Ridiculous, puzzling and just plain weird book covers

So we have our thread about beautiful book covers, but what about the ones that stick out because they just don't seem to fit what the book is about? What about the ones that are so strange that we wonder if the people choosing them have even read the book? The ones that make you wonder 'what were they thinking'?

This is the thread for those. Starting with this one -



Um...yeah. I remember a bloodbath in a brothel not a punt on a pond.

>1 Bookmarque:
That is a super beginning. Well selected.

>1 Bookmarque: It could be meant as an awful warning about how men change into beasts...

>1 Bookmarque: Well, she is dressed in red.

>That looks like it was meant for an edition of An American tragedy.. Has anyone checked if there is an edition of that book with a bloodbath in a brothel on the cover???

>5 Sakerfalcon: It could be the Dreiser novel for sure. Love the movie adaptation though I haven't read it.

A quick scan through the 1400 covers for J&H here on LT and the closest I could come to a bloodbath cover is this -

Here's one that's odd -



It's been ages since I read it, but so far as I remember pretty much everyone on earth went blind at once. Don't think there were enormous warehouses full of black suits, hats, sunglasses and canes.

Here's a lovely one, but I fail to understand how a (heron?) bird with an egg in its beak has anything to do with the story -



It's a kidnapping story in involving a troubled young man, his identity and daddy issues. The body count isn't too high, but a bird didn't do it.

>8 Bookmarque: Does it make any more sense if you interpret that as a stork, with all of its connotations of bringing babies, and the egg as a cuckoo's egg?

It's a stretch, but ok. I thought of that, but it's still really weird for a noir novel.

Is there a character named Bill, who cracks the case, as the egg is cracked?

Sometimes I think cover artists are really busy, or very enamored with a certain drawing they have done, so they submit it and the publishers think that perhaps they are not clever enough to understand why that artwork was done for the story, and they don't want to admit that, so they just go with it .

I suspect >11 MrsLee: is onto something closer to the truth than any publisher would want to admit to.

Has been posted before, but in case you missed https://lithub.com/50-very-bad-book-covers-for-literary-classics/?fbclid=IwAR1IJ...

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/bb/a4/bba41dd9d3191bb59794c6a5377414... https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/9c/3a/9c3a642a0ff5dae597949445077414...
https://pics.cdn.librarything.com/picsizes/52/38/52385c7d5582aba59376d4753414345...
I gather these cover photographs by Barry Lategan (and similar ones for her other novels) have no relevance to the contents, but Edna O’Brien was quite pleased with the boost in sales.

People have said that cephalopods are about the most alien creatures we can find without leaving the planet, but they aren't actually from another planet -

>15 Bookmarque: Weren't the Martians in War of the Worlds cephaloid?

Quite possibly, but I haven't read it as I hate to admit. Nor have I seen the movie or heard Welles's famous radio broadcast.

>15 Bookmarque: Particularly strange as the title refers to a remark by Dr Temple Grandin, the subject of one of the book’s essays, that as an autistic person she often felt, observing “normal” social behaviour, like an anthropologist on Mars, with no entrée into the social interactions of the inhabitants.

Two more. Remarkably similar and silly. What either has to do with the book I have yet to discover.

>19 Bookmarque: Those are awesome! Completely wrong for the book, but awesome :)

>19 Bookmarque: I think it's fairly obvious. These are early and rare feminist versions of that infamous tale. The first, of course, has a red dress on and is hitting helpless things with a club, clearly Ms. Hyde. She's wearing plaid, a nod to the author's heritage.

The second has Dr. Jekyll communing with her alter-ego Hyde. They are discussing the mountains they must overcome in this world as women.

>21 MrsLee: LOL

>19 Bookmarque: I feel extremely sorry for the woman in the first picture.

She has been obviously been frozen in terror for so long that someone has had time to design, make, and dress her in a dress where the pattern only connects if she does not move a muscle!

