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Francis Bacon's New Organon, published in 1620, was revolutionary in its attempt to give formal philosophical shape to a new and rapidly emerging experimental science. It challenged the entire edifice of the philosophy and learning of Bacon's time, and left its mark on all subsequent discussions of scientific method. This volume presents a new translation of the text into modern English by Michael Silverthorne, together with an introduction by Lisa Jardine that sets the work in the context of Bacon's scientific and philosophical activities. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

You're paying for the footnotes on this one

--and possibly a slightly more colloquial translation & scholarly academic introduction :D. The Library of Liberal


Artsedition is available for a lower price, minus footnotes & intro.

Best publication of Bacon's New Organon
I had to write a research paper on Francis Bacon's The New Organon for my History of Ideas VI class and this book was the definitive source for that paper. The introduction by Lisa Jardine is stellar. There is so much invaluable content and critical commentary in her introduction it was overwhelming. This edition by Cambridge University Press is sufficient for anyone who wants to become decently familiar with Bacon's The New Organon and his contribution to empiricism and the scientific revolution. It is an especially valuable source for anyone who has to do a substantial research paper for a philosophy course. I would not want to do without Jardine's introduction and the notes if I were writing a paper on The New Organon. I also would like to mention that though this book is not exhaustive in its scope it is very thorough in regards to The New Organon. If one is looking for more historical content on Francis Bacon the man, they should look elsewhere. This work only provides a very short chronology of the highlights in Bacon's life, but nothing beyond this. However, when I was working on my research paper, I favored this book amongst the fifteen to twenty others I was using for the sake of researching The New Organon. Just keep that in mind coming from a UK bound student who reads and writes papers 24/7 as if it were his job, literally. I assure you, you will no be disappointed with this work on your bookshelf. It will prove an invaluable source for future academic study and research for any serious scholar. For the rest who are not so serious academically, or who simply are not students and want a one-night stand with Bacon's The New Organon, this will suffice beyond measure.

New Translation, New Readers
This is a very clear and readily assimilated translation of what may be considered the manifesto of the scientific revolution.Translating a seventeenth century Englishman, writing in latin, back into english: shouldit be the english he would have written at that time, or is a moreahistorical rendering ppropriate? Sometimes I wondered if the translationmight be a little too up-to-date in its sensibilities and I found myselfreturning to the latin original to be reassured that Bacon's originalintent had been rendered. Although the text is admirably clear a few morefootnotes would have been welcome. Those provided are either somewhatcryptic and brief notes of textual readings, or on the other hand, notes onpersonages that seem to pander too much to the ignorance of today'sstudents - vero media est. Though the second part of Novum Organon seem butlittle removed from the alchemists den, Bacon's first part is as relevantto the scientific enterprise today as it ever was - modern physicists andgeneticists should consider carefully whether, as aphorism LXIV warns,empiricism may be a greater danger than sophistic dogma ever was. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Colors a bit off, but good overall
As in all titles in the Great Modern Masters series published by Abrams: Colors are not vibrant, often with a brownish tint or/and too dark, and their accuracy is just O.K. There are 64 pages of a good size 9.5x12 inches (24x30.5 cm). It begins with an introduction with 5-6 small b&w pictures on 2 pages, which is followed by a biography with 5-6 small b&w pictures on 2 next pages. The rest is dedicated to good size over 60 full color plates divided into chapters dedicated to artist's carrier periods, style directions, or themes, each described by 12-16 lines of text. The series is inferior to the same size paperback series published by Taschen in 1990s, but superior to Taschen's series of smaller sizes published latter. Unfortunately, the Taschen series does not cover Bacon, Botero, Brancusi, Braque, Calder, de Chirico, Johns, Kokoschka, Leger, Man Ray, Malevich, Modigliani, and Rouault this series does. ... Read more

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Product Description
This entirely new classroom edition of Francis Bacon's great work of 1620, a founding document of empiricism and the scientific method, contains a new introduction and notes by translators/editors Urbach and Gibson. Index. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Best available edition of this classic text
Good translation of the original Latin by the great "renaissance man" and important English writer, thinker, statesman Sir Francis Bacon, . This is a seminal work in the origin of modern, empirical science. Scholars of renaissance culture will also find it valuable. Bacon's outline of the "idols" of thought (ways of thinking) that obscure truth is classic and still relevant. Bacon's "novum organum" or new science also includes perhaps the first description of the modern scientific method; formulate a hypothesis based on known data and then test it against the facts. Essential.

