Kindle Price:	$13.99
Sold by:	HarperCollins Publishers Price set by seller.

Promotions apply when you purchase

Add an

audiobook with Audible narration for $2.58

Audiobook Price: $15.04

Save: $12.46 (83%)

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the author

Ray Bradbury

+ Follow

More books from this author

The Illustrated Man (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) Kindle Edition

by Ray Bradbury (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 4,151 ratings

See all formats and editions

You could hear the voices murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.

A peerless American storyteller, Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury— eighteen startling visions of humankind’s destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin. In this phantasmagoric sideshow, living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Provocative and powerful, Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth—as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

That The Illustrated Man has remained in print since being published in 1951 is fair testimony to the universal appeal of Ray Bradbury's work. Only his second collection (the first was Dark Carnival, later reworked into The October Country), it is a marvelous, if mostly dark, quilt of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In an ingenious framework to open and close the book, Bradbury presents himself as a nameless narrator who meets the Illustrated Man--a wanderer whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos. What's even more remarkable, and increasingly disturbing, is that the illustrations are themselves magically alive, and each proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge. Or "Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship. Or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens have discovered a most logical ally--our own children. Even though most were written in the 1940s and 1950s, these 18 classic stories will be just as chillingly effective 50 years from now. --Stanley Wiater

Review

“Deftly plotted, beautifully written, characterized by protagonists who are intensely real . . . there is no writer quite like Ray Bradbury.” —The New York Times

“His stories and novels are part of the American language.” —The Washington Post

“Bradbury is an authentic original.” —Time

“Ray Bradbury has accomplished what very few artists do. With his visions of possible futures and edgy presents . . . he has changed us.” —The Boston Globe

“A master... Bradbury has a style all his own, much imitated but never matched.” —Portland Oregonian

From the Back Cover

You could hear the voices murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.

A peerless American storyteller, Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury— eighteen startling visions of humankind’s destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin. In this phantasmagoric sideshow, living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Provocative and powerful, Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth—as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

About the Author

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) was the author of more than three dozen books, including Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Something Wicked This Way Comes, as well as hundreds of short stories. He wrote for the theater, cinema, and TV, including the screenplay for John Huston’s Moby Dick and the Emmy Award–winning teleplay The Halloween Tree, and adapted for television sixty-five of his stories for The Ray Bradbury Theater. He was the recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, and numerous other honors.

From AudioFile

This is one of the classics from the golden age of sci-fi--sixteen tales of horror and terror in the tattoos on an "illustrated" man's body. The tales are from a different age, and nuclear war and racism are not as horrifying to us as they were to the liberal intelligentsia of the 1950's. Nonetheless, the tales do hold up. Production values are high, and narrator William Roberts gives each of the characters a different and distinctive voice in a fully voiced performance. His emotions create an insidious chill of terror. This is a good addition to collections. E.F. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00C4TJADS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow Paperbacks; Illustrated edition (April 30, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 30, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2498 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 291 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #121,039 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #118 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Kindle Store)
- #157 in Horror Short Stories
- #321 in Fantasy Anthologies

Customer Reviews:
4.6 4,151 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Ray Bradbury

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury, who died on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91, inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He wrote the screen play for John Huston's classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. He was the recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, among many honors.

Throughout his life, Bradbury liked to recount the story of meeting a carnival magician, Mr. Electrico, in 1932. At the end of his performance Electrico reached out to the twelve-year-old Bradbury, touched the boy with his sword, and commanded, "Live forever!" Bradbury later said, "I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard. I started writing every day. I never stopped."

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

4,151 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Josh Mauthe

An absolute clinic on the art of short story writing

Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

What is there to say when you finally catch up on a bona fide classic after so many years? It's not as though I'm entirely new to reading Ray Bradbury; like any serious reader and/or science-fiction fan, I've enjoyed much of Bradbury's work over the years, from Something Wicked This Way Comes to Fahrenheit 451 to The Martian Chronicles and beyond. And, of course, I've read (and taught) several of his short stories. But somehow, I had never sat and read The Illustrated Man cover-to-cover...and now that I have, I find that it's every bit as good as its reputation would have you believe and then some. To be sure, Bradbury's writing is more serviceable than literate; he was a man concerned with story and plotting, and showy or elaborate prose would get in his way. (It's a common trait among classic science-fiction authors, and in some ways, I think it's prejudiced the genre against richer prose...but that's a discussion for another time.) Even so, the stories themselves are so good, so rich that it's hard, if not impossible, not to get swept up into them. From a racial role reversal on Mars to a city laying in wait for a special visitor, from the dangerous appeal of Earth culture to the story of astronauts adrift in space, Bradbury's imagination is a thing of beauty, and each story is good enough that it could anchor a whole novel. Even so, Bradbury never lets his stories feel rushed or cluttered; indeed, they're all completely distinct and unique, a feat that sometimes eludes short story writers. Add to that the way each story grapples with unique themes and explorations of humanity, while never letting the story fall to the side, and you have a master class in storytelling. It's also a nicely dark collection; there's a lot more fangs lurking beneath the surface than you might expect, and they have a way of pouncing when you least expect it. In short, it's a masterful collection from a legend of short story writing, and it's every bit as good as you would hope for. If you've read it, you know this already; if not, you owe it to yourself to check it out as soon as you can.

