Maigret on the Beach

Perhaps to make amends for their Morrissey shenanigans, Penguin Classics UK is embarking on the admirable project of publishing all of the 75 Maigret novels by Georges Simenon, in new translations. Coming out roughly one per month (not dissimilar from the speed with which they were sometimes written), it would have been easy to just go for the stock photo option--that is a lot of books to cover, after all.

Happily, Penguin have commissioned Magnum photographer Harry Gruyeart to produce new images for each of the books. His photograph for the first book is especially appealing, with a man who could be Maigret wandering along a seafront in end-of-the-world light.

The next five covers are these...

..the last of which nicely echoes this frame from the 1932 Renoir movie of the book.

As yet another example of why stock photos can be a problem, have a look at these books. In each case the image is well chosen and nicely used, but they've ended up looking the same.

A "funky for young persons" edition of the Bible

It's also been on a CD:

There's more Simenon cover coverage in these posts.