A gem!
Though somewhat obscure, this book should be more widely known and read. Very enlightening and well ahead of it's time. Terrific, readable translation. You'll never look at the world again in the same way! ... Read more

Product Description

Originally published in 1968. This volume discusses Francis Bacon’s thought and work in the context of the European cultural environment that influenced Bacon’s philosophy and was in turn influenced by it. It examines the influence of magical and alchemical traditions on Bacon and his opposition to these traditions, as well as illustrating the naturalist, materialist and ethico-political patterns in Bacon’s allegorical interpretations of fables.

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BOOK DESCRIPTION

* Who was Francis Bacon, a genius of modern times?

* Why did he often use cyptic or 'secret' ways of communicating in his writings?

*Was he also a Master of Hermetic Wisdom?If so, how do we know this?

*Are we currently living in the beginning of Bacon's long-awaited 'New Age'?

Francis Bacon, the acclaimed but hidden 'chief' who led the wits and poets in Elizabethan and Jacobean England during the period that saw some of the greatest masterpieces of English literature created, is now revealed.For the first time, readers will see his many dimensions, how Bacon deliberately followed the path of the ancients, using drama, certain codes and ciphers, to lead people to self-knowledge and enlightenment --a New Age.Through special techniques, cryptic codes and ciphers, we learn more about the ancient wisdom embedded in his works and how we -- today -- may well be living on the cusp of the 'New Age' of enlightenment that Bacon envisioned long ago.

Bacon and the Pursuit of truth:

Bacon's work is founded on the perennial wisdom underlying the Bible.His work is known as THE SIX DAY'S WORK (of creation) guiding the seeker towards peace, prosperity and illumination based on love, understanding and service.

Bacon and Enlightenment:

This illumination or light is the wisdom of ages, synthesised from many sources into books, music, drama nad art by a group led by Sir Francis Bacon.

Baconand the Shakespeare plays

These were written as working examples forming part of Bacon's method for the discovery of truth.

Bacon and Discovery:

In this book, author and readers work together to explore the 'treasure trail' of clues that Bacon and his Rosicrucian group left in order that we, too, may learn, practice and develop the work even further, in the early 21st century. ... Read more

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This ambitious and important book provides the first truly general account of Francis Bacon as a philosopher.It explores in detail how and why Bacon attempted to transform the largely esoteric discipline of natural philosophy into a public practice through a program in which practical science provided a model that inspired many from the 17th to the 20th centuries. This book will be recognized as a major contribution to Baconian scholarship of special interest to historians of early modern philosophy, science, and ideas. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Works of Francis Bacon
Works of Francis Bacon. Essays, Valerius Terminus of the Interpretation of Nature, The Advancement of Learning, The Wisdom of the Ancients, Novum Organum ... Published by MobileReference (mobi)

Kindle edition by MobileReference is sufficient for anyone who wants to learn about Bacon's contribution to empiricism and the scientific revolution. It is an especially valuable source for anyone who has to write a substantial research paper. ... Read more

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Francis Bacon, lawyer, statesman, and philosopher, remains one of the most effectual thinkers in European intellectual history. We can trace his influence from Kant in the 1700s to Darwin a century later. The Advancement of Learning, first published in 1605, contains an unprecedented and thorough systematization of the whole range of human knowledge. Bacon’s argument that the sciences should move away from divine philosophy and embrace empirical observation would forever change the way philosophers and natural scientists interpret their world.

