The Many Faces of Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte is one of my favourite authors, so I thought it would be fun to write my last post comparing covers of her most well-known novel, Jane Eyre. It's the story of a passionate-but-reserved and strong-but-quiet girl who endures a difficult and lonely childhood, becomes a governess, falls in love with her employer, but runs away on the day of their wedding because she discovers a secret that makes it impossible for them to marry. Much more happens after this, but just in case you haven't read Jane Eyre before, I'm trying not to give anything away.

Anyways, this classic has inspired many different cover artists over the years. I'll show you a few, and comment on what I think are the pros and cons of each.

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This is a very conventional cover, and it gives a very good idea of the novel. Like the Anna Karenina cover we saw a few posts ago, the central figure of the woman makes it clear that it's a classic and a romance. Jane's expression is good (true to character, I think), but the book repeatedly describes her as plain and mousy-looking, so this cover fails in that respect.

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I don't know for sure because I haven't looked up any background about this cover, but I'd be willing to bet that it was produced within the last 10 years and marketed to two audiences: readers who already love Jane Eyre ("Look, we made a nice cover for your favourite book!") and romance readers who've never heard of the story before ("Look, another romance novel! We've made a really simple cover with a woman's silhouette so you know for sure that it's a love story."). Again, it gives a good idea of what the story's really like, but the silhouette downplays Jane's distinctive personality and just emphasizes her identity as the heroine who falls in love.

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This is cute and the font and (once again... I'm noticing a trend) Jane's solitary figure makes it really obvious that this is a romance novel. The art is kind of charming, and casual enough that I have no criticisms about the presentation of Jane. My only major complaint is that the story is a serious one, and this cover makes it look too light and cutesy.

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Well... This one makes the mystery element of the story really, really obvious, but there's no way to see that it's a romance novel, which I think is a pretty serious failing. Also, I really dislike the font, which is ugly and makes the story (and Jane, as the narrator and main character) look badly put together.

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I thought I'd include this last one just for fun, as an example of the worst possible Jane Eyre cover of all time. Seriously though, it's painful for me to look at, not to mention post it here so more people will see it. Anyways, this one has too many problems to list, but the key is that it completely misrepresents Jane's character and her relationship with Rochester... Jane Eyre isn't a soap opera. Hopefully seeing this won't turn you off from reading this "Story of Undying Love"... Remember, this one's from an abridged version. Maybe we can blame the horror of it on that.

Attacking Oz

In the same vein as my last post (looking at the difference between American and Russian covers of Russian novels), I wanted to compare multiple covers of a well-known fantasy: The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

Actually, I was looking for colour themes in fantasy novels, including The Wizard of Oz, when I came across this cover and decided to write about it instead:

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I was appalled. Yes, the cover is attractive, and yes, it relates to to the story (because of the scene in the field of poppies), but it leaves out so many essential elements of the plot. (Also, it makes it look like Oz is a story about opium, or maybe Remembrance Day, both of which are completely untrue.)

Take a look at the original cover. Without the title written on it (because those are kind of dead giveaways), they would look like two opposite stories.

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Here are 3 problems I found in the "revamped" cover, which aren't present in the original:

1. A fantasy cover should look fantastic. This is a story about magic, and the author hasn't tried to surprise readers by suddenly revealing the magic. It's something that readers deserve to know from the cover.

2. The Wizard of Oz is a children's book. The minimal illustrations and sleek text of the poppy cover are designed to attract adults, and would repel children. The green original cover looks like fun to read (which is what it's meant to be!).

3. The cover should give something about the story away. There's a place for covers like the new one: in a mysterious story where the author only reveals tiny bits of the plot at a time, a mysterious-looking cover would be appropriate, because it would give readers an idea of what they were in for. As a Wizard of Oz cover, the poppy image is deceptive, because it makes the story look like something it isn't.

Next time I plan to do some more comparisons of covers of the same novel... So long until then!

Great Russian Novels

Thinking about typical American novels in my last post made me wonder about another group of novels. I love Russian literature, and I've never thought about themes in their covers.

Maybe that's because I don't speak Russian, so I always read English translations, and the covers aren't original. They're Canadian (or, more likely, American) artists' representations of the story. That means they're not quite accurate, because they don't quite reflect the author's intention. In my opinion, Russian literature is a completely different genre, not at all like Western stories. In general, Russia is a cold, harsh country with a long and difficult history. Russia has been through so much, and so (now I'm stereotyping) Russians tend to be able to endure a lot more than Westerners, while Westerners probably have a more fully developed sense of humour. That's not always true, but in general I think it's fairly accurate.

So, I looked up Russian covers of two novels I really love:

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This cover of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment is powerful because it's so bare. The one lone axe, a symbol of Raskolnikov's guilt, is pivotal in the story (he couldn't have killed the old woman without it), although Dostoyevsky doesn't spend much time talking about it the novel. The simple drama of this cover is perfect.

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There isn't much to say about this one. The cover isn't nearly as powerful as Crime and Punishment, but Tolstoy's Anna Karenina has a very different kind of drama. It's probably significant that Anna is so alone in the foreground, even in a crowded ballroom. Unfortunately, the image is so common (lots of covers are images of faces, as I want to talk about next time) that it feels uninteresting and unexciting.