As far as I can tell, eight of the titles are available in the U.S.: two Jane Austens (they're not stupid), Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Portrait of Dorian Grey, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Great Expectations, and Cranford.
The artist is Penguin senior designer Coralie Bickford-Smith.
They remind me vaguely of the classics book club editions we used to buy in high school--you know, you get one person to join the book club and you get six free books or something. All of us were walking around with faintly ridiculous-looking fake leather books with gilt lettering. We were slightly ironic about the whole thing, but at the same time it was kind of great to be a hippie type and reading identically-packaged Constance Garnett translations of Crime and Punishment.
The Dostoevsky above isn't quite the same as the book club C&P, but is similar.
The Penguins are cloth-bound, not fake leather, so they're more tasteful. The colors are great. Anyway, the bookstores carrry them: Borders, B&N, Amazon, etc.
Because my old Penguins are yellowed and falling apart, I can justify the hardcovers. Ha!
Well, maybe not.
I like the Little Women editon with the tiny scissors all over it and also Emma with the regency chairs, but I'm averting my eyes because I can't afford any more versions of books I already own.
ReplyDeleteI know! I have to stay away from them, too. Isn't it incredible how many designs Penguin has now for classics? You showed us the cover of that designer Wuthering Heights!
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