/lit/ - Literature

literally the worst covers ever
do they hold contests to see who can come up with the worst cover?

dubs

>>10553401
Are these real? I don't know what's real anymore (in general, not just covers).

>>10553552
I've seen them in book stores, they're real

>>10553401
woahhh

these are awful

These kind of covers make me feel that they're trying re-brand classic literature as trashy TV dramas aimed at women who think they're hot shit for reading

I kind of want to prank my friend by replacing every single tasteful penguin edition in his library, with their carefully selected painting for a cover, and replace them with their Wordsworth analog.

Do you think I could get monetized on youtube if I did it?

>>10553435
>o shit here i go murdering again

>>10553401
Lol the dude is supposed to be super ugly like the average r9k user

You fags ready to fuck up Troy?

>>10553565
All their Dostoyevsky covers are like this, it's disgusting

>>10553674
I refuse to believe that is real.

>>10553674
Cons: Hard to build. Hard to visit to worship your gods.
Pros: Invaders say “fuck it”. Apostates only require a single kick.

>>10553833

>>10553838

The version of ulysses I read, it was a complete shambles.

>>10553841
Holy shit this one looks lifted directly from deviant art

Are they aiming for their covers to be so bad they become hilarious?

>>10553564
But they're ridiculously bad. They're crude caricatures of the books' themes. I honestly thought they were made by bored fourchanners.

>>10553649
>monetised
No, but I promise to cherish the memory of your deed for as long as I live, which is basically the next best thing.

>>10553974
this is definitely fake

>>10553917
What was wrong with it?

>>10554006
Absolutely no notes, made a time consuming task of finding my own supplementary information.

I didn't believe it was real until I saw them in a book store in Australia. It was so mind blowing I stood there for a good minute wondering what the hell was wrong with these people.

>>10553674

Beter open that boipussy anon

www.amazon.com/Iliad-Wordsworth-Classics-Homer/dp/1853262420

>>10553401
>>10553435
Thankfully, they've updated their Dostoyevsky covers. I mean, it's some lazy abstract art but at least it's not "5 minutes in photoshop" bad.

>>10554111
I legitimately don't understand why they're THAT bad. It's so easy to grab some public domain art and slap it on. That's what they do with their World Literature imprint, those are quite tasteful.

>>10554234
Yeah the imprint versions of Picture of An Artists, and Dante's Comedy have decent covers.
The regular wordsworths I have though are garbage. Though they usually have good translations.

They must have some self-awareness in how bad their own covers are, I think it must be an in-joke at the publishing house to find the most absurdly shit covers possible for otherwise decent translations.

>>10553833
But that cover only depicts a single city. Now I'm confused, and I will continue browsing until I find cover art that really lays it all out for me.

>>10553401
He looks more jewish then Russian.

>>10553841

>>10553841
he's a big cat

>>10553979
Here's the real one.

>>10553435
I'm perversely proud of owning this edition.

>>10555937
this looks so fucking bad holy shit
I bet they're aiming for the "so bad it's good" angle so in a few decades these editions will cost hundreds of dollars

>>10553838
No fucking way. This is fake.

>>10555985
I've got some bad news for you

http://wordsworth-editions.com/collections/classics/dracula

>>10555998
How is this possible? I refuse to believe someone took a look at that photoshop and said "perfect!" Is Wordsworth trolling us?

>>10554221

It'd be infinitely better if it was just plain black.

>>10554093
It's your fault for buying it then and needing notes in the first place.

>>10556007
You could say that about every Wordsworth cover.

>>10553401

>>10556075
lel

>>10553917
How are these physically? I mean, is the paper decent, etc.

>>10556104
The paper is adequate, the carboard on the cover feels a bit too plastic espeically on the images and the spine is too stiff to hold open without cracking it
4/10

>>10553891
is dead souls the most misleading book ever written?0

>>10556114
Considering the price, the quality is actually quite good. No worse than Penguin editions which cost 3 to 4 times as much.

>>10556114
>>10556141
They're unannotated editions which just contain the text, right? Is the text at least presented decently, without tons of typos?

>>10553401
If a picture
Is worth a thousand words
How much is a picture
Of Words Worth?

>>10554221
>Not liking Malevich
Who are you?

>>10553719
Its real i have it

>>10555868

For meow

>>10553401
Holy cow, that's a really stupid cover for that book.

They reprinted Dryden's Ovid translations so they can't be all bad.

>>10553674
Hey buddy I think you got the wrong door, leather club's too blocks down

>>10556152
It's not exactly the typos...it's the interjections by the editor where the hot female secretary goes out on a date with her boss and to her amazement he rapes her in his expensive car and she has multiple orgasms like a string of Chinese firecrackers going off.


OK, just kidding... put down that knife..

>>10553891
But...wait...so the illustrator has no idea of what Dead Souls is about? And the publisher didn't tell him?

faaahk.

>>10553636
I once got a friend who is a Vancouver movie industry teamster to read Conrad's Nigger of the Narcissus. He eagerly went to it. A month later I asked him about it and he's actually read it through! He groaned with real pain at the memory. He detested the entire experience. It was like he got all his teeth pulled.

He thought it was going to be some coarse racist diatribe against hateful shitskins. Even the Penguin cover of the sailors in a storm didn't clue him in to what he was letting himself in for.

>>10553565
this one ain't bad compared to the other ones

Found this at my local book store. This is what Trump is doing to us.

>>10553534
It looks like a fucking goosebumps book

>Wow, yeah that model will work perfectly. Let me just badly shop another guy's face onto him real quick.

>>10557925
for once, the bizarrely uncanny nature of the illustration, for once, finally matches the subject matter of the narrative
who would have guessed that even Woodsworth has it's moments?

