Classic books get a chick-lit makeover

This article is from the April issue of Radar magazine. For a risk-free issue, click here.

Last January, fans of literary lioness Alice Munro were shocked to discover that The View From Castle Rock had undergone a girly redesign. Classics like Lolita and Madame Bovary have endured similar face-lifts, and if the experts are to be believed, more are on the way. "This style is what sells," says St. Martin's Press creative director Steve Snider. "And our most important task is to get people to pick up the book. Think of it as dressing up a person to go to a bar."

Which got us wondering how some other stodgy favorites would look after a Carrie Bradshaw makeover ...

(Photo: Illustrations by Monika Aichele)

Sullivan says, "Designers often crop out the head so the reader can imagine her own face on top of a model-skinny body." (In this case, Eve's.)

(Photo: Illustrations by Monika Aichele)

This cover might not scream Holocaust, but Snider finds the "cutesy, stylized caricature" almost as horrifying.

(Photo: Illustrations by Monika Aichele)

How do you sell an earnest opus about creativity and architecture? Downplay the buildings and focus on the sexy bits.

(Photo: Illustrations by Monika Aichele)

The disembodied legs might not tell you what the book's about, but then again, neither will reading it.

(Photo: Illustrations by Monika Aichele)

Chick-lit style is all about stock art. "Why spend $8,000 on a photo shoot when you can cobble together a few $200 images?" says Snider.




This article is from the April issue of Radar magazine. For a risk-free issue, click here.