Wax has obviously been used to keep the folds stiff.. As one can see from the swirl lines in the skirt, which cross the lines of the tartan, the pattern is an optical illusion, which would break if the cloth of the skirt moves at all.

It all becomes clear to me now!

I have read this book a few times and well, not sure what the deal is here. A black widow spider finds a bleeding plant? Black widow spider goes vegetarian only to be surprised by plant blood? Plant bleeds on spider in a futile defense mechanism? Very weird and can't understand what it has to do with the plot.

>25 Bookmarque: Or plant is sweating with the effort of forcing its sharp-edged leaves into the poor little spider, which is bleeding profusely?

>26 -pilgrim-: I'll go with that. Poor girl.

Another weird Ross Macdonald cover. Someone sure had a thing for bird / nature themes.

So I've read all of the d'Artagnan novels and don't remember anything that could be remotely characterized like this -



It's a pretty political novel and even though many covers feature a guy in an iron mask, which at least is relevant, he's in the book for the equivalent of like 10 minutes of a film. The rest of it is war and political shenanigans. But I guess we need to appeal to and deceive the powder puff set.

>29 Bookmarque: You see that black, erm, "garter" in her hat? There is great political significance in that. Don't ask me what it is, because I don't know, but it's great.

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com/picsizes/7c/35/7c35fa0c9c1b0315933327858774345... You thought the “solitudes” in question were French and English Canada. Or maybe you didn’t, which is why you picked this up at the drug store and were subsequently as disappointed as the man on the front cover.

>30 MrsLee: Exactly. It is a mourning ribbon. She is obviously deeply distreesed by the events of the last page.

>19 Bookmarque: Have also seen the identical cover with the golfer used for Camille. Didn’t think of her as much of an outdoor girl. https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/6d/6f/6d6f726d88930945969427a7967414...

This one is cool, but I don't remember any robot cello players in The Time Machine. Funny.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/1843441349.01._SX900_SY1270_SCL... Is this for real?

Probably. Hilarious though.

>36 Bookmarque: I see this publisher specialises in faux pulp covers https://pulptheclassics.com/index1.php?imprint=8&alltitlesbytitle=yes. Some great blurbs here: I like “The Hound of the Baskervilles—Murder…Mystery…Walkies!”

>36 Bookmarque: I'm speechless.

>37 booksaplenty1949: now that is a great blurb.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2CKkqNh-GEc/XurCccdRcZI/AAAAAAAAODM/cjkDYJC46GkLtUfZw... This was always one of my favourite scenes in The Seven Year Itch. Not too far off from real paperback covers from that time period. Tom Ewell is telling the artist to make the necklines lower.

Ok. So it's been a long time since I read Persuasion, but did it have Triffids?



And...is this an homage to Gorey?

Also...her chair is in another dimension.

>41 Bookmarque: That is downright weird! I've found those Penguin Deluxe covers to be a bit hit or miss for me.

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/ba/b8/bab873d8a31f17159795a574a67414... Close, but no cigar.

Adds a whole new dimension to the story.

How do I make the picture appear, not just the link?

you need to use HTML tags to the source photo.

Check out the Fancy things to Do thread for instructions.

>45 booksaplenty1949:

The link below will take you to the post that shows you how to post a picture. You use the "img src" feature and copy in the Image Address.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/177029#4750147

>47 pgmcc: Thank you.

>48 booksaplenty1949: the part that took me a few tries to get the hang of is that the image address has to be online someplace, not in your device. I kept trying to link photos that were on my PC and found that I could upload them to my LT photo gallery and then link them from there. Good luck!

I realize this thread is old, but when I saw this cover, I thought of it immediately. I mean, WTF?



It's for The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. Seriously, WTF? I mean, I know tits sell and men are just mesmerized by them, but really?

>50 Bookmarque: Love it. I foresee some seriously disappointed purchasers.

>50 Bookmarque: Threads don't get old in the pub, they just become part of the dragon's hoard.