Amazon.com Review
While he didn't exactly invent science, Francis Bacon is its best-known early promoter. The Advancement of Learning is his 1605 argument in favor of natural philosophy and inductive reasoning, and it is still vigorous and cogent today. Though using the language of Shakespeare, the book remains largely accessible to modern readers--still, a bit of classical knowledge is helpful.Shaking off the centuries-old domination of Aristotle, Bacon advocated building scientific theories on facts and observations rather than pure reason; little has changed in our approach to understanding the world since then. Of greatest interest to historians and philosophers of science, the book will also appeal to those curious about the underpinnings of today's naturalistic thinking. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

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No artist's studio rivals Francis Bacon's in terms of sheer iconic pungency. The artist's furious hurricanes of creativity were writ large upon its walls, scattered across its floors in a sea of paint pots, brushes, discarded canvases and much-abused source and reference materials, all of which seemed to bespeak Bacon's chaotically rigorous processes: bodybuilding snaps, reproductions of Muybridge time-lapse sequences, photo-booth self-portraits, magazine cuttings, tattered monographs, medical textbooks with images of unusual and often horrific wounds and diseases, and countless photos of friends such as Lucian Freud, John Deakin, Isabel Rawsthorne, Muriel Belcher and George Dyer, from which the artist built his portraits of them. Bacon's exceptional eloquence on the subject of his painting process, taken in combination with the iconicity and visual impact of his studio (now preserved at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery at the Dublin City Gallery), enables his admirers to envisage something of how his paintings were made. In celebration of the centenary of Bacon's birth, and chiming with an exhibition at the Dublin City Gallery, A Terrible Beauty excavates Bacon's studio to reveal the methods, materials and processes through which Bacon arrived at his paintings. Drawing on the Hugh Lane's vast archive of materials, it gathers new scholarship and insights from Rebecca Daniels, Barbara Dawson, Marcel Fincke, Martin Harrison, Jessica O'Donnell, Joanna Shepard and Logan Sisley, and is a major publication for Bacon fans and scholars alike. ... Read more

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One of the major political figures of his time, Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) served in the court of Elizabeth I and ultimately became Lord Chancellor under James I in 1617. A scholar, wit, lawyer and statesman, he wrote widely on politics, philosophy and science - declaring early in his career that 'I have taken all knowledge as my province'. In this, his most famous work, he considers a diverse range of subjects, such as death and marriage, ambition and atheism, in prose that is vibrant and rich in Renaissance learning. Bacon believed that rhetoric - the force of eloquence and persuasion - could lead the mind to the pure light of reason, and his own rhetorical genius is nowhere better expressed than in these vivid essays. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Beautiful Words
This edition has an introduction by Christopher Morley who describes the genius of Lord Bacon. None can match the written word of with Lord Bacon.The essence of the human mind is everywhere the same and Bacon captures the thoughts and reasoning on diverse fields of philosophy, science, history and law. Bacon believed that they would "last as long as books last", and it is for them that he is primarily remembered. The essays counsel on civil and moral life. This book is based on the 1625 edition

The first edition was published in 1597 and has the following title page:

"Essays, Religious Meditations, Places of persuasion and dissuasion, Seene and allowed.At London, Printed for Humfrey Hooper, and are to be sold at the black Bear in Chauncey Lane 1597"

Bacon has the ability to "showed man to himself"He is truly the first Modern Mind.

The book is leather-bound and the typography matches the old English words.

Style plus Substance
There is little doubt that for the modern reader, usually the college undergraduate, reading Bacon's essays is a challenging obstacle.It is not simply that his essays were written more than four centuries ago and that the English language has evolved considerably since then.The problem lies more in the style in which Bacon felt most comfortable. His erudition was immense.His audience was not meant to be the ill-trained lower class tradesman still fumbling with the rudiments of Basic English.Rather, he wrote for readers much like himself, highly conversant in history, literature, foreign languages, and philosophy.

