“Art is an old language with a great many artificial affected styles, and sometimes the chief pleasure one gets out of knowing them is the mere sense of knowing. I enjoy the art of all sorts here immensely; but I suppose if I could pick my enjoyment to pieces I should find it made up of many different threads. There is something in daubing a little one’s self, and having an idea of the process.”
The last couple of weeks have involved some daubing of my own and I’ve been in the company of George Eliot’s Middlemarch. Approximately 30 hours of excellent narration by actor Gabriel Woolf. Oh Dorothea.
Each day as I’ve clicked the play button on iTunes, I’ve had to look at this “book cover.” A strange, ugly square cover based on the concept of a round CD sitting in a plastic square case.
| Middlemarch, iTunes Audiobook cover, 2008 |
This is the Penguin version I read in my 20s. All outdoorsy and natural. The cover image is a detail from a painting by Thomas Creswick.
| George Eliot, Middlemarch, Penguin cover |
And here are the original books published in eight parts.
| George Elliot, Middlemarch|
The fine art of book covers.
Julia Ritson
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