From A to Z, the Penguin Drop Caps series collects 26 unique
hardcovers--featuring cover art by type superstar Jessica Hische
It all begins with a letter. Fall in love with Penguin Drop Caps, a new
series of twenty-six collectible and gift-worthy hardcover editions,
each with a type cover showcasing a gorgeously illustrated letter of the
alphabet by superstar type designer Jessica Hische, whose work has
appeared everywhere from Tiffany & Co. to Wes Anderson's film Moonrise
Kingdom to Penguin's own bestsellers Committed and Rules of
Civility. A collaboration between Jessica Hische and Penguin Art
Director Paul Buckley, the series design encompasses foil-stamped
paper-over-board cases in a rainbow-hued spectrum across all twenty-six
book spines and a decorative stain on all three paper edges. Penguin
Drop Caps debuts with an "A" for Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, a
"B" for Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, and a "C" for Willa Cather's My
Ántonia, and continues with more classics from Penguin.
E is for Eliot. Considered one the masterpieces of realist fiction,
George Eliot's novel, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life,
explores a fictional nineteenth-century Midlands town in the midst of
modern changes. The proposed Reform Bill promises political change; the
building of railroads alters both the physical and cultural landscape;
new scientific approaches to medicine incite public division; and
scandal lurks behind respectability. The quiet drama of ordinary lives
and flawed choices are played out in the complexly portrayed central
characters of the novel--the idealistic Dorothea Brooke; the ambitious
Dr. Lydgate; the spendthrift Fred Vincy; and the steadfast Mary Garth.
The appearance of two outsiders further disrupts the town's
equilibrium--Will Ladislaw, the spirited nephew of Dorothea's husband,
the Rev. Edward Casaubon, and the sinister John Raffles, who threatens
to expose the hidden past of one of the town's elite. Middlemarch
displays George Eliot's clear-eyed yet humane understanding of
characters caught up in the mysterious unfolding of self-knowledge.