When Bacon first began to write his essays, his primary model was Montaigne, who wrote in the highly personalized, discursive style that Bacon felt ill-equipped to emulate.Bacon was one of the first of his era to write in the terse epigrammatic style in which much is said in few words.Today, many of his sentences read as if they were taken straight from Chinese fortune cookies. Bacon favored the use of balanced phrases and parallel construction.Such writing calls attention to itself, even to the point where the means may overwhelm the message.Much of his work is replete with references to classical writers of antiquity.He often drops a vague reference to an unnamed Greek or Roman, whose identity must be supplied by editors in the form of helpful footnotes.The cultural illiteracy of modern youth is evident since it does little good to know the name without also knowing a great deal about the life and times of that writer, most of which cannot be squeezed into a footnote.Bacon also uses highly Latinate sentences with wild abandon.Since most readers today have trouble recalling their high school Latin, footnotes are again necessary.

Bacon begins his essays with a helpful one sentence summation of his thesis.Sometimes he takes a definite stand as in "Of Parents and Children" and in others as in "Of Marriage and Single Life" he does not.The reader must ascertain which essay provides this definitive result, and with Bacon, this is not always an easy task.Part of the problem that readers today have with plowing through Bacon's essays is that they have been trained to look for ideas in the context of the whole paragraph, which usually boils down to main idea, supporting detail, and conclusion.Bacon, however, did not achieve his fame in that manner.The persistent reader will discover that the key to Bacon is to look for meaning not in the macroscopic world of the paragraph but in the microscopic world of the individual phrase or even the solitary word.Bacon's penchant for the pithy phrase and illusive word often carry the linguistic day.The rest of the paragraph is often no more than a refutation or support of that word or phrase.

Adding to Bacon's aforementioned writing quirks is yet another: his use of antithesis, which refers to statements for or against a topic.Bacon often wrote his essays as if he were setting up both sides of a debate, thus necessitating giving evidence from both sides.Since his observations frequently dealt with generalized assessments of human life and how it should be lived, the reader had to assimilate these contraries, sometimes without even knowing which stand Bacon favored. And it is here that Bacon connects style to content.Since Bacon favored the inductive method of thought and research, one that proceeds from evidence to conclusion, it made sense for him to observe the world by noting both sides of a controversial issue.The reader, then, in the absence of Bacon's blunt support of one side or another, had to examine the evidence before reaching his own conclusion.Since the target audience was the seeker of power or the man about town, Bacon wanted to train that man to look beyond the obvious, to coolly and deliberately assess his position before advancing. This presupposed a mind much like Bacon's own.Modern readers are not used to such a cold and calculating approach to life, and it is as much this as any linguistic device that renders Bacon's essays both challenging and discomforting.

Review from Branddenotes.blogspot.com
Awesome book, especially considering when it was written. Bacon apparently was one of the first Europeans to re-introduce the materialism of Epicurus that had been suppressed by organized religious fanatics, aka the Church. Also, Bacon was a lawyer (before writing philosophy), and so he's the only lawyer I know of who has made a lasting contribution to the human race.

Civil and Moral Essays
Francis Bacon is one of the authors whose ideas pervade society, but whose work very few of us have read.For example, many of us know of Bacon's saying that "Knowledge is Power" only through Economist Alfred Marshall. However, Bacon's analysis of how human science progresses is an essential classic. The modern scientific method owes an enormous debt of gratitude to Bacon's induction method. Bacon bases his induction method on observation and experiment.His Essays - this book - makes observations about life in all its varied dimensions. As an economist my reading focused on essays with a material content such as the essays "Of Innovations", "Of Riches", "Of Customs and Education", and so on. However, I have browsed or will soon browse other essays of the book.

Overall, it is impressive that one person did so much that has remained so insightfully informative for so long!Although the reading is slowed by the archaic and old style of the language of the book, I strongly recommend this book to all readers including young readers seeking to build their character.

Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465

Get more bacon
Why get just the essays from Penguin Classics when you can get Bacon's 800 page major works from Oxford World's Classics (which includes the essays) for pretty much the same money?The difference is in cents - and you get five hundred pages more with Oxford, in an equally sturdy, attractive, and well-edited edition. ... Read more

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Francis Bacon, one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, speaks openly to his close friend Archimbaud about his life and art. The interviews took place in Bacon's studio just before his death in 1992. Francis Bacon was a self-taught painter and yet went on to become one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, his startling studies of distorted figures in airless, enclosed spaces seeming to capture the alienation and despair of modern man. In this book he speaks frankly to his close friend Michel Archimbaud about the influences which have shaped his art. Bacon punctuates his answers with disparaging remarks about a whole host of artists including amongst others Rubens, Blake, Monet, Cezanne, Picasso, Shakespeare, Wagner and Debussy. Archimbaud's searching questions shed a new light on Bacon's work. These interviews took place in Bacon's studio between October 1991 and April 1992. They were to continue in Paris following Bacon's trip to Madrid but he died in Madrid on 28 April 1992. As such they can be seen as his last vision. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

if your an artist or lover of Bacon's work...
this is the best book so far to describe Bacon's thought's and inner working's of his creations.I bought this title in a book store, but wanted to say that it's hard to come by and may be out of print.If you want to know the artist, if choosing one book, this is the book to have. ... Read more

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Francis Bacon (1561-1626), commonly regarded as one of the founders of the Scientific Revolution, exerted a powerful influence on the intellectual development of the modern world. He also led a remarkably varied and dramatic life as a philosopher, writer, lawyer, courtier, and statesman. Although there has been much recent scholarship on individual aspects of Bacon's career, Perez Zagorin's is the first work in many years to present a comprehensive account of the entire sweep of his thought and its enduring influence. Combining keen scholarly and psychological insights, Zagorin reveals Bacon as a man of genius, deep paradoxes, and pronounced flaws.

The book begins by sketching Bacon's complex personality and troubled public career. Zagorin shows that, despite his idealistic philosophy and rare intellectual gifts, Bacon's political life was marked by continual careerism in his efforts to achieve advancement. He follows Bacon's rise at court and describes his removal from his office as England's highest judge for taking bribes. Zagorin then examines Bacon's philosophy and theory of science in connection with his project for the promotion of scientific progress, which he called "The Great Instauration." He shows how Bacon's critical empiricism and attempt to develop a new method of discovery made a seminal contribution to the growth of science. He demonstrates Bacon's historic importance as a prophetic thinker, who, at the edge of the modern era, predicted that science would be used to prolong life, cure diseases, invent new materials, and create new weapons of destruction. Finally, the book examines Bacon's writings on such subjects as morals, politics, language, rhetoric, law, and history. Zagorin shows that Bacon was one of the great legal theorists of his day, an influential philosopher of language, and a penetrating historian.

Clearly and beautifully written, the book brings out the richness, scope, and greatness of Bacon's work and draws together the many, colorful threads of an extraordinarily brilliant and many-sided mind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

misses the boat
Zagorin has not added much to the great mystery of Francis Bacon. He has written a superficial understanding of the life and as a result left out many salient aspectsthat would have provided greater insight into Bacon'smotivations and philosophy. Save your money on this one and buy a copy ofAlfred Dodd's:"Francis Bacon's Personal Life Story"instead. ... Read more

Product Description
Francis Bacon is celebrated as one of the most important British artists of the twentieth century. From the 1940s to his death in 1992 he worked consistently as a painter, ignoring other passing, fashionable trends in art. Throughout his career, the human figure was the dominant subject in his work: his paintings of men and women go far beyond a simple likeness and instead are portraits of complex psychological states. This book has been produced to coincide with the 2005 summer exhibition, which will be held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. In two essays, the book examines fifty of some of his most intense works: his small-format portraits. This will be the first museum exhibition devoted to this fascinating aspect of his work and the first on Francis Bacon in Scotland. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Searching into the intimacy of the human.
The catalogue for a 2005 exhibition held at the Scottish National Gallery of Art and at the Hamburg Kunsthalle, this book focuses on a crucial body of works that Bacon painted all throughout his career. Most of these works are small-scale, which means that little is lost of the gripping effect they usually have on first-hand viewers, through reproduction (all the more so as the illustrations are excellent). After an introductory essay that aimsat debunking the various clichés that have marked the gradual public acceptance of Bacon's work (the distortion of the human figure as a reflexion of the brutality of our post-war world is one of those clichés)by showing how these portrait reveal the intimacy and innermost personality of the models, the book follows a chronological pattern, grouping the paintings by periods and models (early heads of the 40's and 50's, Men in Blue of 1954, Peter Lacy, George Dyer, Henrietta Moraes, Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne). A special section is devoted to the self-portraits from 1963 to 1987.

