Penguin is putting out snazzy, mesmerizing, jacket-less hardcover editions of a number of classics. These remind of the old books on my parents’ shelves. You won’t be able to get your hands on these for a few months though.
Hardcover Beauties
“A different order of debut”
Hats off to our own Edan Lepucki for being named a Face to Watch by the LA Times! In an article, David L. Ulin says Edan’s upcoming novel is “steeped in southern California narrative tradition” and describes how a drive along Sunset Boulevard inspired the setting of the book. (You can catch up on Edan’s work by looking through her archive.)
Kubrick at the LACMA
Recommended Viewing: The Stanley Kubrick exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The event will run through June 2013, but you can check out some images of the exhibit online.
The Half-Seen Thing
“My process for writing is the same, regardless of form: I abandon my children, I become a horrible husband, and a half-assed teacher. That’s what it all has in common.” Adam Johnson interviewed for Tin House in conjunction with the release of his new collection of short stories, Fortune Smiles.
Shakespeare’s Dictionary
Shakespeare invented more than 1,000 words when he was writing, and now we might be able to find out how. Two New York booksellers believe they have found Shakespeare’s annotated dictionary, John Baret’s An Alvearie or Quadruple Dictionarie. Although scholars aren’t quite convinced, you can read the dictionary in full to decide for yourself.
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Slanting Light and Seedy Motels
“In noir, the problem is not an individual: the problem is the world.” Over at Electric Literature, Nicholas Seeley advocates for the efficacy of noir as a protest genre. Here’s a piece from The Millions’s Hannah Gersen that argues for Bartleby, The Scrivener as another surprising example of protest literature.
Some of these have been out in Canada for a while. You can even get ’em for $15 CAN plus tax, which a decent price for nice covers.
These have been in bookstores since before Christmas. Or, at least, I saw a few in a Border’s in CT in December.
I’d be curious to know if any of these are abridged. That “Treasure Island” looks like a winner, but not if it’s an abridged version –
A number of these were published a while ago. You can see them at Anthropologie.
http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/category.jsp?popId=HOME&navAction=middle&navCount=90&isSortBy=true&pushId=HOME-BOOKS&id=HOME-BOOKS-NOVELS
Yes, many of them have been available in the states since before Christmas; I got two as gifts. It looks like they are slowly adding to the collection, so some books have not yet been released.
Neither of the two that I have are abridged. In fact, for the two I have, the insides are basically all the nice features of a paperback Penguin Classic. (Intro, Text, Notes, Appendices if necessary.) Actually, it seems like these are all just the insides of a penguin classic with awesome awesome covers.
Knowing Penguin, these books are printed on flimsy newspaper paper that turns brown in 10 years (or 5). The “hardcover” boards will be flimsy. Don’t buy em to keep around.