Bookcover Series Sam Willger
Andrea Wetrzberger Typography 02 Spring 2010
Objectives
Develop series of design directions Develop a compound word /concept and visual toolkit (mood board) to match Write audience persona
Design three different bookjackets for the same book, each book will have a different dominate focus, be executed in a different style and each will be for a different audience profile. For ONE of your final covers you will also design the end papers (pattern, color, image), title page and the first spread (type only). Process book will contain all research, studies, explorations, refinements and final solutions
Dominate Focus
Type Dominate / no images, no illustrations. Type Dominate can be hand drawn, hand manipulated, computer or computer manipulated type. You can use flourishes, symbols, on any of the covers.
Image Dominate / photo or illustration, original or found, with sensitivity to type. Dominate must use a font off the font list.
Designer’s Choice / Designer’s choice uses whatever work.
The Virgin Suicides
Author bio: Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1960. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and received an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Stanford University in 1986. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published to acclaim in 1993. It has been translated into 34 different languages and made into a feature film. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, Best American Short Stories, The Gettysberg Review, and Granta’s “Best Young American Novelists.” Eugenides is the recipient of many awards. After several years in Berlin, Eugenides now lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his wife and daughter.
Jeffrey Eugenides
Short synopsis: In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters - beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighbor boys - commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family’s fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death. Jeffrey Eugenides evokes the emotions of youth with haunting sensitivity and dark humor and creates a coming-ofage story unlike any of our time.
Quotes from a character: “But it was always the same: their white faces drifting in slow motion past us, while we pretended we hadn’t been looking for them at all, that we didn’t know they existed.” “We just want to live. If anyone would let us.” “After denuding the trunk, the men left to denude others, and for a time the tree stood blighted, trying to raise its stunted arms, a creature clubbed mute, only its sudden voicelessness making us realize it had been speaking all along.”
Other books by Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex (2002) Feeling of the book: lonely, dramatic, mysterious, depressing, dark, gloomy, disturbing, hopeless, troubling, sorrow, puzzling, gruesome. Message of the book: The message of this book is that things are not always what they appear. The Lisbon sisters seemed to be happy and bright but they were really lonely and depressed.
Protagonists are: The Lisbon girls are pure and viewed as untouchable and attempt suicide. Antagonists are: The Lisbon parents isolate and suppress their girls which they thought was best for them.
Why did I pick this book to redesign? Because while the cover is already intriguing it is also confusing and could be simplified.
The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao
Author bio: Díaz was born in Villa Juana, a neighborhood in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He was the third child in a family of five. Throughout most of his early childhood, he lived with his mother and grandparents while his father worked in the United States. Díaz emigrated to Parlin, New Jersey in December 1974, where he was re-united with his father. There he lived less than a mile from what he has described as “one of the largest landfills in New Jersey”. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker magazine, which listed him as one of the 20 top writers for the 21st century. He is best known for his two major works: the short story collection Drown (1996) and the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007). Both were published to critical acclaim and he won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the latter.
Junot Diaz
Short synopsis: The book chronicles both the life of Oscar de Leon, an overweight Dominican boy growing up in Paterson, New Jersey who is obsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels and with falling in love, as well as the curse that has plagued his family for generations. The middle sections of the novel center on the lives of Oscar’s runaway sister, Lola; his mother, Hypatia Belicia Cabral; and his grandfather, Abelard. Rife with footnotes, science fiction and fantasy references, comic book analogies, and various Spanish dialects, the novel is also a meditation on story-telling, the Dominican diaspora and identity, masculinity, and oppression.
Quotes from a character: “It’s never the changes we want that change everything.” “Nothing more exhilarating ... than saving yourself by the simple act of waking.” “But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.”
Other books by author: Drown (1996) Feeling of the book: Bizarre, twisted, troubling, depressing, cursed, odd, unexpected, unnatural, misfortunate, shocking, betrayal, rare. Message of the book: A lot of people think that they have a hard life, but you never really know how troubling other peoples lives are.
