Title: Jonathan Wild
Author: Henry Fielding
Cover artist: Milton Glaser
Condition: 7/10
Value: $5
Best things about this cover:
- Another acquisition outside my normal (1939-69) collecting range, but Glaser's covers for Signet are special, so I think I'm going to start making them a special subset of my collection (esp. since they can be found all over and procured for super cheap)
- There's a borderline cartoon quality to Glaser's pop art take on the classics (his most famous work for Signet was the covers of all the Shakespeare plays). Love the intricacy of his designs, and the low-key bawdiness of this particular image—the deep cleavage, the hint of thigh above the stocking, the (I'm guessing) randy bewigged leonine figure standing behind her. . . though if he's randy for anything, it's probably that jewel he's fondling.
- The colors are vibrant and the design on her stockings is absolutely aces. Her shoes are special too.
Best things about this back cover:
- Bah! Mere description!
- I've never read this novel, but the cover copy here is promising. Love the idea of naming your wild-ass main character "Wild."
- The book is part biography (of an actual criminal), part social satire, part picaresque novel. Honestly, it sounds amazing, and I am tempted to dive right in.
- Is Gin Lane bad? I want to live on Gin Lane. There's gin there, right?
Page 123~
Wild, immediately at his return to town, went to pay a visit to Miss Laetitia Snap, for he had that weakness of suffering himself to be enslaved by women, so naturally incident to men of heroic disposition.
"Suffering himself to be enslaved" is some choice phrasing, but not as choice as the name "Miss Laetitia Snap"—that is an all-time name. The implications of "Snap" are suggestive but ambiguous ... unlike the implications of "Miss Straddle" (p. 88), which seem pretty straightforward.
~RP
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4 comments:
There's something special about the cartoony to slightly cartoony school of early 70s pop art. Glaser's not the only practitioner, but I can't think of any other names right now (well, B. Kliban who was an outright cartoonist, but he and Glaser are clearly working in the same space).
Anyway, he's hit a real home run here. I like the subtle detail of the red nose to suggest alcohol abuse. I'd also like to see more of his vest.
His cuffs are entrancing me.
I definitely like the artwork on these Signets, and I have a small collection of them amongst my paperbacks.
Edward Gorey is a favourite artist of mine as well.
Any cover he has done, is worth owning.
Having a hard time with this one.
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