As with most popular and prolific authors, Elizabeth Goudge’s books have suffered from their share of terrible covers over the years. What were the publishers thinking? Here are some of my guesses…
Okay, how are we going to sell this new Goudge novel? Cathedral? Clergymen? Forget them.Let’s focus on that scrumptious actress! I see her as a sort of late Victorian Marilyn type.
Oh, and remember that scene where she really lets her hair down and seduces businessmen in the woods?No?
Now, we need to punch up the color scheme a bit.I think that orange and green are really attractive together, don’t you?
That’ll pull them in! And how about adding bright blue and putting in some volcanoes?There are volcanoes in New Zealand, right?
That dress is to die for. Let’s come up with some more really great outfits.I think raingear is always so stylish.
Or how about the gamine look?
Excellent colors on that one too, I love mustard yellow and royal blue.And how about naked? Naked is good, especially if the book is about Puritans.
Now, we’re a bit lacking in the masculine department. Let’s put in some men, but make sure they have grim, forbidding expressions.Why? Because men are SERIOUS.
And let’s finish off with a spooky sort of paranormal vibe.We don’t want those kids to be able to sleep at night, do we?
I do hope you’re not put off reading these books by the covers, because really they have very little to do with the contents! Fortunately, there are also some truly lovely covers to take away the bad taste of the ones above. Here are some of my favorites.
Do you have any covers you love to hate? Or that deserve our admiration? Please share them with us, and don’t forget to link up your own EGRW posts on the Intro page.
The Emerald City Book Review Archive 
Those first two covers make the book sound like one of those cliched Denise Robbins style romances. No wonder I have never read these books. Truly awful!
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That's why I don't get these choices — the people who like the covers wouldn't like the books, and vice versa.
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Elizabeth Goudge has suffered grievously at the hands of bad cover artists. The seventies paperback reprints are especially awful depicting characters wearing anachronistic clothes. On some covers it is impossible to identify which character is being depicted. It is such a shame because clearly many reader will have been put off reading her simply because of the misleading covers. I cannot read a book with an ugly cover, it spoils my enjoyment. I have managed to track down some beautiful editions including the lovely Scent of Water you show here and also a lovely copy of The Eliots of Damerosehay. I particularly like the edition of A City of Bells which you posted yesterday.
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Thank goodness there are some sensitive and talented artists at work as well as the ridiculously bad ones.
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I like the "Edwardian actress" on the cover of City of Bells, and the creepster looking in at her. I didn't know what book that belonged to–at my library, it's on the cover of a Christmas anthology, and I had sort of thought it was Sally of the Eliot chronicles. Not that Sally would be caught dead wearing that outfit either.That nice Dean's Watch cover, though, is here on my desk! I finished it yesterday.
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A Christmas anthology? That is even weirder. No wonder you couldn't tell what it was supposed to be! The artist's rendering of Felicity's "sunflower" hair is also, um, interesting.
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Also that large print edition of the Rosemary Tree cover–dude looks just like Tristan/the 5th Doctor in disguise as a clergyman.
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The Doctor does get around.
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They are truly awful! I've just finished Gentian Hill and the cover is charming despite the clothes being completely wrong for the period.
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Historical inaccuracy is regrettable, but all-out hideousness should just not be allowed.
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This post really made me laugh. Some of these covers are so bad they are actually very good.I think that The Herb of Grace cover is not so bad.
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Good for a laugh, yes!
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I thought Georgette Heyer suffered from the worst covers, but I see I was wrong! I also have that lovely cover of The Dean's Watch.
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Lucky you! My copy is missing the dustjacket, but no cover art is better than some of these.
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Ahahahaha, my eyes are burning!I always wonder, will people in the future look back at the design conventions of today and talk about how tacky and awful they are? Cause I think a lot of book covers these days are crazy beautiful!
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Good question! It's hard for me to think that anyone ever considered some of these attractive, but I suppose it's possible.
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Oh wow, those are some "interesting" choices for covers! I loved reading your commentary on them though. That makes all the bad covers worthwhile. 😀
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Yes, at least we can have some fun with them.
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Omigosh, you managed to find some truly dreadfulcovers of some of my favorite books! I could only shake my head at the City of Bells covers – do the cover designers even read the books?
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Apparently not, or else they have a very different experience of them than I do.
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