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The Sun, The Idea & Story Without Words: Three Graphic Novels
The Sun, The Idea & Story Without Words: Three Graphic Novels
The Sun, The Idea & Story Without Words: Three Graphic Novels
Ebook219 pages11 minutes

The Sun, The Idea & Story Without Words: Three Graphic Novels

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Rich in symbolism, these compelling graphic novels feature more than 200 starkly beautiful woodcut illustrations. The passionate, dynamic narratives include The Sun, a somber exploration of one man's struggle with destiny; The Idea, a depiction of the triumph of an artistic concept over attempts at its suppression; and Story Without Words, a tale of thwarted romance.
Belgian-born Frans Masereel illustrated the works of Tolstoy, Zola, and Oscar Wilde, but he made the greatest impact with his wordless novels. These three stories, dating from the early 1920s, reflect the German Expressionist revival of the art of the woodcut. Precursors to today's graphic novels, they also represent a centuries-old tradition of picture books for unschooled audiences. Masereel combines allegory and satire in his explorations of love, alienation, and artistic creation. Thomas Mann praised these striking Expressionistic images as "so compelling, so deeply felt, so rich in ideas, that one never tires of looking at them." 
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 13, 2012
ISBN9780486138282
The Sun, The Idea & Story Without Words: Three Graphic Novels

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    Gorgeous and engaging to say the least. What a treat.

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The Sun, The Idea & Story Without Words - Frans Masereel

WORDS

Introduction

Frans Masereel, acknowledged as the father of the novel in pictures, was born in 1889 to an upper-class family in Ghent, Belgium, where he attended the Academy of Arts. After a year of study, Masereel was encouraged to leave the Academy, as he had outgrown the instruction. Masereel befriended Jules de Bruycker, a Ghent printmaker who depicted the theme of social injustice; he mentored Masereel in the graphic arts before traveling to Paris and Brittany. Masereel was part of the International Pacifist Movement and moved to Geneva during World War I, where he worked for the International Red Cross and began his career as a political cartoonist. After the war, he completed his first woodcut novel, 25 Images de la Passion d’un Homme (The Passion of Man, 1918), a story told in 25 woodcuts, followed by his more famous Mon livre d’heures (Passionate Journey, 1919), a novel in 167 woodcuts. Masereel’s focus was on social ills growing from a rising industrial and commercial culture that ignored the basic principles of human understanding and compassion. In a burst of creativity, Masereel completed his next three woodcut novels, The Idea, The Sun, and Story Without Words, using an allegorical perspective that focused on various human attributes. One of Masereel’s admirers was Frank Crowninshield, editor-in-chief of vanity Fair, which published an extensive selection from The Idea in 1921. Masereel continued to contribute to vanity Fair numerous brush drawings that satirized technology and

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