Little, Big 25th Anniversary Edition

Detail from Embarkation for Cythera by Peter Milton
Click link for full image

Although the 25th Anniversary edition of Little, Big has not yet been published there was a recent update on the Little, Big site bearing good tidings of its publication status and providing a sneak peek on its progress. Along with this update, there is a sample chapter (Chapter One) on the site giving some indication of how the finished book will look, with illustrations by Peter Milton added to the text. It’s extraordinary how appropriate the images are to the book, uncanny really, as both author and artist were unknown to each other until fairly recently.

On all counts it strikes me as being exquisite and very beautiful and makes me glad that I have a numbered edition on order which I keenly anticipate receiving later this year. It has been a long wait, but I’m sure it will be worth it when the book finally arrives.

I’ve been holding back rereading Little, Big until I have the 25th Anniversary edition in my hands, but having idly perused the sample chapter, I am seduced once again by the enchanting prose of John Crowley. The anticipation is all the sweeter having been reminded of how one is drawn ineluctably into the world of Little, Big within the opening sentences.

I challenge you to read the sample chapter without being tempted to buy one of the forthcoming or indeed any edition, though the 25th Anniversary edition appears as if it will be a book to be treasured to one’s dying day with the hope that it finds a good home thereafter.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to browse my library for books that I feel like reading again, like Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast Trilogy, which I haven’t read for ages.

I recently read Steampunk, the anthology I recently won from Jeff VanderMeer. I will not attempt to write a review of it, but suffice to say it was an enjoyable ride through various steampunk universes as written by masters of the genre. Larry at OFBlog says it all in his review.