Protagonists are: Oscar a loner that uses his past to explain is upbringing. Antagonists are: Oscars family tree and the events that lead to his death.
Why did I pick this book to redesign? I like the original cover I would like to be more reflective of the novel.
A Farwell to Arms
Author bio: Ernest Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy and understatement, influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and public image. He produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Hemingway’s fiction was successful because the characters he presented exhibited authenticity that resonated with his audience. Many of his works are classics of American literature. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works during his lifetime; a further three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously.
Earnest Hemingway
Short synopsis: Henry, an American ambulance driver in WWI falls in love with Catherine Barkley. He becomes injured she nurses him back to health. The war is getting worst he abandons the war to live a quite life Catherine. She has a still born and dies later that night. Henry walks to his hotel in the rain.
Quotes from a character: “We’re going to have a strange life.” “I kissed her and saw that her eyes were shut. I kissed both her shut eyes. I thought she was probably a little crazy. It was all right if she was. I did not care what I was getting into. “I went out the door and suddenly I felt lonely and empty. I had treated seeing Catherine very lightly. I had gotten somewhat drunk and had nearly forgotten to come but when I could not see her there I was feeling lonely and hollow.”
Other books by author: The Old Man and the Sea For Whom the Bell Tolls The Sun Also Rises Feeling of the book: Passionate, hardship, emotional, war time, lose, love, abandonment, betray, rebirth, intensity, traumatic, surprising. Message of the book: Some believe in what goes around comes around. By Henry abandoning the war he is unable to have a family. A message would be to expect the unexpected.
Protagonists are: Henry and Catherine are lovers and just want to live a peaceful life. Antagonists are: WWI and the German’s are preventing them from being together.
Why did I pick this book to redesign? This cover looks out dated and the hierarchy focuses on Ernest’s name.
This Means That
Sign: is always produced and consumed in the context of the specific society that creates them. Sources of signing the first is natural and the second conventional.
Sean Hall
Index: is used in a special sense to mean literally any sign where there is an arbitrary relationship between signifier and signified.
Symbol: any sign where there is an arbitrary relationship between signifier and signified.
Personas
Julia is a 17 year old high school girl who loves reading about psychology or how the brain works. Instead of falling asleep like many of her class members Julia occupies her time by reading about depression and anti-social disorders. After reading such books she becomes even more out going around friends so she does not become like one of the characters in her books. Julia also enjoys people watching not in a creepy way but more in a curious and observing way. She wonders why people do what they do, for example, she is puzzled why some boys run to the cafateria when they know that they are going to have to wait in a line anyways. One day, while searching for another book in the library the librarian notices her and recommends The Virgin Suicides. The librarian thought that Julia would find the book interesting becasue she could relate to it and be left wondering if the sisters in the noval had mental disorders.
For The Virgin Suicides
Mary is a 30 year old mother who enjoys english novels. One day, Mary spots her daughter, Leah, reading a bookfor school and inquires about it. After hearing that it a was about five sisters Mary decides to pick up a copy herself. (A sidenote about Mary is that she too had five sisters.) Later Mary travels to the public library to retrieve the book. When Mary finishes the novel she is shocked at the actions that the sisters took while coming of age. She then returns to her daughter and questions her if she is happy. From that day on Mary and Leah’s mother to daughter bond was strengthened because they could both relate to the mother and the sisters in the noval.
Judy grew up in a small town in Iowa where nothing ever happened. Every week was the same. Monday mow the lawn, Tuesday take out trash,...Friday go to the football game. The neighborhoods were always quiet and the only poeple that came to the town were locals or just driving through. Also another thing about her small town was that everyone knew everything about everyone else. Judy’s mother and a neighbor would gossip over the phone for hours as she drank coffee in the morning. When Judy got some free time she read gothic novels. Ones that were dark and twisted which was bizzare because she was a very kind hearted child.
What is working
Wow, I think that the composition is far to busy and the typeface is on a arch and the hierarchy is lost.
For some reason I was drawn to this cover. It is very unique and even though its a little hard to read it has a content for the viewer.
