His Dark Materials

Philip Pullman

Illustrated by Peter Bailey

Preface by the author

A magnificent Folio Society edition of a worldwide phenomenon. The award-winning trilogy His Dark Materials in a stunning fully-illustrated hardback edition.

Since the publication of the first volume of His Dark Materials in 1995, Philip Pullman’s trilogy has won millions of  readers, garnered countless awards and accolades and been adapted for stage and screen. The Amber Spyglass, the third volume, was the first ever children’s book to be awarded the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, confirming the trilogy as a work that demands to be read by all. The Folio Society’ incredible hardback edition is illustrated by Peter Bailey with black and white chapter openings by the author.

PRODUCTION DETAILS

3 volume set
Bound in printed and blocked cloth
Frontispiece and 10 full-page colour illustrations in each volume
Chapter opening drawings throughout by Philip Pullman
1,168 pages in total

Printed and blocked slipcase

9½˝ x 6¼˝

A MAGNIFICENT FOLIO SOCIETY EDITION OF A WORLDWIDE PHENOMENON

The heroine of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is 12-year-old Lyra Belacqua, who lives half-wild and carefree with her animal dæmon among the scholars of Jordan College, Oxford. Lyra’s guardian, Lord Asriel, has made an enemy of the sinister and all-powerful Church authorities – the Magisterium – and this story unfolds in The Golden Compass. Caught up in the conflict, Lyra must travel great distances and she sets out in The Subtle Knife to the frozen Arctic wastes and beyond, towards a fateful encounter with Will Parry, a fugitive boy from another world. When Lyra and Will join forces, their perilous journey leads them to a decisive battle between freedom and authority in the final novel of the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, in which Lyra will play the ultimate part.

‘Rarely, if ever, have readers been offered such a rich casket of wonders’

Independent

A FANTASY NOVEL OF INCREDIBLE SCOPE

The emotional and intellectual range of Pullman’s narrative is astonishing. In the words of the Times Literary Supplement, ‘the prose is muscular and musical, the emotions uncensored, the ideas tantalizingly complex’. Lyra and Will are realistically flawed, but they grow in strength and wisdom, and the trilogy’s conclusion sees them make a heartbreaking sacrifice for the greater good. Drawing on influences from Blake to Milton, and brimming with fascinating ideas about creation, consciousness, childhood and free will, His Dark Materials is above all a triumph of storytelling.

‘A trilogy that promises to live alongside the works of Tolkien and C. S. Lewis as an icon of imaginative writing’The Times

ILLUSTRATIONS THAT EXEMPLIFY THE TEXT

Peter Bailey’s illustrations provide the perfect window into Pullman’s thrillingly inventive world. With his delicate, shadowy images, reminiscent of the work of Edward Ardizzone, he captures the story’s mystery and complexity.

The Folio Society is delighted to publish his illustrations, together with the drawings by Philip Pullman from the original editions. Also included is a specially commissioned preface for this Folio edition by Philip Pullman, providing an exclusive insight into the inspiration behind His Dark Materials.

‘One of the supreme literary dreamers and magicians of our time’

Guardian on Philip Pullman