Thursday 1 September 2011

Big Box of Beckett




Having recently seen Beckett performed live for the first time, I wanted to read some more of his work. Looking around for a good collection of his plays, I came across something even better: a glorious big box of his novels, plays, stories, poems and criticism. Me being me, I could not resist. Plus, it does the one image, many spines thing, with that magnificently craggy face, like Abraham lincoln after a big night on the tiles. (Click for bigger images)




The individual volumes are nicely designed, too--though, weirdly, the back covers are more impressive than the fronts. I suppose the unflashy fronts fit Beckett's whole minimal staging ethos.




Here's what's in the box, by the way:



The design was done by Laura Lindgren for publishers Grove Press.

UPDATE: The original hardcover version of this set does use those images on the front covers of the books, so there you go!


10 comments:

Sarah Joyce said...

I don't know much about Beckett but I really love the design here!

JRSM said...

It's great, isn't it? By the way, just popped over to your blog and saw Oskar--can I have him, please?

matthew. said...

There's a Chekhov boxset for sale at my local bookstore that does this same thing.

http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Chekhov-13-Set-Anton/dp/0061153869/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314932360&sr=8-1

I want it if only because it would look good on my shelf, but I can't justify the 70 dollars....

Ian Koviak said...

dynamite!

JRSM said...

Matthew: OK, now I want that too! That's just lovely. (Already a bit of my brain is saying 'That's less than $6 a book!')

Ian: It must be wonderful to be a designer set loose on a box set like this.

Daria Hlazatova said...

ooh I want that too!! I love the design of both boxsets. so what play have you seen?

JRSM said...

We saw Godot with Ian McKellan, which was amazing! Could never have afforded it, but a relative with tickets was too sick to go, and kindly donated them to us.

Matthew Adams said...

These are simply fantastic!

Jim Vale said...

I love these! Am I alone in thinking they look slightly inspired by Saul Bass? I'm thinking particularly of his design for Penguin's edition of Anatomy of a Murder, and some of his movie designs like Vertigo.

JRSM said...

Hey, interesting idea! I did a post on Bass's other book covers here: http://causticcovercritic.blogspot.com/2009/02/turning-up-some-bass.html