A surprisingly high-quality publication that is one of the few reasonably priced books on Bacon.

disappointing
I expected something else. In 'Van Gogh and Expressionism' the Baconimages are vibrant and colorful and interesting. They include studies for portraits of Van Gogh as well as self portraits. They look much like the cover of this book. Unfortunately, the only image I liked WAS the cover. Had I looked through this book in a bookstore I would not have purchased. Perhaps i am not much of a Bacon 'fan'. Let that be a lesson to me.....more research in the future before purchasing.

Examining the Essence of the Model and Exposing the Passion
FRANCIS BACON: PORTRAITS AND HEADS is a superb catalogue that accompanied an exhibition in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh last summer and unlike most of the Bacon retrospectives, this exhibition focused entirely on the many heads Bacon painted. As other artist come and go Francis Bacon continues to be one of the more 'published' artists of the twentieth century and it is refreshing to see that there are still new things to say about the work of one of the most significant painters in recent years

Included are self portraits, portraits of famous people some of whom actually commissioned portraits while the majority are of friends, lovers, fellow artists, and images from photographs. Bacons small works carry as much power as the large canvases, perhaps that is due to the lack of need to place the figure in a constructed environment or space. Or perhaps when Bacon concentrated on only the head, his probing eye could explore and paint the model's psyche (as well as his own responsive psyche!).

The reproductions are superb, on excellent paper, and given full attention in the catalogue. There are two fine essays in addition to the obligatory Introduction and comments from the curatorial staff. Though most of these paintings can be found in other catalogue raisonnes of Bacon's work, seeing the small head portraits in a single space is a fine idea and one from which we continue to learn about just what made Bacon unique and inimitable! Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, August 06


... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: C. Scribner's sons in 1908 in 414 pages; Subjects: Drama / General; Literary Collections / Essays; Philosophy / General; Philosophy / Logic; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

ESSAYS OF FRANCIS BACON (LARGE PRINT)
DID NOT MEET DESCRIPTION BY AMAZON.
THERE WAS NO LISTING BY EACH ESSAY TITLE.
THERE WAS NO DESCRIPTION IN EACH ESSAY OF MEANING OF ELIZABETHAN TERMS,NOR ANY TRANSLATION OF FREQUENT LATIN QUOTATIONS.
NOR ANY INTERPRETIVE COMMENTS ON THE ESSAYS.
ALL THESE THINGS ARE FOUND NORMALLY IN MODERN EDITIONS.
THIS BOOK WAS DOWNLOADED FROM THE INTERNET AND IT SHOWS. ... Read more

Product Description
An engaging biography of lawyer, writer, and philosopher Sir Francis Bacon.

"All rising to great place is by a winding stair," wrote Sir Francis Bacon. It wasn’t until he was forty-five that Bacon’s feet found the first step on that staircase, when King James I made him Solicitor-General, from where he rose through the ranks to become Lord Chancellor. Many accounts of the life of Sir Francis Bacon have been written for scholars, but du Maurier’s aim was to paint a vivid portrait of this remarkable man for the common reader. In The Winding Stair, she illuminates the considerable achievements of this Renaissance man: as a writer, lawyer, philosopher, scientist, and politician.

Dame Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989) wrote more than 25 acclaimed novels, short stories, and plays, including Rebecca and The House on the Strand. She was also a passionate and skillful biographer. Now, her finest biographical works are being reissued in the distinguished Virago Modern Classics series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Part of the Shakesperian writing team?
Yes, the novelist who gave us Hitchcock's "Jamaica Inn," "Rebecca," and "The Birds," was also a historian, especially anything that had to do with her own family and her own "country," southwest England.

