Book Covers

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166871

Carol notes:

Before I respond to this post, I need to make a correction to my own
post upthread. I wrote:

"I still think, however, that it must be Godric Gryffindor's vault
(not necessarily at Hogwarts since the opening appears to be circular
rather than arched) given the proliferation of rubies and no other
precious stones."

I meant "not necessarily at *Gringotts*." I'm inclined to think that
it *is* at Hogwarts. (Why can't I catch my blunders as I'm typing or
even when I edit my posts? Nope. They always show up *after* I've hit
Send. In quintuplicate, if Yahoo is acting up. Sheesh.) 

Elisabet wrote:
<snip>
> UK adult cover - I'll echo whoever said it was classy. <snip>

Carol responds:
Classy, yes, but not very informative. Not exactly canonical, either,
since there's no indication in HBP that the "serpentine S" of the real
locket Horcrux is decorated with emeralds, associated though they are
with Slytherin. Still, it's a beautiful design--and perhaps not so
preposterously large as the locket Harry is wearing on the US cover.
Surely, not even Slytherin (or his daughter???) would wear a locket as
large as a pocketwatch? 

Elisabet wrote
> The red and gold and rubies are all about Gryffindor, aren't they? 

Carol responds:
In a word, yes. :-) Even Harry's glasses reflect something red and
gold, along with something white. Could Fawkes have led them to this
vault or chamber or whatever it is? And what are they all afraid of?
 
Elisabet: 
> US cover - I like it! I wasn't crazy about the HBP cover art; it
just seemed composistionally static. (I did like the cover on the US
deluxe edition though.) The DH art just works better, I think, both
the front cover-only view with the title and the fold-out full picture
without. I like the lettering style for "and the Deathly Hallows".
Even the gold coloring - for just a second I was disappointed, I guess
because I was expecting something darker, but just for a second.

Carol:
I think the gold light (Fawkes again?) and Harry's expression suggest
a happy ending with a triumphant, surviving Harry and a permanently
destroyed and defeated Voldemort, who is not (thank heaven!) AK'd by
Harry but deprived of life in some other way. I'm glad it isn't a dark
cover, in terms of either color or mood; It suggests an exciting book
with an uplifting ending. Arthur Levine says it's an emotion-charged
book and he wept as he read it. That's what I want--a cry-for-happy
ending. Yes, someone's going to die (please, not Snape or Ron or
Hermione), but it's not going to be Harry. Or that's what the US cover
says to me.

Elisabet: 
> Harry does seem confident. He is focused on whatever it is he is
doing, not looking over his shoulder at Voldemort - who, on the other
hand, seems to have one eye on the whatever and the other on Harry. <snip>

Carol:
That must be Voldie's Gaunt heritage: able to look in both directions
at once. (Sorry. Bad joke and I hope I haven't offended anybody. I do
pity Merope and even Morfin, so maybe I shouldn't have said it. Make
that Mad-Eye Moody who can look in two directions at once.)

At any rate, I think Voldemort, like Harry, is focused on something
off-page. (Voldemort is facing it and, IMO, fending it off; Harry is
looking upward and to his left, which again makes me think it's Fawkes.)

Elisabet: 
> Harry does have a scar, although it is partially obscured by his
hair. <snip>

Carol:
I see it, too. despite my less-than-perfect vision. It looks a bit
like a shadow from his hair, but it's right in the center and faint,
just as it is on the covers of the Scholastic editions of OoP and HBP.
It's more conspicuous in the cartoonlike cover art for SS and CoS, but
from PoA onward, it seems to become fainter with each cover,
especially so with the blue or green covers of the fifth and sixth
books. (Glad she didn't do an orange or gold cover for this one--just
natural daylight with an orange or gold-lit sky. Very nice, as is the
realistic depiction of Harry. A little too handsome, maybe, but he's
the hero, so I'll let it go.)
> 
kkersey_austin wrote: 
> I seriously doubt that the curtains are the Veil - the description
just doesn't match (not that Grand Pre hasn't got things wrong
before). My first impression was that it was not part of the scene,
just compositionally filling and framing the picture; see the PS cover
for how she has done this before. <snip>

Carol:
I'm starting to lean that way, too. There's something about the
blurred brush strokes in places that suggests an unfinished painting,
an unreal quality that's different from the clumsy children's-fantasy
quality of the early covers, if you know what I mean, so the framing
with curtains could also be nothing more than a deliberate stylistic
effect (like the curtain obscuring Quirrel!mort on the back of SS).
And yet, I wouldn't put it past GrandPre to depict the Veil as a pair
of tattered curtains, and I'm sure that the Veil has a key role to
play, which surely ought to come at the climactic, final confrontation
depicted here? (There won't be two Voldie/Harry battles. This scene
has to occur in the last or penultimate chapter, right before the
Epilogue.

It's extremely frustrating, isn't it? I'm probably as far off in my
interpretation as I was trying to guess why DD and Harry were trying
to look at a cracked and green-lit "Pensieve" on a column in HBP.

kkersey_austin: 
> I am puzzled by Arthur Levine's remark that this is "for the first
time" a wrap-around cover - all of the jackets have had wrap-around
artwork that includes the flaps. <snip>

Carol:
I think Levine means that, for the first time, there's no book blurb
on the inside cover. (Contrast the UK covers for DH, which have a book
blurb and an author blurb, and the US HBP and OoP covers, which really
don't reveal any art of interest inside the flaps, just the book blurb
and snippets from reviews. Or maybe the blurb and snippets are yet to
come for DH, in which case I suppose he means that, for the first
time, the inside flaps contain significant details that add to our
understanding (or confusion!) about what's happening in the depicted
scene. (I don't care about the review snippets, but I'm curious about
the book blurb and hope that one is coming!) As far as I can tell,
almost the only thing that will appear on the inside flaps is the
curtains--unless Voldie's face can only be fully seen in the foldout.
That would be a marked change from previous covers, at least the two I
have. (I own SS through GoF only in paperback.)

Elisabet:
> Interesting that there seems to be some ambiguity in both the UK and
the US covers - is Harry catching or releasing? Are the trio+elf
falling or being sucked out? (Is the term "trio+elf" singular or
plural?) I'm not sure whether or not the ambiguity is intentional or
not (and doubt that it is for the UK cover). <snip>

Carol:
I think that good cover art is always ambiguous. Like a blurb, it's
supposed to draw the reader in without giving too much away. 

I don't think that the Trio and their nonhuman companion are being
sucked out or blown away in the UK children's cover. I think they're
falling into the vault or chamber (the coins and jewels also appear to
be falling) and staring in terror (Hermione) or horror (Ron) or
astonishment (Harry) at whatever is reflected in Harry's glasses.
What's odd is that they're all looking in different directions, which
could account for the differing emotional reactions. That and their
differing temperaments, of course.

At any rate, we're supposed to ask, "Where are they? What are they
doing? What is that mysterious object?" And, of course, we're doing
exactly that. (The UK adult cover, attractive as it is, doesn't really
have the same effect. We HP fans know what that locket is (though the
rock background is odd). We need the teaser (book blurb) to hint at
what the book is about. But, then, adult readers who've made it this
far don't need cover art, or blurbs, to entice us to read the last
book. We'd read it in a plain brown wrapper or a purple cover spangled
with gold stars. Or, heaven forfend, a cover featuring Mary GrandPre's
conception of Snape (whose absence from the covers is no indication
that he won't be important, as we saw in HBP).

Carol, who, despite not needing blurbs or cover art to entice her to
read DH, does find them intriguing and would really like a new FAQ
poll and some stifled rumors before the time gets any shorter! (Come
on, JKR. You're killing us!)