'The eye, like a strange balloon mounts toward infinity'

Or, as the original French title has it, "L'oeil, comme un ballon bizarre se dirage vers l'Infini". That's the title of this print by Odilon Redon (1840-1916) which crops up on a lot of book covers.



The first example is particularly appropriate, since the image in question was inspired by Poe's writings, specifically outer-space balloon adventure 'The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall', included in this collection.



It was widely seen on the original hardback and paperback editions of Ian McEwan's Enduring Love.



Then there's this foreign version of Jose Saramago's Seeing.



And then we have this philosophy book by Eugene Halton.



More Redon freakery on this NYRB reissue of the frankly batty Moravagine by Blaise Cendrars (about which more here).


UPDATE: Infinitely wise reader Marc points out in the comments that Redon also adorned the first English translation (Urizen, 1977) of Bataille's Story of the Eye. That image also appears on the cover of Penguin's sadly out-of-print collection of Poe's comic writing.