Words & Pictures: Writers, Artists and a Peculiarly British Tradition

About this book

Following the success of Jenny Uglow's 'Hogarth' and her life of Thomas Bewick, this beautifully illustrated little book uncovers some intriguing connections between British writers and artists.As children, learning to read, we look first at the illustrations - but how do these tell their stories differently to the words? 'Words & Pictures' explores this question through three encounters. It looks at how artists have responded to two great, contrasting works, 'Paradise Lost' and 'Pilgrim's Progress'; at Hogarth and Fielding, great innovators, sharing common aims; and at Wordsworth and Bewick, a poet and an engraver, both working separately, but both imbued with the spirit of their age. A brief coda turns to a fourth relationship: writers and artists who collaborate from the start, like Dickens and Phiz, and Lewis Carroll and Tenniel.Sometimes amusing, sometimes moving, this is a book to pore over and enjoy. It touches on a peculiarly British tradition of community and defiance of authority, unmasking pretension and celebrating energy and warmth. The visions it considers link daily life to the universal, the passionate and the sublime.