I am not familiar with the book, but I feel your mental pain.

>50 Bookmarque: I would suggest it is the book-cover version of click bait.

>53 pgmcc: I am LOL'ing over here... the font I view LT with makes the word 'CLICK' in your post look like another word that only contains 4 letters and the result is... hilariously apropos to that book cover.

>54 ScoLgo:
LOL
Oh! You mean Chic!

:-)

>55 pgmcc: If only...

I am using the 'Verdana Standard' style combined with 'Desktop View', which ends up making your post appear like so:

I mean, I suppose there might be a tiny little sliver of daylight between the 'c' and 'l', if one really squints.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

>56 ScoLgo: It is somewhat appropriate, in an inappropriate way, if you know what I mean.

😂😂😂😂😂😂🐘

>54 ScoLgo: ha! I've noticed that before in other ways, and hadn't realized it was the font. Changing over to 'Georgia' now!

I'm loving this thread! It's nice that I can see it now ;)

My favourites are the Wuthering Heights and Dr Jekyll and Me Hyde covers.

>50 Bookmarque: Well, it's just that... ummm... sorry, what were you saying again?

>52 MrsLee: One of Oliver Sacks’ collections of essays on people with brain damage/neurodivergence. In the title essay, a man with, I believe, a brain tumour suffers from strange misperceptions, and at one point, as he leaves the house, reaches for his wife as if to put her on his head. She is fully clothed at the time.

>61 booksaplenty1949: Thank you. I have read and admired one of his essays in a publication of medical and science essays.

A puzzling cover, but quite appropriate for this book about a young spy in WWI, by Teri Brown. The title is encrypted using a rather simple code.

https://www.jarndyce.co.uk/catalogues/pdfs/270.pdf Covers here are apparently suitable to books’ contents, but if you are a fan of cover art in general and specifically of “yellowbacks” you will enjoy browsing this abundantly illustrated catalogue.

Ok what?? Did anyone involved with the cover actually read the book? Even the synopsis would have been enough to tell you that Amelia Peabody isn't a bleach blonde straight out of Miami Vice.

Here's one I came across that had me wondering how well the suit would work with her hair sticking out the back.



Even if you landed somewhere you could breathe and flipped up your visor...the hair thing makes no sense.

>66 Bookmarque: It does if you are hoping to hook up with an alien with a taste for blondes.

>66 Bookmarque: No, no, no, you have it all wrong!

The hair is part of the suit, not the woman. Obviously.

Ha! That explains it.

I'd say that it was a motorcycle helmet, except that the chin guard doesn't cover the mouth.

Perhaps her space suit has been ruptured at the back and is bleeding oxygen and hair. Might as well flip up the visor and meet your fate.

A bunch of weird ones came up for older books, but this was the weirdest -



Huh?

>71 Bookmarque: Publisher: "Design me a cover that says you haven't read the story without saying you haven't read the story."

Cover artist: "Got it Boss! I'm on it!"

>72 ScoLgo: LOL

>72 ScoLgo: Ah, that explains it!! I think... LOL

Dorian, how come your hair is immaculate, yet you never visit a barber?

>72 ScoLgo: That has to be the answer.

I suspect that someone used Chat GPT or something and that's what came out, but I have no idea what the prompt for this one would be -



The only person I recall eating in the book is Renfield, and he does not use a fork. At the start, Jonathan is served food at the Count's castle, but his host pointedly doesn't eat. Weird.

>77 Bookmarque: This was puzzling. Vampire fangs symbolism? But why a fork? I don't know, I just don't know... :D

>78 Alexandra_book_life:
Conjoined vampires?

>77 Bookmarque: Their so-called symbolism loses traction quickly. Forks imply eating of *solid* food stuffs whereas everyone in Dracula is busy drinking! They wear garlic; they don't season with it. I need to go back and look but I rather think that Jonathan is the only one who gets specific in diary or letters. He eats some form of goulash early on.

