Thursday, August 20, 2009

Judging a Book By It’s Twilight Cover

The UK paper The Guardian talks about the Bronte classic, Wuthering Heights getting a new cover partially inspired by Twilight and the book being one that Bella is reading.
“Novels getting a makeover because of a movie or television adaptation is nothing new … the new edition of Wuthering Heights, from Harper, borrows the contemporary Gothic design style of Meyer’s successful series. The American edition, coming in October, re-presents the Brontë novel with a cover comprising a black background and blood-red rose, while the UK edition opts for a tender white bloom, and the very vampiric cover blurb: Love Never Dies.

Should we be appalled, or approving of this latest move?”

See the full Guardian Interview here.

As a side note, initially back in 2005 Twilight didn’t sell well in the UK. It didn’t start to catch on until Eclipse when the UK covers matched the American styles and the books were rebranded. The original UK cover is pictured to the left. I find it a little scary, the girl looks skinny anorexic and all you see is lockers?!


So what do you think, how much does a cover help a novel be it a new one or a classic?

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