"The Winding Stair" begins where "Golden Lads" ends. It begins with Francis at age 40, on the death of his brother.

The title comes from the quote that one's ascent in life is like a winding stair, taking one step at a time.

Easy to read, and fills in the gaps of Francis Bacon's life. But the best part of this is the fact that it was written by a celebrity in her own right: Daphne du Maurier. ... Read more

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Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest British artists of this century. For over fifty years the intense emotions conveyed in his works have shocked and enthralled an ever-growing audience. David Sylvester, a leading Bacon scholar, brings together many of the artist's best paintings involving the human figure, the central subject of his work. Bacon's diverse body imagery can be seen in his self-portraits; nude studies; portraits of friends such as Henrietta Moraes, George Dyer, and Lucian Freud; and his series of Popes. Many of Bacon's prototypes were "found" images: reproductions of Michelangelo, Velsquez, Degas, Muybridge's photographs of the human figure in motion, film stills from Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, magazine photos of politicians and boxers.Bacon disliked working directly from a model and therefore often commissioned photographs, especially from John Deakin. A prolific creator of self-portraits, Bacon painted dozens, mostly small canvases of his head. Usually three are put together to form a triptych; sometimes one appears as a solo canvas or as a unit in a triptych along with other people's heads. One of the most powerful is a full-length portrait, the Sleeping Figure of 1974, painted from a photograph of him stretched out on a hospital bed. Other paintings portray bodies wracked by violencea wailing mouth, a cry of despair. Sylvester's observations show how certain images were linked to incidents in Bacon's life, such as childhood fear of his father and his lifelong devotion to his nanny. The catalog includes paintings that date from 1945 to the mid-1980s, including single canvases and triptychs from collections around the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

For inspiration
Not so long before I had no idea of who Bacon was and what he painted. Remember how I once skipped lectures in university and played PSX game Silent Hill all day along. In Making OF of this game I first time heard that some art inspiration for game was taken from Bacon paintings. And so I came to Bacon and his art :)
Personally for me, and again just for me, I gave this book 5 stars because pictures here catch my eye like none art before. Bacons pictures by some reason looks stunning and scary at the same time. This book contains his pictures of human body theme only, as a cover says. I liked the way author gone - less text, more pictures. Second half of the book is containing just paintings with minimum comments below, mainly one paint picture on whole page. There are also few "three page rollout" inserts, showing few Bacon's triptych paintings which I liked. Pictures of second half is fully colourfull, first half of the book contains one page for text and other page for black and white, zoomed in picture of Bacon, that gives kinda cool look.
This book will gave it's best to filmmakers, animators, concept artists, scriptwriters, Bacon enthusiasts who seek to take inspiration for horror art, movies, animations, whatever.

disappointing
I think I had a false expectation. I expected something 'more' - images similar to the Bacon images in 'Van Gogh and Expressionism' which are stunning and vibrantly colorful. The images in this book fell short of that. Had I looked through this book in a bookstore, I would not have purchased.I should have done more research on Bacon before purchasing this and the Bacon portraits book which also was a disappointment but better than this one.

A marriage of words and paintings
David Sylvester is one of the finest biographers of contemporary painters on the shelves today.His insights into such obtuse minds as Giocomettti and de Kooning and Francis Bacon have brought us, the viewer and thinker, closer to the real synapses at work.In this lavishly illustrated catalogue the emphasis is on the whole human body - alone, in confined spaces, distorted and reassembled in triptychs.Sylvester opens this format with terse discussions about particular paintings, using only black and white details of the works he is discussing.Then, once we have the groundwork established, the last half of the book is simply the paintings, printed on the finest peper, with foldouts that do justice to the triptychs and color separations that are as near to the originals as is possible.A feast for the eyes and mind....and imagination. ... Read more

Product Description
A thoroughly revised introduction, new editorial footnotes, and an updated bibliography complete this revised edition of New Atlantis and The Great Instauration. Presented here is the standard nineteenth-century text of Bacon's works as annotated by Jerry Weinberger, editor. Also included are a list of principal dates in the life of Francis Bacon and a note on the texts. ... Read more