Old book, new look: why the classics are flying off the shelves

Sales have risen 10%, thanks to TV adaptations and clever marketing. As four publishing houses unveil new looks, John Walsh investigates the battle for new readersImagine you have a sudden burning desire to read David Copperfield, Charles Dickens’s favourite of all his novels. Thanks to Project Gutenberg, you could read it for nothing online but, correctly reasoning that it would be tedious to scroll through 600 pages on a screen, you go to a bookshop. There you find that David Copperfield is available as an Everyman Classic hardback, a Penguin Classic paperback, an Oxford University Press paperback and a Vintage Classic paperback, all designed in pleasing formats, heftily branded and with paintings or artful imagery on their covers, along with introductory essays by university professors, a chronology of Dickens’s life and a scholarly trove of explanatory notes.Which do you choose? Why that one? Because it has the most beautiful cover? Because it looks more “collectable” for your library shelf at home? Because the colour scheme matches the decor of your living room? Because the introduction is by Professor John Sutherland, say, rather than Norman Carpet from Nowheresville? Think carefully before you choose, because British publishers are putting lots of money and energy into guessing what the new generation of classics buyers wants. This year, the four major contenders – Penguin, OUP, Everyman and Vintage – are experimenting with radical new looks, designs and branding... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2016-09-17 00:00:00 UTC ]

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