You might see this cover, designed by Rymn Massand from an illustration by Bill Brown, as a rip-off of New Yorker illustrator Mr. Fotheringham, but that would be unfair since both are so obviously indebted to the inky, calligraphic commercial art of pre-pop Andy Warhol. The genealogy is probably more complex than that. I'm no expert on the history of commercial art. And actually, I don't care all that much if the cover is retro, or is some kind of twist on the whole retro thing or whatever--the important thing is that it is irresistibly gorgeous (just look at that orange and green, and the way the background floral pattern subtly continues into the figure on the left), and that the more I travel into the novel the more I appreciate its cover for all that it reveals and does not reveal about Brideshead's two main characters.
PREVIOUS FABULOUS COVERS OF THE WEEK:
The Face of the Ancient Orient
What comes in a box?
The Age of Reason
The Coming of the French Revolution
Andre the Courier
Hide-Out
Brideshead Revisited
The Golden Book Sherlock Holmes
Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, vol. 5
God's Smuggler
Mixology
The Score
The Frazer Acquittal
Wife or Death
Wild Game Cookbook
Crime Patrol No.9
Boy's Choice
The Value of Fairness
Cancelled Japanese Stamps
The Play of Character in Plato's Dialogues
Scoop
Barchester Towers
Fathers and Sons
Evil Genius
Early Man in the New World
Camp Craft
The Man in the Net
7 Types of Ambiguity
Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust
The Idea, a novel told in woodcuts
The Simple Art of Murder
History Begins at Sumer, featuring the typography of Edward Gorey
Marvel Spectacular featuring the art of Jack Kirby
The Age of Analysis
Metropolis: An American City in Photographs
Engineering is Like This
The Ponder Heart
Don Martin Digs Deeper
The Golden Book Encyclopedia of Natural Science (Volume 9, Kinglets to Meteor)
The Mountlake Terrace High School 1964 yearbook
Take a Letter: A Cyclopedia of Business & Social Correspondence
The Vice Lords: Warriors of the Street
Islam and The Golden Home and High School Encyclopedia
Munakata
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Fabulous book cover of the month