My first instinct was that this was some sort of reference to Hannibal Lector, but even if it is... why?

Seem to be two books published by the same company, both works long out of copyright. Many of the most random covers we see are apparently images slapped on to a “print on demand” book.

>77 Bookmarque: But it's such a nice haunting picture of a mysterious fork. Perhaps Dracula is very old, his fangs have fallen out, and he needs help poking the holes?
"Come my lovely, it's tine to drink your blood!" *spoken with a horrible accent*

Or. Dracula, the Tine-sylvanian.

>83 MrsLee: *groaning at* Tine-sylvanian

>83 MrsLee: I love your theory, lol, lol, lol.

>79 pgmcc: It's possible!

Is there a book about conjoined vampires out there? I'm not that fond of vampire books, but I would read that :)

>86 Alexandra_book_life:
Such a book would have double the bite.

>87 pgmcc: Indeed 😆

From the same batch of bad covers -

Ah, the iconic cocktail Gatsby drinks when he... uh.... does all those things. It was so narratively relevant and um, represented.... erm.... What was the name of that iconic cocktail again? The green light, maybe?

>89 Bookmarque: It's a beverage, in a glass, with a citrus. Soooo close, but missed the mark on all three.

>89 Bookmarque: Aesthetically I like that image a lot. The colour palette is lovely. As a cover for Gatsby? Not so much.

>83 MrsLee: Are you sure you're not thinking of Franken's Tine?

>93 TorMented: (audible groan)

>89 Bookmarque: Perhaps the artist intended to convey the idea of bath tub gin in the cocktail?

>93 TorMented: I like the way you think.

This one is a complete boggle:

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/lorna-doone-a-romance-of-exmoor-54

deleted

>97 Maddz: Whoa! :D

>97 Maddz:
Lol

>99 Alexandra_book_life:, >100 pgmcc: I think they saw the word 'romance' in the title and didn't bother reading any further...

But then what do you expect from a publisher taking a public domain title and attempting to sell it.

Ok, so having read this book several times, there is no killer snowman, but it would be a fun solution to the crime a la the leg of lamb Twilight Zone episode.



Hercule Poirot's Christmas

>102 Bookmarque: That is indeed an intimidating and fierce-looking snowman. And agreed that it has absolutely nothing to do with the book by Agatha Christie. (For one thing, the snowman's buttons are not symmetrically aligned. And showing Poirot with a corncob pipe? I think not.)

>103 jillmwo: Snowman has killed Poirot for his hat? (Previously unknown Christie story).

>104 booksaplenty1949: That might be the case. I have not paid much attention to haberdashery in Agatha Christie's novels, but now I may need to see if this was an area of particular concern to Hercule Poirot. (We know he was particular about his suits.)

>105 jillmwo: Apparently Poirot is associated with the Homburg, while this is apparently a bowler, but perhaps we just do not have a clear view of the divot.

Do these look like a dog's eyes to anyone?

>107 Bookmarque: Oysters with a truffle topping. Mmmm!

>107 Bookmarque: Are these things eyes? :)))

>107 Bookmarque: Awful.

>107 Bookmarque: Two spoons with olives in them. Cujo is the best minimalist cookbook I've ever found. :) Also... why is the whole cover tilted? I'm not imagining that, right?

Frankenstein often gets great covers that match the mood and themes, but this one is just hilarious...it's the terror label that gets me.



That guy is not terrifying anymore than this guy -

112> I'm trying to decide which digit did not survive the revivification process. Both pictures show only four. Did the doctor remove the middle finger, anticipating attitude problems?

Maybe pinkies...not required for these low fellows without manners or finesse. But maybe the middle is more practical.

>114 Bookmarque: As he surveys his four-fingered hands it slowly dawns on him that he is—-a cartoon. Someone will pay for this.

What, no one has offered the weird LOTR covers?



My sister had this set, and they were the editions I first read.

