Shelf Candy Saturday is an awesome weekly meme hosted by Five Alarm Book Reviews where each Saturday bloggers defy the saying "never judge a book by its cover" and showcase one that really catches their eye. Covers play a huge role in the books I choose so it's great to have the opportunity to showcase the pretties :)
My shelf candy for this week is Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
When Ishmael sets sail on the whale-ship Pequod one cold Christmas Day, he has no idea of the horrors awaiting him out on the vast and merciless ocean. The ship's strange captain, Ahab, is obsessed with hunting down the famous white whale, Moby Dick, and will stop at nothing on his quest to annihilate his nemesis.
The Vintage classic covers hold a special place in my heart. While the covers of classics are usually dull and boring, Vintage always manage to make theirs stand out. Moby Dick is one of my favourites of their covers.
I love the black and white colour scheme, and the cover looks deceptively like a hand-drawn doodle. The sketchy style also gives a sense of movement to the cover which is great as the scene looks like it should be moving.
The whale even looks like a sperm whale which (according to wikipedia at least) is what Moby Dick was. I'm a total oceanography nerd so I love that this cover is accurate with the species of whale.
Another feature I like is the font for Moby Dick. The little line joining the final ck makes it look like a diving whale's tail and manages to add a little something extra that may not necessarily be seen on the first viewing.
So what's your shelf candy this week?
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What a terrific black and white illustration! I like the way that the artist has parts of the work leaping off the page. I agree, the fonts are quite nice for the cover. Great pick. Thank you for sharing it. It is the first time that I have seen this version of the cover.
ReplyDeleteHi, Claire!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for dropping by and commenting on my Shelf Candy post!!
Oh, this is indeed a great cover! I LOVE it!! I'm a HUGE fan of black-and-white covers, especially if they look as if they had been drawn by hand, like this one does. I think this might be a woodcut print, though. I love such prints, too!!
Also, I agree with everything you've written about the cover. It definitely has movement, which is indeed very appropriate for the theme. And that little line joining the c and the k is a nice touch.
FANTASTIC cover pick!! : )
Hi, again, Claire!
ReplyDeleteJust to let you know...Steph @ Five Alarm Book Reviews will no longer be hosting this meme. She told me that I could continue with it if I was interested, and I certainly am! So I'm putting up my post tomorrow. I will have a Linky widget for other blogs to link up. Hope you decide to join in!! : )