Hasta La Ideas

The Folio Society has published illustrated editions of classic fiction titles including The Day of the Jackal, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Life, the Universe and Everything.

Each hardback book is housed in a slipcase and includes a specially commissioned introduction and original illustrations: Frederick Forsyth’s Day of the Jackal is illustrated by Tatsuro Kiuchi, Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues by Jillian Tamaki and Life, the Universe and Everything (the third title in Douglas Adams’ Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy series), by Jonathan Burton.

All three artists have worked with the Folio Society previously – Kiuchi worked on The Sea, The Sea, Tamaki on Irish Myths and Legends and Goblin Market and Selected Poems, and Burton on PD James Cover Her Face, as well as the first and second novels in the Hitchiker’s series. (He also designed some great film posters for last year’s BAFTA programmes, which you can see here).

Kiuchi’s illustrations for The Day of the Jackal are particularly striking and appear alongside, above and underneath text throughout the book, depicting key scenes, characters and objects.

Sheri Gee, an art director at The Folio Society, says she was impressed with some “suspenseful” monochrome images on Kiuchi’s website and thought they would be a great fit for Forsyth’s thriller, which was first published in 1971. “Thankfully, the Folio team and author agreed,” she says.

“We’d had an idea to integrate some of the illustrations with the text, which Tatsuro worked really well with – he showed a great ability to work with text and composition [and] his illustrations have just the right attention to detail and level of suspense,” she adds.

Also in the illustrated fiction series is a new version of The Voyage of Argo featuring illustrations by Daniel Egneus. In April, the publisher is also releasing a Letterpress Shakespeare series to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the poet and playwright’s birth. Each of Shakespeare’s plays, sonnets and poems have been reproduced in hand bound books set in 16 point Baskerville.

Burton’s illustrations for Life, the Universe and Everything

For more info on any of the titles featured or to buy a copy, visit thefoliosociety.com