>116 fuzzi: Those are my favorites! That was the first set I read as well, but I gave those to my nephew. (I later received a used set as a gift.)

>117 clamairy: I have these MMPs in only slightly worse condition than shown in the photo:


 
 

Didn't realize these were selling for upwards of $100. Perhaps I should sell mine and get a newer version...? I mean, this hardcover edition gets some nice reviews.
 

>118 ScoLgo: I have those too, in a lovely (battered) red box with Tolkien's artwork on it. My parents must have given it to me in the mid '70s. Mine have the same price printed in the corner.

A few years ago @JPB sent me this for a milestone birthday.





It's lovely, but you really can't sit and read it, except in bits.

>119 clamairy: Wow! That is a really nice gift!

Sadly, my slipcase is long gone but at least the books remain.

>120 ScoLgo: Thanks. That hardcover you linked to is gorgeous. I have an illustrated one. I think it's Alan Lee's work.

>118 ScoLgo: I bought those editions, but not The Hobbit.

This is what my edition of The Hobbit looks like:

>122 fuzzi: Oooh, nice! There is just something about slip-covered hardbacks that appeals to me...

>118 ScoLgo: Those look like the versions I read when I was in college. No idea which box they may be in now if they survived my house being flooded and made it to my apartment.

I thought about dropping this into the Beautiful book covers thread because it is, but then I started wondering how beetles had anything to do with the story and I don't remember that they did. How strange.



The book is Two Graves which is part of a long running series.

Wow...this is just so...



I'm speechless. Not just at the futuristic codpiece, but what is with that leg? The weirdo muscles. That haircut. It's like Chucky and Carrottop got thrown in a blender with the T1000.

>126 Bookmarque: I hope you shared that in the Good Show Sir group too. :)

Not sure why I hate this cover so much, but I really do.

>128 clamairy: I agree that the young lady on this cover seems to be under “the male gaze” in a way that is highly inappropriate for any work of Jane Austen. But at least she seems to be in the right century.

>129 booksaplenty1949: Yes, she does have her hair up! But she also seems to be unclothed, and possibly underfed.

Yeah, that's a dumb one.

I'm not crazy about the cover in >128 clamairy: either but on what basis are we assuming that she's unclothed and/or underfed? I might see my way to agreeing that there's no ruffled collar shown in the silhouette but that doesn't mean she's "neckid". I also want to know where the heck you found that one. Who is the publisher?

>132 jillmwo: It showed up in an email from Amazon this morning! This particular Kindle edition is on sale for $1.99. It lists the publisher as G&D Media. Never heard of them before.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09TLG178H?

True, she could be wearing an off-the-shoulder dress, but that was not fashionable at that time, was it?

>133 clamairy: Not at all.

>134 booksaplenty1949: & >132 jillmwo: I just looked at it again and realized there is nothing to indicate it is an off-the-shoulder gown, but I suppose it could be a strapless dress. (Which I don't believe came into fashion until 1930s.)

>135 clamairy: Ditto. I think the downward gaze is what suggests nakedness, of some sort.

If time is hanging heavy on your hands I suggest going to the author page for G. A. Henty and working your way through the covers available for the extensive list of his works. Very happy with recently acquired copies of Condemned as a Nihilist and The Dash for Khartoum I wondered if there was a copy of Orange and Green with a similarly striking cover. I was surprised, given that this novel concerns battles in 17thC Ireland, to see covers depicting men in turbans, pith helmets, buckskin, etc. Checking with other titles in Henty’s oeuvre I could see that the same covers, however unsuitable, were used on a variety of his works, along with a variety of completely irrelevant depictions. A cover for The Young Colonists, for example—“A Story of the Zulu and Boer Wars”—-shows two children in French court costume. Another has a Viking. With Lee in Virginia includes a cover with people playing tennis, and another of men portaging a canoe. A collector could have a very happy time.

>137 booksaplenty1949: Fascinating cover choices.

