The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - LYRA’S PRESS 2025

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - LYRA’S PRESS NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION 2025

A PICTORIAL REVIEW

No.72 of 200 copies
Signed by Paulo Coelho (author), Gary Gianni (artist) and Richard Tong (binding designer).
Printed on 170gsm Fedrigoni Arena Rough paper.
Text printed letterpress in black with several spots of yellow.
Printed by Phil Abel and Robert Hetherington of Hand and Eye Letterpress.
Bradel bound with a navy goatskin leather spine and double panelled blue and gold front and back boards covered in two tone Dubletta and gold buckram cloths.
Hand marbled endpapers in tones of blue and gold by Freya Scott of Paperwilds.
10 full-page colour paintings that bleed to page edge, 14 full-page black ink line drawings, multiple half-pages and spots by Gary Gianni printed offset litho.
All black and white images are letterpress printed to the page.
Top edge of book block hand gilded.
Dark blue ribbon page marker.
Dark blue straight edged, hand marbled cloth capped slipcase wrapped with two tone Dubletta cloth, with the front board foil blocked with a Gary Gianni alchemist design and sunburst.
Inside of slipcase lined with navy blue Suedel.
25.8x16.9cm.
198 pages
£550























































































An index of the other illustrated reviews in the this series can be viewed here.

Thanks for the review. Love what Rich has done. If I didn't dislike the content of the book so much, I would have probably bought this.

>2 tkellici: Same here. Probably the biggest disconnect between the quality of the contents and the quality of the book itself. Would be curious to hear if anyone has similar examples

>3 AdPacem: There was a debate about books like this in a thread a while ago, and it lives in a space of transformative (I still want to call them "new agey") books that - if they strike you at the right time - sweep people up. Castaneda's Don Juan, Ishmael, Siddharta, The Prophet (I risk insulting fans of one and not others going on). Probably something newer like Life of Pi also applies. Of course when they don't strike a chord with you, it's all very trite.
The Alchemist meant a lot to me as a teenager and I've given it as gifts to people who also like it and re-reading it I can't understand what I saw in it at all. That said, Lyra's Books did an amazing job (I bought the standard edition), Gianni's illustrations are plentiful and fantastic. The glittering design on the marbled paper is impossible to do justice in a picture. It's a bit awkward to have such a lovely piece and not like what it says all that much, but I suppose this collecting business is about books as objects of art unto themselves as well.

>4 A.Godhelm: I understand completely and agree. It's funny that you specifically mentioned Life of Pi and Siddhartha, two books I read as a teenager and enjoyed well enough, but I hesitate to reread them now for fear of finding everything trite/ankle-deep, for lack of better words. My disgust for The Alchemist is likely due to having read it a bit later in life, and because it is significantly more popular than most "new agey" books, at least in my home country. As a result, more than once I've had to smile and nod when someone presents it as "a life-changing experience"...That said, there is no denying the beauty of the book as an object in this case, so kudos as always to Lyra's and Gianni

>4 A.Godhelm: There was a debate about books like this in a thread a while ago, and it lives in a space of transformative (I still want to call them "new agey") books that - if they strike you at the right time - sweep people up. Castaneda's Don Juan, Ishmael, Siddharta, The Prophet (I risk insulting fans of one and not others going on).

Let us not forget Jonathan Livingston Seagull! It was definitely one of those. I read it back then, and went "huh?"
I would not expect to change that response. Casteneda was interesting if largely BS.

I think the book is fine. I feel like the hatred is overblown. I also read it later in life, and thought that maybe it would have hit a bit harder if I was younger, but it wasn’t bad. It was just fine.

I read it for the first time a couple of months back The basic structure seemed like the hero's journey to me. It's just the stage set is slightly different to other books with that structure. Not sure why it gets so much criticism. I know it was popular with the woo woo crowd but the message is positive.

>7 maynardewm: >8 LT79-1: I have similar feelings. Sure, it's best if you read it at a certain point in life, but it's really not that bad and I've never really understood why it gets the vitriol it does. I actually find it kind of fascinating: whenever The Alchemist is mentioned it's practically guaranteed that within ten minutes someone will pop up feeling the urge to tell the world how much they hate it. But why? Plenty of far worse and more negative books out there that don't get this kind of reaction. At this point, it's almost more contrarian to say you love it.

>9 Levin40: There definitely are numerous "classics" such as The Great Gatsby that has a vocal band of critics. I suppose most any work that becomes very popular is bound to attract some level of contempt by some people --