All Things Literary

Penguin Classics get needed face lift

If you've made it this far in life, then it is almost certain that — at one point or another — you have come across a Penguin Classic. Chances are, if you hate literature, you remember the episode with frightening clarity — the razor-thin sheets of paper crowded with text followed by the ludicrous quote tests required for whatever high school English class the novel was assigned.

But, for those self-admitted bookworms (hello … anyone out there?), Penguin Classics are the essentials — the books we were required to read and those that the aforementioned Philistines dread like death itself. "The Crucible," "Paradise Lost," "Crime and Punishment" — to read the Penguin Classics canon is to engage in much of the world's greatest literature.

Recently, however, this series has undergone a drastic face lift that, while jarring to a reader's senses of nostalgia and familiarity, has produced a sleek and handsome design that can make even the driest of texts somewhat enticing to open up and flip through.

Our mothers told us never to judge books by their covers. I'm inclined to think that books and covers were simple metaphors for people and skin colors, which makes it a little easier to say that I'm extremely quick to judge real books by the covers that hold them together. Make no mistake, the covers of books are the first things we see, especially when browsing without a specific author or work in mind.

Those Penguin Classics of yore — the bruised and bent paperbacks we shoved into backpacks or tossed carelessly into school lockers — are memorable for that tiny, trademark penguin, trapped on the front cover between the words "Penguin" and "Classics," and also standing guard at the bottom of the spine.

All versions came with a central work of art culled from the past and tying thematically with the work inside. A cursory flip through pages that looked as if they had been toasted lightly produced that unmistakable and indescribable smell. Please hold for a moment while I take a quick hit.

The new editions of the Penguin Classics have let go of their beige color for an arresting black and white style, with a hint of orange type and a glossier, 21st century cover. The artwork of old has been replaced by, in many cases, a blowup of newer works.

For the convenience of literary scholars and full-fledged nerds, the designers have included a smaller, complete version of the image on the bottom of the back cover. A white stripe runs around the lower half of the book, marking it as a Penguin Classic despite the more contemporary visual metamorphosis. In some cases, the text inside has been redone in a different type and even the pages look bright and white.

The series' new smell (how such a change came about is anyone's guess) is awkward at first, but soon becomes tolerable.

Nit-pickers and animal lovers will be happy to hear that the trademark penguin remains unharmed in his little circle. Something tells me that he, like me, is completely satisfied by the new make over.