Long time UK publishers of Chandler have issued new hardcover editions of the author's five best regarded works, in editions that are perfect copies of the first UK editions. This is being done because this year sees the 50th anniversary of the writer's death.
Besides the books pictured above Farewell my Lovely is also part of this new set.
The books have a retail price of £12.99 and Borders are currently offering them with a £3 reduction. I picked up The Long Goodbye and they really are wonderful editions with the covers looking suitably aged.
4 comments:
First time I've seen these excellent covers.
I have all these classics, some in hardcover, some in very old green Penguin covers, but none with the original jackets. I'd seen The Long Goodbye cover reproduced in the 2006 tome 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I've given up all hope, let alone desire, of fulfilling the latter title's advice, but I will pass on its rather inane comment on the Chandler cover:
"The British first edition jacket plays up the thriller's traditional appeal to voyeurism rather than more sophisticated literary aims."
Oh yeah?
The write-up is kinder to the novel, calling it "a work of Chandler's maturity ... he began to graft mainstream literary sophistication onto the generic templates of pulp gumshoe fiction, and the The Long Goodbye can equally be read as a significant work of American fiction."
Me, I prefer those generic templates to literary sophistication! I also prefer the tighter writing of the original magazine novelettes by Chandler, which he used to create later novels by joining them together -- two or more at a time -- creating some quite tangled plots.
I'm happy at the thought that I still have a couple more to read.
All - the books do look wonderful. At first glance they could actually fool someone into thinking they are well looked after first editions. I'll be collecting the full set.
Post a Comment