Judging A Book By Its Cover: Arcturus Austens

This is my weekly post where I highlight beautiful books from my collection. We all judge book covers to some extent (don’t lie, you totally do!) I created this feature to showcase and admire the art and design elements of some of the books I own. If covers didn’t matter, publishers wouldn’t make so many wonderful editions!

The first time I came across these Arcturus classic editions was when I was on vacation in Florida. They didn’t have all the Austens at the store though – they didn’t even have Pride and Prejudice! I’m doing my best to mostly collect just Pride and if I get the other editions it has to be a full set. So I held off.

Then, this summer, when I was in Maryland, I happened upon a store carrying all six editions! You can imagine there was zero hesitation on my part before piling them into my arms and taking them to the register. Sadly, they don’t have any neat design features inside, but who cares because the covers and spines and color palettes are awesome!

Mansfield Park was actually published by Sweet Water Press in 2018 with color illustrations by Peter Gray and cover design by Peter Ridley, ISBN: 9781788881852
The other editions were all published by Arcturus in 2017 with cover designs by Beatriz Custodio
Pride and Prejudice – ISBN: 9781785996191
Sense and Sensibility – ISBN: 9781785996351
Emma – ISBN: 9781785996382
Northanger Abbey – ISBN: 9781785996375
Persuasion – ISBN: 9781785996368