Ruben Toledo II

Last year Penguin got fashion designer Ruben Toledo to do three covers for their Deluxe Classics range. The response amongst commenters here and elsewhere was somewhat equivocal, but obviously they sold well enough, because there are another three coming soon: Dracula, Jane Eyre and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

They're certainly eye-catching, though I'm not sure that I really like any of them. It's also the second time Penguin has recently Deluxed and otherwise gussied up two of these books, having recently had comics artists Dame Darcy and Jae Lee do illustrations for Jane Eyre and Dracula, respectively.

Ruben Toledo

This is a short one, as I'm about to go away for work for a few days, so I may be unable to answer any comments until the weekend. However, new book design waits not for my pathetic schedule! Or something like that which makes sense...

Anyway, here are three upcoming covers for Penguin Classic Deluxe Editions (some earlier ones were shown here, here, here, here and here).





They're by Cuban-born painter/illustrator/sculptor/designer/etc Ruben Toledo. Wuthering Heights works the best, with the rickety, Gothic feel of the art matching the atmosphere of the book, while Pride and Prejudice probably works least well, since it's a nice bit of design but seems to completely miss the feel of the book. You may, of course, disagree. Here are some tiny details of the Pride and Prejudice back cover, spine and flaps, lifted from the Penguin catalogue. Sorry they're not bigger.



There are some other groovy covers coming up for these oversized Penguin Classics: I'll blather on about those when I get back.