New to this thread, but have a suspicion that >1 Bookmarque: Bookmarque, >19 Bookmarque: Bookmarque, and >29 Bookmarque: Bookmarque are examples of covers that a proper woman of the early 1900's could be seen with while enjoying something quite a bit more risque.

>139 ClydeWILibrary: Well, as I mentioned above, many G.A. Henty novels seem to (re)use covers irrelevant to their contents, and their target market was not women, nor was there anything remotely risqué in his stories of adventure and Empire-building. Just a cost-cutting move on the part of the publishers, I think.

Georgette Heyer as envisioned by Walt Disney: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/these-old-shades-20

Eeuw...

>141 Maddz: In total agreement with you. Eeuw...

>141 Maddz: >142 jillmwo: Yuck. Disney ought to stick to its own creations and leave the classics (even minor ones) alone.

>141 Maddz: OMG. Think she’s waiting for Shrek.

>141 Maddz: Oh dear 🤦‍♀️😆

>144 booksaplenty1949: 🤣

>141 Maddz: WT .....

That cover offends me and I've never read any of her work. Bleah.

Hester Prynne seems to have violated the Puritan dress code, along with her other moral failings.

>149 booksaplenty1949: And how!

>149 booksaplenty1949: Whoa.

>149 booksaplenty1949: Well, that one elicited a howl of derision!

Now that it is easier to upload images I can share this cover for With Lee in Virginia. Apparently involved significant down time.

>153 booksaplenty1949: Ah, so that's what they were doing there. I see.

Apparently some confusion between Wuthering Heights and Gone with the Wind. I can see that.

"Frankly, Heathcliff, I don't give a damn."

>155 booksaplenty1949: Yes, it does get confusing :D

>156 TorMented: Yay! :D

>157 Alexandra_book_life: Croatian is like that.

>156 TorMented: LOL

Explains why she liked to while away the hours with Bewick’s History of British Birds.

>161 booksaplenty1949: But of course! :D

These are all hilarious >149 booksaplenty1949: >153 booksaplenty1949: >155 booksaplenty1949:, but I laughed so loudly when I saw >161 booksaplenty1949: that I scared my cat!

>163 clamairy: The other examples are cover designs that budget publishers used over and over again on their books, regardless of relevance to the title. But the Jane Eyre cover was clearly commissioned—-the illustrator is credited. Would love to see inside.

Found an example of Agusti’s illustrations . This is in fact Jane Eyre reading Bewick, in chapter 1. Have included a self-portrait of Agusti, which may explain.

>165 booksaplenty1949: They're actually charming. Is that the right word? Odd, but still appealing.

>166 clamairy: Charming is the right word, I think :)

>165 booksaplenty1949: Ah. She actually is a cat-person. That explains it.

Next step is this classic, translated into cat. Every word on every page is apparently “Meow.”

This classic is also available.

>169 booksaplenty1949: & >170 booksaplenty1949: Very cute, but also why? Are people actually buying these?

Edited to add that the one volume I saw on Amazon only had one five star rating.

>171 clamairy:
They are buying them for their cats, obvs.

:-)

>172 pgmcc: I've never caught any of mine reading. That doesn't mean they can't, but if they can they are extraordinarily sneaky about it.

>173 clamairy:
Did you never hear them reading out loud?
Meow! Meow!…

Now granted that I don't own a cat but, from those I've met, I would think that Thus Spoke Zarathustra would appeal to their wickedly, warped minds.

>175 jillmwo: Pretty cogent explanation here.

>176 booksaplenty1949:
That clears things up nicely. I couldn’t have put it better meow.

After being concussed by the rifle butt of a fellow Union soldier, Henry Fleming clearly opted for superior head protection.

>178 booksaplenty1949: Oh my. Did anyone even read the synopsis? TLDR.

>178 booksaplenty1949: Bwahaha... Did it say anything about Flemming traveling forward in time? Or aging about 30 years?

