It’s hard to say how many different
sets of covers Vintage have used since they started publishing Maugham’s books
in the early 1990s. At least four, I think, though most of them are far from
complete and don’t include even the core of the Maugham canon. The first two
series are by far the most handsome; the last two oscillate between passable
mediocrity and audacious ugliness. Within each series, the titles are arranged
in chronological order.
1st
series: Vintage International, mid-1990s.
This is a very appealing
design. Unfortunately, I have discovered very few titles. Just compare this
cover of Up at the Villa with the one
in the third series and you will know what I mean by “vintage degradation of
book cover art”. Pico Iyer’s superficial and promiscuous selection of Maugham’s
travel writing appeared, out of the blue, in the series as recently as 2009.
2nd
series: Vintage Classics, 1999-2001.
This is my favourite set of
covers. I started collecting them not so many years after they were published,
but a few titles – and important ones at that, Of Human Bondage and the last two volumes of the Collected Short Stories, for example – I
could never lay my hands on. They did, apparently, exist, but only in very
limited editions that quickly became scarce. Too bad Vintage dropped these
covers so soon. The vintage photographs are strikingly evocative and suggestive.
Not all of them are of equal quality, of course. But there are very few
disappointments (e.g. Cakes and Ale)
and many perennial favourites (e.g. the first and the third volumes of Collected Short Stories, The Gentleman in the Parlour, Christmas Holiday, Points of View, Far Eastern Tales).
P.S. The only drawback of
this series is the tradition to quote other writers on the front cover. Who
cares that Maugham is “a writer of great dedication” according to Graham Greene
or “the modern writer who has influenced me most” according to George Orwell? The
back covers – except for yet another repetition of the vacuous quotes – are
well done. The photo that graces every one of them is among the finest ever taken
of Maugham.
3rd
series: Vintage Classics, 2001-2004.
Except for Up at the Villa, which was published in
2004 (and has some traces of colour), these wonderful examples of monochrome
dullness seem to have appeared at the same time as the infinitely superior
design with the contemporary photographs. I wonder who was the bright mind at Vintage who suggested the change. Up at
the Villa is, indeed, a very strong contender in “The Ugliest Book Cover I
Have Ever Seen” category. Fortunately for posterity, very few titles appeared
with this design. Evidently somebody at Vintage still had eyes to see and guts
to speak.
4th
series: Vintage Classics, c. 2010.
This is the current design.
Its range is vast: from misguided and misleading parties in the “roaring
twenties” style (e.g. The Narrow Corner,
Christmas Holiday) to garishly
overdressed ladies from “the smart set” (e.g. all four volumes of Collected Short Stories) to vague abstract
compositions (e.g. The Vagrant Mood, Points of View). None of these do I find
in any way relevant to Maugham’s works. Many covers fall between the
aforementioned categories, but that doesn’t make them less baffling (e.g. The Summing Up, Up at the Villa) or less ugly (Theatre,
The Merry-go-round). With the
possible exception of Cakes and Ale, On a Chinese Screen and Don Fernando, this series consists of
one dud after another. Well, at least no fewer that 31 titles (28 of them
unique) are still in print. Scorned by the highbrows, critics and readers
alike, Maugham is still in demand by the reading public at large.
PS Note that this edition of Short Stories is the same selection by
Antony Curtis as first published by Reinhardt in
1990. Sadly, the original introduction by Mr Curtis is missing in the
Vintage reprints. Why? You tell me.
Vintage
oddities
These are mostly movie
tie-ins, plus some miscellaneous editions. No noticeable improvement over the
last two series – except, perhaps, for The
Painted Veil.
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