Book Article

The Great Cover Up

The new Penguin Classics -- The beloved orange covers get an artistic update

By Gilbert Cruz | Apr 21, 2006

While those orange-spined Penguin Classics paperbacks are justly beloved, even publishers get tired of the same old design. Witness Penguin's new Deluxe Editions, featuring covers by notable graphic artists: Art Spiegelman for Paul Auster's New York Trilogy, Seth for The Portable Dorothy Parker (with a hilarious cartoon bio of Parker on the inside flap), and Roz Chast for Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm. Though unfamiliar with Gibbons' 1932 satire before taking the assignment, Chast says she found the characters ''all kind of nutty and very funny'' and focused on them for her cover. Besides, she adds, ''I'm just happier drawing people than I am landscapes.''

Originally posted Apr 21, 2006 Published in issue #874-875 Apr 28, 2006 Order article reprints

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