Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Similar Covers: Pensive Woman (Jane Austen spin-offs)

As soon as I saw the cover for The Twelfth Enchantment by David Liss on the TLC Book Tours site, I knew it looked familiar. My recollection was that the other book I was looking for was for a Jane Austen spin-off, so I plugged her name into Amazon and came across a third lookalike! The book I was originally thinking of was Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, but What Would Mr. Darcy Do? by Abigail Reynolds also uses the same image (cropped quite differently).



The Twelfth Enchantment will be published by Random House in August. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict came out in 2007 with Dutton (a Penguin imprint), while What Would Mr. Darcy Do? came out earlier this year with Sourcebooks. I must admit that I hope Random House will change the cover for Liss’s book before they publish it!

Do any of you own any of these books? Can you tell me what the source of the cover image is?
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7 comments:

  1. SukoJuly 6, 2011 at 7:21 PM

    This is ridiculous. Too many copycat covers--it's absurd. I enjoyed reading Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. The cover illustration is by Bildarchiv Preussischer, and the cover was designed by Monica Benalcazar.

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  2. bermudaonionJuly 6, 2011 at 7:32 PM

    I think they should change that cover too. Not only is it too similar to the other covers, but it looks strange with those papers all over it.

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  3. StaciJuly 6, 2011 at 8:50 PM

    You have a very good eye my friend. I wish they wouldn't use the same image on the Austen variation books!!!

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  4. KathleenJuly 7, 2011 at 4:31 PM

    I really wish publishers would source original art or photos for their book covers but I guess like everything else, it comes down to cost.

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  5. JennersJuly 8, 2011 at 10:17 PM

    Is that actually Jane Austen? Weird that it would appear on two Austen (three?) books if isn't!

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  6. avisannschildJuly 11, 2011 at 2:18 PM

    Thanks for letting me know where the image came from, Suko. I looked up "Bildarchiv Preussischer" and found the site of the Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz (the Visual Archive of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), which unfortunately doesn't help me locate the original image as the archive contains more than 12 million images!

    Totally agree, Kathy!

    Thanks, Staci! The two Austen spin-off covers bother me less because they look so different.

    Kathleen, yes and yes (unfortunately).

    Jenners, I don't think the woman on these covers is Jane Austen, but I guess she must fit the period. (Note that the first book is not an Austen book, but takes place during her lifetime.)

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  7. Aisle BJuly 11, 2011 at 3:31 PM

    I think Jane would have wondered why this picture is always taken for her books. SO much for originality.

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