The BFG. Illustrated by Quentin Blake. London: Jonathan Cape, 1982. First Edition. Pp, 224. Pale cloth boards, title lettered in gilt to spine, in publisher’s pictorial jacket. A nice bright copy.

The gruesome descriptions of the horrid giants and the subtle allusions to other stories was the basis for the 2016 film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg.

Quentin Blake’s illustrations are inseparable from the text. His seemingly spontaneous, scratchy line work is the ideal visual counterpart to Dahl’s prose. For this edition, Blake doesn’t just depict scenes; he defines the characters’ very essences: