons and other whimseys--such diversity and always spot-on to portray not just a picture, but a mood, an emotion, an atmosphere that fills not just the panel but the room with it's meanings! I wish Dore could have had many more years and generations: how wonderful it would have been to see the works of a Raphael Sabatini, a Sir Walter Scott, an Alexandre Dumas, a Robert Louis Stevenson, a Bram Stoker, or a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with designs by this wonderful master! Oh, but life is fleeting, and we must clutch and cherish what we can while we mayst, and what better icing on a literary cake to clutch and savor with our literary pallets than these wonderful, wonderful depictions?

Back in 1970, I had a hardback copy of most all of Gustave Dore's engravings that I cherished looking at. It sadly burned up in my house fire of 1987, which is all chronicled in my inspirational memoir  Still Singing, Somehow . Now forty years later, I still really enjoy sitting with this current soft cover edition of Dore's drawings. This artist is pure genius at the highest level. How can anybody not notice that when viewing his art? "Puss in Boots" for any cat lovers and "The Empyrean" from The Divine Comedy are worth buying this book for alone, in my opinion, as they are my favorites. Fans of Dante and the Bible will be greatly rewarded too, as nobody lays down the lines like Gustave Dore. And at the price it goes for, you're crazy not to buy this superb edition for your own library, if you love great art. It is worth every penny spent and so much more.

This book is overall a nice art book, but I am a little upset that it came damaged. Mainly due to packaging. It was delivered in a paper Amazon bag, when items like this should be boxed up. The printing is also a little off (and you can see that in the last two reference pictures I posted from the back cover image, to the one that is actually in the book) Some of the images are too dark to see the true beautiful details of Doré work. Anyone who is familiar with him will notice that right away. That’s clearly a printing error, rather than Amazon fault.

Page after page of breathtaking detail.I added a photo of the table of contents. If you are reading a non-illustrated edition of one of these works, I highly recommend buying this Dore collection to add to the pleasure.

The book is rather large. I would say about 8x10. Which makes more convenient for viewing the images. Beautifully done. I am very satisfied

Print quality isn’t spectacular. Some prints are outright ugly where the blacks just take over and you can’t even tell what’s going on. If I wanted something with more Doré prints and better printing within the same price range, I’d get the “Bible Illustrations” one.

I do not believe this book has all of his drawings but it gives you a good combination of all the genres he drew.It's a pretty awsome book Im thinking about buying the bible drawings and the Dantes inferno which the Dante illustrations are what drew me to Dore Gustave.

Very satisfied with this book! I'm a big fan of Dore and this was an excellent book for the price.

No es una buena selección de litografías de Gustave DoréContiene muy pocas de la Biblia, ilustrada por el Pintor

O livro é excelente. Apresenta as principais obras de Doré, com ilustrações da Bíblia, Divina Comédia, Paraíso Perdido, Dom Quixote, e outras obras icônicas. O único ponto positivo do livro é que ele acaba, pois ficamos com vontade de ver mais e mais desenhos desse gênio. Para quem gosta do trabalho do Doré é uma ótima compra.

Relativly inexpensive book so print quality somewhat to be expected. It's okay, you get the idea, but it'd be great to have something better for a few quid more.

È arrivata una copia leggermente fallata, ma abbiamo usufruito della possibilità di cambiarla e la nuova copia in condizioni perfette è arrivata a stretto giro. Dunque ottima soddisfazione per il servizio offerto. Per questo prezzo è un libro notevole come tutti gli altri della collezione Dover che finora ho preso. Nell'ambito della illustrazione qualcosa di simile a quanto offerto da Taschen per i libri d'arte. Manca la parte testuale, ma le illustrazioni sono a piena pagina e, compatibilmente con una carta abbastanza economica, la risoluzione è degna. La migliore collana in commercio a livello internazionale che io conosca per una biblioteca di base della storia della illustrazione d'autore.

An amazing book from an amazing master.