French Friday is a weekly feature hosted by Charlotte at the Book on the Hill. We both live in France, so French Friday is a meme to write about Frenchy bookish things.
So, I am SUPER excited about the upcoming release of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (although I will admit to being a tad bit skeptic about some of the actor choices - ahem! Helena Bonham Carter as the White Queen, for example). As such, I've decided to dedicate this French Friday to FRENCH covers of this timeless classic!
In French, the title is translated Alice au Pays des Merveilles, which pretty much translates directly. I think it has a nice ring to it in French. :-)
My absolute favorite of the French covers I've seen is this one:
I love the fun way all of the elements of the story are combined on this cover. I wouldn't be surprised if this were also the cover of an English edition, but I've only seen it in France.
This is the one that I find the oddest:
Who is that girl on the cover supposed to be? It can't be Alice, as I'm pretty sure her description is nothing like that. It's very weird to me why they would have this image on the cover. It just seems to in no way whatsoever give a feel for the book.
Then there's this one:
Am I wrong, or is Alice portrayed as a sort-of oversized baby on this cover? I guess it's really trying to target a much younger audience.
This one seems to be going for the middle grade readers:
"Actually, I didn't know that cats could smile" is the translation of the phrase on this cover. I don't know why, but this cover to me sort of epitomizes the story.
And last:
This is actually an abridged version used to help teach English to French children and to introduce them to English culture at the same time. I personally have used it several times, and the kids absolutely adore it! I have converted many a child to Alice in Wonderland love, especially via private lessons.
I always used to love going through and looking at all of the American and British covers, so that was fun going and seeing some of the French illustrations. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Now, don't forget to go check out Charlotte's French Friday at the Book on the Hill!
A vendredi prochain!
8 comments:
O I love the first one and last one :)
Awesome idea for a French Friday !
The first one is fab. The third one is weird, like you say, it doen't fit. And the last one is beautiful.
For my birthday I got a pop-up book of Alice in Wonderland, which is awesome ! You can see the cover here and a glimpse of what the pop-ups look like here. Groovy, huh ? It's not originally French though, it's American.
The cover isn't as good as the best ones of your post though. :)
Oh, and I forgot something : Helena Bonham Carter is the Red Queen, it's Anne Hathaway who plays the White Queen. ;)
I have never seen any of these. Awesomeness
I like the last one best!
I really love the last one the most!
I like the first one best.
What a delightful post. I like the one with the Chesire cat in the tree myself.
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