>179 Bookmarque: Your point is well taken because even the dumbest AI summary notes that the novel takes place during the Civil War. Right up there with the cover in #155

>181 jillmwo: Cover designer under impression it took place during Greek Civil War in 1940s.

>182 booksaplenty1949: That actually makes sense. Still cackling.

I am often entertained by inappropriate fashions depicted on the covers of 19thC novels. The fact that a story takes place in the “old days” seems to give permission for the heroines to be shown wearing anything from Regency Empire-waisted dresses to hoop skirts to bustles regardless of the actual styles of the period in which the book is set. But Elizabeth Bennet in a mini-skirt was something new.

>184 booksaplenty1949: What annoys me is when the main female character is wearing a ball gown to walk out anywhere. Especially one that appears to be made for her larger sister... The other thing is loose flowing locks.

At least that cover is consistent.

>184 booksaplenty1949: I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry at that one...

>184 booksaplenty1949: >186 clamairy: I know how to make it worse:

From our bot friends (aka AI):

"The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is an Emmy-winning, modern web series adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Told through vlog-style YouTube episodes, it reimagines Elizabeth Bennet as a grad student coping with student loans, a chaotic family, and a constant stream of viral internet drama."

It's won Emmys! :D

Some disappointed purchasers, back in the day, of this “revealing” memoir, I would imagine.

Here's another one for the Pendergast series that is just weird and like the beetle cover above -

>188 booksaplenty1949: I had never seen that cover for The Seven Storey Mountain before. That's quite a peculiar choice.

Another take on Pride and Prejudice.

>190 jillmwo: I guess it’s a tribute to the book’s popularity that it was issued in 75 cent paperback format with a James Avati cover. But I can imagine there were some disappointed purchasers.

Once again, Hester Prynne experiences wardrobe failure.

>193 booksaplenty1949:
LOL

>191 Taphophile13: & >193 booksaplenty1949: I am flabbergasted.

>193 booksaplenty1949: But where is the scarlet letter? Inquiring minds wish to know.

>196 Alexandra_book_life: Well, given the cover, my guess would be it is a tattoo commonly called a tramp stamp. :-)

>193 booksaplenty1949: That cover doesn't look one bit like New England. (And >197 alco261: I had never heard that phrase before but I'm storing it away for future use.)

>197 alco261: I've never heard this phrase before either. I will remember it for sure.

Is Catherine Earnshaw, assuming this is her, free of such a disfigurement? Unfortunately we cannot see her back. She does seem to have “Copyrighted Material” tattooed over her crotch.

I found this in the wild. Not quite as bad as some of the above but it made me do a double take

>201 Sakerfalcon: Why is the color pallette so garish? And why so much pink? I mean, we're not talking Elle Woods in Legally Blonde here...

I can't even work out which one is Elinor and which one Marianne.

>201 Sakerfalcon: Yikes! I'm laughing, but I'm also feeling vaguely ill...

>202 jillmwo:
I can't even work out which one is Elinor and which one Marianne.

What does it matter as long as they are happy together?

>204 pgmcc: Do those faces look happy? The expressions suggest two siblings ticked off with one another and not speaking. (Dramatic tension in a plot is important, but this would not compel me to pick up the book.)

>205 jillmwo:
I would share that view.

>204 pgmcc: Bwahahaha!

I should mention that this was found in the YA section of the store. The design seems to me to say "This is what the younguns like" rather than the designers actually having done market research with the demographic.

Picturing Dorian Gray:

Oh my....

>208 Taphophile13: and >209 clamairy:. Well, as beefcake goes, the one there on the right is a remarkable speciman. That said, if the innocent buyer picked up the book solely on the the cover, the actual text would come as a dreadful shock.

" if the innocent buyer picked up the book solely on the the cover, the actual text would come as a dreadful shock."

And how.

>210 jillmwo: Well, he is a picture...

(Ducks...)