Crime without punishment
We’re not supposed to judge books by their cover, but my latest literary purchase craves an exception to the rule. In a Gothenburg bookstore, I found a paperback edition of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Feeling guilty for having abandoned my intellectual reading for the last year, I promptly bought the six-hundred-something pages novel. But not because of its cover.
A paperback edition of one of the world’s greatest novels can hardly give the same reading experience a hardback can. In addition, the background on this cover is PINK. The title is written in burgundy red, and the author’s name in white. The text of the novel itself fills the entire pages, so there’s no margin or room for comments and thoughts from the reader. A sadder typographical performance is hard to imagine. Also, there’s no preface, post-face or introduction by a literary scholar, so I have to figure out myself what the essence of the novel is.
This edition was from 1982, which explains a lot. Apart from myself being born this year, this was no annus memorabilis. Fortunately for this decade’s designers, esthetical incompetence is no crime. But if I’m on the right side when the revolution comes, I’ll have the Constitution revisited.
A paperback edition of one of the world’s greatest novels can hardly give the same reading experience a hardback can. In addition, the background on this cover is PINK. The title is written in burgundy red, and the author’s name in white. The text of the novel itself fills the entire pages, so there’s no margin or room for comments and thoughts from the reader. A sadder typographical performance is hard to imagine. Also, there’s no preface, post-face or introduction by a literary scholar, so I have to figure out myself what the essence of the novel is.
This edition was from 1982, which explains a lot. Apart from myself being born this year, this was no annus memorabilis. Fortunately for this decade’s designers, esthetical incompetence is no crime. But if I’m on the right side when the revolution comes, I’ll have the Constitution revisited.
posted by Yngvason at 12:38 am
4 Comments:
Da jeg fant samme boka på hytta da jeg var 14, begynte jeg å lese bare fordi omslaget var så fint. Lettsindig som jeg var, ante ikke hva jeg stod med i hånda. 1934-utgaven hadde marmorert, brunt omslag og skinnrygg og- hjørner. Tykke sider og en kronglete norsk. Tittelen var preget i gull på den buklede ryggen: Raskolnikov. Måtte bare lese den, leste den som en krimbok, skjønte bare etterhvert hva det var for et mesterverk. Håper ikke rosafargen har trukket inn i boka di og gjort den til et makkverk.
Så lenge eg klarar å forstå grannespråket skal eg klare å legge såpass godvilje til at eg les boka iallfall. Eg spør deg om kva Fjodor Mikhailovitsj meinte med ho etterpå.
Jeg har en russisk versjon av Raskolnikov som jeg fikk av naboene mine ifjor, skulle du være interessert i et stykke forseggjort trykkverk? ;)
Takk, men det blir å kaste perler for svin. Russisken min er en smule ustø.
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