The Illustrated Man – Buch gebraucht kaufen

0586043594

(ISBN-13: 9780586043592)

wie neu

204

England

2. Auflage

Taschenbuch

Englisch

The Illustrated Man

He was a big man. Firmly. And every inch of him was illustrated. When his flesh twitched, the colors burned three-dimensionally. And the people moved, the tiny mouths flickered and the voices rose, small and muffled. Sixteen illustrations, sixteen stories. The first illustration trembled and came to life…

That The Illustrated Man has remained in print since being published in 1951 is fair testimony to the universal appeal of Ray Bradbury's work. Only his second collection (the first was Dark Carnival, later reworked into The October Country), it is a marvelous, if mostly dark, quilt of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In an ingenious framework to open and close the book, Bradbury presents himself as a nameless narrator who meets the Illustrated Man--a wanderer whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos. What's even more remarkable, and increasingly disturbing, is that the illustrations are themselves magically alive, and each proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge. Or "Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship. Or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens have discovered a most logical ally--our own children. Even though most were written in the 1940s and 1950s, these 18 classic stories will be just as chillingly effective 50 years from now.

Ray Bradbury is one of the few speculative writers to have created an identifiable and unified world of his own; from the nostalgia, mystery and romance of the mid-West, to the new colonies uneasily settling on the sands of Mars or the sinister tension of post-holocaust Mexico, his stories are a haunting evocation of the Gothic and the fanciful.

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About the author:

Ray Douglas Bradbury (1920-2012) was an American novelist and screenwriter specializing in science fiction, horror and fantasy. Bradbury's literary breakthrough came with The Martian Chronicles, published in 1950.

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Ray Bradbury quotes:

"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them" - Ray Bradbury

"Books are ideas of flesh and blood, and they scream silently when they are put to the torch." - Ray Bradbury

"The problem in our country isn't that books are being banned, it's that people aren't reading anymore." - Ray Bradbury

"Jump - and grow wings on the way down" - Ray Bradbury

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Reviews from readers:

"“And I think it's gonna be a long long time
'Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone”

Rocket Man – Elton John – Inspired by a story from The Illustrated Man

Sometimes when I read Ray Bradbury, I feel like I am not worthy.

That was definitely the case this time! Not just a 5 star book – all the starts in the universe!

Bradbury is a master story teller. He is a weaver of the unique and bizarre. His words and stories dig into your brain and set up shop. What once seemed normal . . . what once seemed reasonable . . . will quickly become unstable and other-worldly in the hands of this master. While maybe not every one of the stories in The Illustrated Man will blow you away, I can almost 100% guarantee they will all leave you thinking in their own special way.

While reading this collection, I got into a discussion about how Bradbury writes. That discussion included a side journey into the old Twilight Zone episodes. That is exactly it – every Bradbury story reads exactly like an old episode of the classic sci-fi show. Often, things appear normal and Bradbury will shift them in a slight and unexpected way which takes the story in a way just slightly outside the norm. These shifts are rarely monumental or explosive – just enough to throw off the norm. For example, and this is not one he used, but should illustrate what I mean: he might write a story in a world where the letter A has been banned and go through all the ramifications that might have on the fictional society in his story.

Another huge factor that is obvious in these stories is the affect the world of 1951 (year of publication) had on these stories. You can tell that these stories were written under the pressure of the cold war, nuclear threat, governments in turmoil, Communist fears, civil rights, etc. So much of the world from that time period seeps between the lines. I would almost say that some of this book is in a genre of its own – historic sci-fi. If you have any interest in how the world affected literature in the mid-1900s, this would be the perfect case study.

As it is pretty obvious by now, I loved this book! I love Bradbury! I cannot wait until the next one!" - Matthew
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Condition: Like new. Pages darkened due to age.

Comparable new price: €26.00 (incl. shipping).
Your savings on a new purchase: -10% or -2.60 € (incl. Shipping).

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1980

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