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Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Wednesday, May 31, 2006 7:07 pm by Cristina   7 comments
Shocking, huh? Triggered by this post over at Austenblog and by our recent post where it was mentioned we were intrigued to see if Bloomsbury's new edition of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights also included the primary colours / primary drawings approach. And so it does. Both books will be released on August 7 (ooh, how exciting...). The 'why you should read this' is painful to see. You have to wonder what Charlotte - who had a hard time not wearing dark colours - would think of her book now. Emily would be closer to liking it since she is known to have bought a 'white stuff patterned with lilac thunder and lightning'.

Don't complain too much - see what they did to Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice.

And yes, we know it's the inside that counts, but still. And we maintain what we said about teenagers not being stupid. Or colour blind for the matter.

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7 comments:

  1. Very funny covers! The JE one reminds me rather of a comunist flag/emblema; so much red and the "fire of patriotism" :) And violet for Emily Bronte: this was surely chosen by someone who found the book rather depressing and inducing blue-mood! Someone must have had great fun chhosing those.

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  2. I wholly agree with you that it's the inside that counts, but those covers are extremely vulgar.

    Why do they feel the need to adhere to the lowest common denominator?

    Oh well, as long as it introduces more people to the classics...

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  3. ROFL!! That communist thing made it even worse for poor Charlotte, I guess.

    Well, it has to be objectively admitted that WH is not a feel-good book precisely, now is it? :P

    I have been saying that "at least it will get some people to read the book". But do you think someone will take these books seriously with these covers? I don't know what's worse: those covers that make the books look like the latest Mills & Boon or these ones.

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  4. That's a valid point, it may put a few people off.

    I've just seen the Pride and Prejudice one...

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  5. Yes, after seeing the P&P one these ones don't look so bad, do they?

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  6. I actually don't mind them. I think they have an abstract feel to them and might catch the interest of young people who might not otherwise be inclined to read a book with a cover of an old drab Victorian landscape.

    The Fire is very symbolic of Jane Eyre as well as Thunder is evocative fo weather in Wuthering Heights. I like the abstract feel..the give a modern twist.

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  7. I also like the fire and the lightning but I'd have chosen an altogether different design. It doesn't have to be all that colourful to appeal to teenagers and younger readers. It's not as if they were toddlers.

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