Cartoonists Cover the Classics

An advertisement in today's New York Times Book Review alerted me to this series of "Deluxe Edition" Penguin Classics, featuring covers by a stellar line-up of cartoonists:

• Voltaire's Candide- cover by Chris Ware


• Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm- cover by Roz Chast


• Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales- cover by Anders Nilsen


• Upton Sinclair's The Jungle- cover by Charles Burns


• Paul Auster's New York Trilogy- cover by Art Spiegelman


• The Portable Dorothy Parker- cover by Seth

I'd already heard about the Candide, but the others were news to me. These are books which should grace everyone's shelves anyway; and these covers add gorgeous, graphic icing on some top-choice literary cakes. Time to update those wish lists!