There's been a discussion, over on random jottings , of the recent attempt by ITV to 'make things easier for a 21st century audience' by messing around with the plots and characterisation of Jane Austen's novels. But there's also been what seems to be a similar marketing ploy -- packaging the novels with what I guess are meant to be chick-lit-type covers. Now I would be the first to encourage new readers to try Austen, but are these feeble and rather unattractive designs really going to do the trick? If you just compare them with, say, Penguin or Worlds Classics, surely the more traditional ones win every time in attractiveness and appeal?
Or am I just an old fogey?