Embers by Sandor Marai
All for Love by Dan Jacobson
The Sweetest Dream by Doris Lessing
Lovers or Something Like It by Florian Zeller
I read Embers because the author is Hungarian and so is my husband. I own a copy and it is a gorgeous cover. It's a portrait of Countess de Keller by Alexandre Cabanel, 1873, in the Musee d'Orsay, Paris. I've actually seen a third book using this cover but I can't remember where.
I read half of The Sweetest Dream while traveling and never finished it when I got home because it got lost in the shuffle. My cover is very bland and even darker than it appears here. You'd think a Nobel author would warrant something nicer than that. But then we're told that authors often have no say in their covers. And why such horridly small print on the Zeller book? Their only attempt at a little colour and it's unreadable.
It occurred to me while posting that these last two may not be the same cover but they do take several shots of things and can fiddle with the photos to make them look slightly different. I can't imagine two separate photo sessions coming up with the same shot setup. What say ye?
More copycat covers: here, here, and here.
Yah I like the cover of Embers much better than the other one!
ReplyDeleteAnd I really don't like the 2nd set of covers and they definitely look the same.
That font on the last book cover is seriously too small .. and the color doesn't help the reading!
I can't tell if the Sweetest Dream and Lovers or Something Like It have the same cover or not, but for some reason both cover really bother me. I just want to make them less blurry! Grr! I have to stop looking at them.
ReplyDeleteFor the others, I much prefer the cover of Embers!
I say you're very observant! I think the bottom two are from the same photo shoot but with different lighting and angles.
ReplyDeleteI think it is true that the author´s influence is often minimal.
ReplyDeleteThese covers are funny! I´ll send a link to Karen of EuroCrime, she often posts similar covers and is very good at spotting them.
That second pair has a triplet, which I posted about here! (I will link to your post.)
ReplyDeleteI'm not actually sure that they both use the same picture (they look like different faces to me), although the treatment is so similar it's hard to believe they're not. I can't say I like either cover anyway!
By the way, don't forget to go back and label your previous posts with "Copycat Covers"! (I'm such a geek, but I like to go back and look through them.) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating to me. I guess there are a lot of photos floating around the same sources publishers chose from, but I'd be pretty cranky if, as an author, someone else got virtually the same cover I got.
ReplyDeletei think the bottom two covers are horribly depressing and why the water drops???They look like they're coming out of the ladies nose!! I do love the cover of the top left!!
ReplyDeleteMe again. Just wanted to say that I didn't mean to sound like I was demanding that you label your copycat posts. I'd just really appreciate it if you did at some point!
ReplyDeleteI loved this post! Interesting to see that the covers seem to be really similar - like twins!
ReplyDeleteI loved the new look of your blog too :)