>>10557934
Still looks dumb

>>10556007
Why isn't there a publisher that does that to begin with? Just a black cardboard/fabric cover with title and author for the same price as the woodsworth stuff.. The only books I have that came this way are "dark sun" and "making of the atomic bomb" by Rhodes and that looks by far the best.

If the designer of three wolf moon made a book cover

>>10558403
So, basically Reclam but for English

>>10556669
Fuck you.

>>10553401
is that dude's head photoshopped onto somebody else's body

I can't stop staring at his chin where it looks most apparent

>>10553833
wow that guillotine is huge

>>10553833
> A Tale of Two Cities
> CHA DICKENS

>>10553891
> literally looks like Dark Souls fan art from someone learning the basics of Photoshop

>>10554234
Well they wouldn't get far with a picture of a smiling Mohammed on a fucking pyramid now would they

Think before you post next time

>>10555937
The more I look at the picture in the background the funnier this gets

>>10555985
I prefer this Castlevania looking motherfucker.

>>10553674
Looks like he's from a video game.

>>10558612
Hmm

Their horror series are nice though.

>>10553534
I bought this version tbqh, it was only £2 new

>>10558750
You could have got an epub for free.

>>10558685
Those are actually nice. Are those lovecraft collections or just single stories?

>>10558403
penguin released a series like this

>>10560172
That's a collection of his stories in 4 volumes. Almost all (if not all) of his works.

>>10560172
>>10558685

http://wordsworth-editions.com/collections/mystery-&-supernatural

>>10560189
Neat, that's how it's supposed to be done. Nobody buys books like this for the cover art anyways.

>>10560567
what the fuck lmao

>>10553401
was there even a woman in that book?

>>10553838
>when you get a stroke during halloween

>>10553891
b-b-but the book isn't about ghosts

>>10557928
>Moby Dick

>>10560614
Yes but she's not that hot, she looks more like Kristen Schaal. The MC is sorta ugly too.

>>10560567
this is fake

>>10560653
You think?

>>10560659
I had to search it to make sure, you actually can't tell with Wordsworth

I actually like this.

>>10560658
Is that an old cover? Marginally better than this one at least

>>10560659
I hope.
>>10560644
Oh yeah, I forgot about the prostitute.

>>10560669
Some of their covers are nice which makes the bad ones even more baffling

>>10560671
The one you posted is better in my opinion. For some reason Moby Dick is really fucking tiny in both of them.

>>10560688
The composition is nicer but the obvious photoshop paste job makes me gag

>>10557922
cross between Chris Evans and Steven Seagal

>>10560189
That actually looks great. It's simplistic yet charming

>>10560710
I can stand bad photoshopping but the way captian Ahab just has that stupid shit-eating grin on his face cracks me up.

>>10556018
Sorry,stem fag ain't got time to take courses in latin, religion and Irish history as well as a fundamentals in all styles of the written english language over the past 10 centuries.

Plebs gotta pleb

>>10560189
>>10560490
>>10560725
They're called the "Little Black Classics."
They're ~$1 each. You can buy the box set of 1-80 for $75 on Amazon.
81-127 can be bought individually.

>>10560780
>81-127 can be bought individually
b-but why

>>10560780
LITTLE BLACK CLASSICS

>>10560823
Probably second tier canonical works

>>10560854
>>10560860
I want these to exist

>>10560854
kino

Seriously, Wordsworth?

>>10553534
wtf are you talking about this cover is fantastic

Seriously, Wordsworth?

>>10554221
>lazy abstract art

Wordsworth gives Baen a good run for their money that's for sure.

>>10553435
desu I'd rather have this cover than the Penguin edition I have which is just an eye looking through a hole.

>>10553401
>tfw I bought this exact book because of the cover

>>10553674
>>10553401
c'mon they ain't that bad

>>10563216
Every fucking time.

Template

and a little something for /clas/

>>10553674
There's no way this is real. It looks like one of those romance novels for 40 year old lesbians.

>>10560780
i wish something like that was available in my mothertongue. The only books i buy in english are those that were written in it

>>10560823
1-80 was the original run, they were going to be a one-off thing. But they're popular so a second run was made.

They're perfect if you want a sampling of an author's work with no frills. They're only 60-70 pages though.

>>10558683
Holy shit
lost

>>10553534
The funniest shit.

>>10560681
I at least admire the gall they had with Tolstoy covers, I've always liked the look of this one despite it seem to "miss the point" that he tries to have with Napoleon, or perhaps it unknowingly hits the point right on the head

>>10553841
If this book isn't about a gangster transformed into a talking cat who systematically takes over the Moscow mafia, I'll be very disappointed.

>>10553674
mfw that temple

>>10557928
...Excuse me? Isn't Jim like 20 years old? Why does he have a harpoon?

>someone is getting payed to make these shitty covers
>i still don't have a job

>>10560854
top fucking lel, make it fucking happen Woodsworthless

>>10565493
Where the fuck is his left thigh?

These are awful.

>>10553534
Aside from this weird alien ass lookin shit, this was how i imagined gregor's room to be

>>10553891
anyway why do those dead souls make the happy merchant gesture

>>10555937
so he never shaved by his portrait's beard grew longer and longer...

>>10560658
human stahp
human what are you doing

>>10553917
Dubliners looks nice

>>10553534
This one has always been my personal favorite. Come across it several times and almost buying it on a whim.
It's so ridiculous but I think maybe they did this so younger audiences would be interested and frankly if that sort of tactic works I can forgive them.
at least its absurdity provided me with joy.

>>10553674
This made my day. Thanks for the laugh, anon.

>>10553841
>>10553674
>>10558426
>>10558621
>>10560671
No fucking way

>>10556279
god this is sickening

thats the last thing you want to put on a frankenstein cover