These Evergreen Library hardcover versions of The Chronicles came out in 1965. All seven books had been released by this point, but for this series, only these five were published. The cover artist was Giorgio de Gaspari. I’d never seen this artwork before and was struck by how different it was from post-1970s depictions.
For one thing, it’s in a more painterly style, one that was widely used in the 1960s for fantasy books — sort of impressionistic with the flowing brushstrokes of Renoir. The colors are a little sour and heavy on the greens and golds. The art for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is done collage style, with a grouping of elements from the books, while the Prince Caspian cover depicts the scene where Peter picks up his sword, Rhindon, that was lying forgotten in Cair Paravel’s treasure room and raises it triumphantly. Which is a bait-and-switch for the budding reader, as Peter is not the “Prince Caspian” of the title.
But often the artist isn’t to blame for the cover’s gaffes. Sometimes they have a fast turnaround and can’t read the book themselves, or were not supplied with the text from the publisher. Or were given explicit instructions to “paint some English school kid with a sword in a treasure room” and nothing else.
Anyway, I feel the covers are in the spirit of the books and not that bad even if the style is dated.
Two more. Were these done by the same artist? I have my doubts. While the ship on the cover of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader references Pauline Baynes’ original art, the cover of The Horse and His Boy... yeesh. Why is Aravis wearing a pink Medieval gown and not Middle Eastern garb as was in the book? Why is she blonde and fair and like a princess in distress… and riding Bree not Hwin… and sidesaddle at that? Shasta/Cor is wearing suspiciously English Medieval garb too, for a lad from Calormen.
The cover pic here looks like the scene toward the end of the book where Rilian, Puddleglum, Jill and Eustace are leaving the underground city on Snowflake and Coalblack (hey, the artist got that right, and the kids’ fancy clothing, and Rilian’s lion shield, you’ll notice) but that’s a normal sky up there, not the cavern of the underworld. It can’t be Narnia, because, as you’ll remember, Jill and Eustace rode satyrs from the Snowball Dance to Cair Paravel, plus there was a fresh snowfall. Oh well.
(On reviewing this post, I wonder if the sky-glow to the upper left was supposed to be reflections of the heat from the Bism crack on the cavern ceiling, and the black cloud resulting from the same. I’d have to see a higher scan of the original to be sure.)