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

ti

Ingenious!

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2023

Verified Purchase

My hat is off to Ray. What vision. Such searing truths written simply, clearly and with such insight. Literary philosophy. Highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

I didn't expect it to be so small being a Hardcover that cost 20 Dollars !

Deceiving Photo.

Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2024

Verified Purchase

I collect Hardcover Classics and this book being so small didn't meet my expectations for 20 Dollars.

Helpful

Some guy who buys stuff online

Bradbury fan

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2023

Verified Purchase

I didn't realize when I was young that I was as into Bradbury stories as I am. Something wicked this way comes was an exciting film and had super natural suspense. 40 some years later I decide to start with the first book in the Green Town series and have really enjoyed them. These short stories really show the art of Bradbury's style and how he developed as a writer. Would recommend them to anyone but especially people who like the way Bradbury tells his colorful stories.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alfredo Rodriguez

Great read

Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2024

Verified Purchase

I read this in high school and the stories have stuck with me since then, I highly recommend everyone to read a few of the stories. I absolutely recommend The Rocket Man as it’s my personal favorite story.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

M. T. Stopper

The Illustrated man

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2024

Verified Purchase

I first read Bradbury at a time and age when I needed much diversion, he got the need,
and I read all of his work I could get my hands on. So many years ago, he reads like
a cooling breeze.
M. T. Stopper

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Damon Morley

Runner-up to Martian Chronicles

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

If you are looking for some Bradbury to read, I would recommend The Martian Chronicles over The Illustrated Man. While the latter contains several fine short stories -- The Long Rain, The Other Foot, The Rocket Man -- there are also many middling stories, and at least one that I would consider rather bad (The Exiles). Bradbury's style is easy to read while retaining poetic furnishes. A solid read, if an uneven one.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

logosapiens

Illustriously Illustrated

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2011

Verified Purchase

A sad, decorated wandering man stumbles into the life of another drifter.

The tattooed wandering man is a terrifying canvas of brillant skin art and darkened dreams. A hated circus performer "condemmed to be free" as a morbid living gallery- each tatoo moves and glows animately; this anthology treats us to the best of the pulp Bradbury of the fifties. As Rod Serling told us in his TWILIGHT ZONE introduction we are transported from the depth of our fears to the heights of our imagination. Rocketing from the past to the future to the subconscious we are invited to a world where...

A holographic Africa is so consuming that it...well... consumes.

Time travellers from the totalitarian future must travel to 1938 for vacation only to find that they can never escape the future.

An explosion rocks a spaceship... disgorging astronauts- making its crew satellites left to face their personal angst and collective end.

An artifical sun provides respite from the grey rain world of Venus, but only if the spacewreck survivors are willing to pay a price finding it.

A used rocket never travels to space but reveals the heart of a poor kind father,not the solar system,to his long suffering wife.

A man heals and performs miracles in world after world, yet can only be met through faith not a rocket trip.

A playground becomes a portal to the hell of childhood.

A couple go to sleep on the last night of the world and forget to set the alarm clock.

A man's robot duplicate has ideas of his own on where to vacation next.

Poe gets revenge against future thought police from a die hard fan who manages to make others die.

Long oppressed blacks find out that their former oppressors have nothing left to oppress.

A psycho find respite in the void of space...and meaning as well in a sci-fi replay of Sartre.

A city lives beyong the lives of its former inhabitants to exact revenge.

A highway in Mexico becomes a river of life at the death of the civilization to its north.

Are childhood imaginary friends always imagined? The earth finds a new nemesis in a suburban front yard.

This book is a rocket simmering in the red martian sun. A rocket that darts wildly between the height of man's imagination and the depths of his fears as we were warned by Rod Serling in his TWILIGHT ZONE monologue. A rocket which darts with zen efficiency between the inner life of the soul and the outer space of the future.

In the end the tattoo canvas moves...

45 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Darren Hennig

Superb short story book by one of Sci-Fi's "masters"!

Reviewed in Canada on September 26, 2023

Verified Purchase

Great read - came quickly and new (condition). Great anthology of SF stories from one of the best SF writers of all time. Good thinking material too! :)

One person found this helpful

Oscar V.

Amazing book

Reviewed in Mexico on June 17, 2023

Verified Purchase

Just amazing, well written, it pulls you to it and makes you keep on reading.

Fi

Great book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2024

Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed these stories.

Javier

This book is just insanely good, written decades ago and still relevant today.

Reviewed in Germany on September 16, 2022

Verified Purchase

Ray Bradbury is my favourite author so I'm a little biased, but I can't stress enough how beautiful he writes. I strongly recommend you pick up either this book or the Martian Chronicles and you'll read it in just a few sittings. It's so good it's hard to stop.

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

The Illustrated Man (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) Kindle Edition

Customers who bought this item also bought

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Review

From the Back Cover

About the Author

From AudioFile

Product details

Videos

About the author

Ray Bradbury

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries