Wow, has it been a long time since I posted a Cover VS Cover feature! It's always difficult to find a book or series which is ideal for the meme: there have to be a ton of different covers, so usually a very popular or older book, and the covers have to be interesting and diverse enough to compare against each other. In this case I knew exactly which book I wanted to feature, after receiving this gorgeous edition of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre for Christmas.
This is the Penguin Classics Illustrated edition, beautifully illustrated by Ruben Toledo and published in 2010. I love it, and all the new illustrated covers for other classics. Receiving this edition made me curious about other and foreign editions of Jane Eyre...
Like these two, probably the most familiar to those who first read the classic novel in school (though I was never lucky enough to read Jane in English class). The one on the left is the earlier and more common Penguin Classics edition; the right is a Bantam Mass Market edition. Both resemble Romantic portraits and paintings, which fits the book's era. I really don't care for the Bantam one.
And here we have some (much) more modern editions of Jane: the first being one of a group of romantic classics re-released by Harper Teen in 2011. It appears to be Jane Eyre meets Twilight-- a smart marketing move, maybe, though in truth even the romances of the novels have little in common. The cover on the right is a Portuguese edition, also from 2011. It seems to be following current YA cover trends. The model is incredibly pretty, but doesn't resemble my mental image of Jane in the least-- she looks so modern!
With the release of a multitude of movie adaptations, the mental image many readers have of Jane has changed forever. Both of these two are movie tie-in editions, tying in with the 2011 movie. The one on the left is the one I first read from the library, but the one on the left is maybe most striking. It has a Red Riding Hood feel-- very beautiful.
Moving on to a Dutch edition, which highlights the book's creepy, Gothic feel. Jane looks like she may be a vampire, but overall I like this one. This delightful purple cover creation is a very recent (2012) edition released by Splinter. Haven't heard of them, but I love the illustration-- it's reminiscent of the newest Jane Austen editions' covers. Maybe Jane's books (ahem, Jane *Austen*) will soon be the subject of a future Cover VS Cover feature.
I'd love to hear which of these editions is your favorite, or your least favorite. Do you approve of movie tie-in editions, or are you a Mass Market kind of reader? Which edition do you own, and which book or series would be perfect to feature in Cover VS Cover?
1 comment:
Ooh I've never seen that Dutch cover before - I quite like it! I also like the movie tie-in editions, but only when I like the movie version. I don't know if I have a favorite JE cover - there have been so many, it's hard to choose!
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