Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Similar Covers: Red and White Robe

When I was at the book fair in Quebec City this past Saturday, I spotted a lookalike pair: The Sad Truth about Happiness by Anne Giardini (a cover I’m very familiar with) and Lucca by Hans Christian Grøndahl, translated from the Danish by Anne Born. What I didn’t realize is that the cover image is a painting: Betty by Gerhard Richter. (I always thought it was a photograph.)


Unfortunately, I didn’t think to check who had published these books (as requested last week by both StephanieD of Misfit Salon and An Anonymous Child of Bibliobio). However, according to what I could find online, Lucca was actually published first, in 2003, by Canongate Books (in the UK), while The Sad Truth about Happiness was published at the earliest in 2005 by Harper Collins Canada. (The trade paperback version came out in 2006; I’m not 100% positive that the hardcover used the same cover image.)

I also had in my collection several other covers that remind me of these two because they all feature a red and white kimono-like robe: Light Can Be Both Wave and Particle and The Anna Papers, both by Ellen Gilchrist, as well as Sophie and the Rising Sun by Augusta Trobaugh and The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim.



Edited to add:
It turns out that the cover for The Enchanted April has an exact lookalike: The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield. As far as I can tell, The Enchanted April was published with that cover in 1991 by Virago, while this edition of The Garden Party was published in 2007 by Penguin Classics. Thanks, Claire, for pointing out this lookalike!

9 comments:

  1. It amazes me how you can find such many similar covers! Am really excited, though, when I recognize some of your covers. The Enchanted April you have there has the exact same photo used in Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party and Other Stories.

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  2. Wow! That's a great painting - it looks like a photograph to me too.

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  3. What a unique pattern. . that's wild that you found similar versions!

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  4. Claire, thanks so much for pointing out that lookalike cover! I've updated my post to include it. By the way, since your profile is not available, I just wanted to make sure that you are Claire from kiss a cloud...

    I agree, Kathy; it makes me want to see the real thing! Interestingly, this painting is in the "Children" category on the artist's site. (She doesn't look like a child to me.) He has another one called Reader that I like a lot too.

    Amy, the funny thing is I'd been collecting those covers for a while, thinking they reminded me of something; it was only when I saw the Lucca cover that I realized I didn't have The Sad Truth about Happiness in my collection and that that was the cover I'd been thinking of!

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  5. I love this cover in all its varieties. I think the red & white pattern is so pretty and vivid especially when worn by the women with black hair. Must find that robe! lol
    The painting is amazing and really looks like a photograph!

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  6. Wow, I would not have known that was a painting at all. Maybe it's my poor eyesight but it really does look like a photograph. Maybe these posts should be called 'exact covers'!

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  7. You and your covers just amaze me. You always find so many good ones!

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  8. Wow! I'm always so impressed what you find ... and I would have thought that was a photo and not a painting too.

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  9. Yes I am. I should probably use my blog name as my log in name as well. :D

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