Is this glossy, hardback edition of the singer's memoir an indication of a new direction for Penguin Classics?It's not clear who's come the furthest. Morrissey, journeying from figure of fun on the Manchester music scene in "a rented room in Whalley Range" via international stardom to appear – ahead of Martin Amis or Nobel laureate Alice Munro – in Penguin Classics alongside fellow autobiographers Rousseau and St Augustine. Or Penguin Classics itself – a revered 66-year-old institution that has defined the literary canon in paperback – turning this autumn to weathered rock stars, with publication of Morrissey's Autobiography?Well, no competition really: the foppish indie dandy has plainly racked up many more cultural miles. But Penguin has today announced a further step in its new direction, with news of a hardback gift edition, "in full colour" with "a number of new images" chosen by the author – and a complete discography! – clearly aimed at cashing in on the Christmas market. (And presumably obliging the large numbers of Morrissey obsessives to purchase the hardback to sit alongside the paperback they ran out to buy in October, just like their enhanced CDs mirror the more or less identical vinyl originals.) Penguin Classics has issued clothbound editions before. But surely this is the first time it has gone in for a glossy dust jacket with bare-chested (albeit middle-aged) pinup in a swimming pool wearing a medallion.Perhaps the benign strategy behind it all, which... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]