Thursday 1 May 2008

Blood-curdling shenanigans

Further to the last post, with its Boys' Own Adventure covers, here is another series of books Penguin is releasing later in the year (October): a number of classics of supernatural literature.

These books are a mix of the genuinely great (Bierce, James, Poe, Gaskell), wild-eyed-hysteria fun (Hodgson, Lovecraft), the intriguing-but-way-too-long (Marsh), and the obviously-written-under-the-brain-melting-effects-of-tertiary-syphillis (Stoker).

They also look great, with a mix of murky green/blue and shocking yellow, like Kirlian photographs of the impossible or ectoplasmic stains.



There's one other book in this series which has not yet had its cover finished: Vernon Lee's The Virgin of the Seven Daggers. It's the only one of this lot I haven't already read, either, but with a title like that, how can you go wrong?

UPDATE: These covers were designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith--see the follow-up post for more information.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mm, very nice - I hadn't heard of these. Also can't see them yet on Amazon or Penguin UK - are they Australian editions?

JRSM said...

They're Penguin UK: I came across them in Penguin's catalogue for the second half of the year, at www.penguincatalogue.co.uk.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes thanks. Presumably Wilkie Collins' The Haunted Hotel ( no cover design yet) is also part of the same series.