I don’t think that the typeface outline is very strong and the overlapping with the background is too busy.
Traditional
New / Contemporary
Old / Vintage
Futuristic
Dark / Mysterious
Romantic / Fantasy
Juxtaposed
Cropped
Framed / Boarder
Layered
Title as Label
Type Explorations
Type Explorations
Type Explorations
Patterns
Visuals
Patters / color / palettes / images / design
Word List
suicide / the intentional taking of one’s own life. confuse / to make unclear or indistinct pure young modest uptight unaware maturity boys hardship shock loss parent dim
private secret isolated reserved exclusive quiet grim sorrowful hopeless dejected lost hurt
dark twisted strange lonely adolescent tragedy adolescent memoir love family mystery girls dull
depressing religious symbolic weird sad hidden suicide unknown surprise confuse death unhappy heartbroken
death / the state of being dead adolescent / growing to manhood or womanhood grim / of a sinister or ghastly characte mature / fully developed in body or mind, as a person unaware / not aware or conscious shock / a sudden or violent disturbance tragedy / dreadful, or fatal event or affair isolated / detach or separate so as to be alone
Studies Mind Map confused
adolescent death
lost
hurt heartbroken
tragedy Sisters
young
Neighbor boys
shocked
The Virgin Suicieds
Parents unknown
modest
Concept Map depressing
strange
The Virgin Suicides
ters he sis
T Kill themselves caused by
the
pare n
ts
modest
confused unknown
depression loneliness
The
the neighbors are boys
caused hurt
religious
Confused / Isolation
Good design:
is innovative makes a product useful is aesthetic makes a product understandable is unobtrusive is honest is long-lasting is thorough, down to the last detail is environmentally-friendly is as little design as possible
Compound Word
Type Studies
The Virgin Suicides
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As an ambulance arrives for the body of Mary Lisbon, the final Lisbon suicide, a group of neighborhood boys recalls the events of the past thirteen months. It is June in suburbia, school is out, and summer has begun. Cecilia Lisbon, who at thirteen is the youngest of five cherubic Lisbon sisters slits her wrists while taking a bath. Her life is saved, but the hospital psychiatrist recommends that she be given a social outlet outside of school. Mr. Lisbon and Mrs. Lisbon allow the girls to throw a chaperoned party, at which Cecilia seems oblivious to her sisters and to the neighborhood boys who come as guests. Just as the party's awkwardness begins to abate, Cecilia asks to be excused. Ascending to her bedroom, she jumps out the window onto the fence below, and dies instantly.
The Virgin Suicides
As an ambulance arrives for the body of Mary Lisbon, the final Lisbon suicide, a group of neighborhood boys recalls the events of the past thirteen months. It is June in suburbia, school is out, and summer has begun. Cecilia Lisbon, who at thirteen is the youngest of five cherubic Lisbon sisters slits her wrists while taking a bath. Her life is saved, but the hospital psychiatrist recommends that she be given a social outlet outside of school. Mr. Lisbon and Mrs. Lisbon allow the girls to throw a chaperoned party, at which Cecilia seems oblivious to her sisters and to the neighborhood boys who come as guests. Just as the party's awkwardness begins to abate, Cecilia asks to be excused. Ascending to her bedroom, she jumps out the window onto the fence below, and dies instantly.
The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides
The Virgin Suicides
Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Eugenides, a young American novelist and short story writer, studied at Brown and Stanford and has taught in the creative writing program at Princeton. He first gained acclaim as a young graduate in the mid-1980s for his screenwriting, when he won a Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1986. He has since become known for his shorter fiction, featured in Granta, Conjunctions, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Yale Review, and The Best American Short Stories, and for his first novel, The Virgin Suicides, published in 1993.
As an ambulance arrives for the body of Mary Lisbon, the final Lisbon suicide, a group of neighborhood boys recalls the events of the past thirteen months. It is June in suburbia, school is out, and summer has begun. Cecilia Lisbon, who at thirteen is the youngest of five cherubic Lisbon sisters slits her wrists while taking a bath. Her life is saved, but the hospital psychiatrist recommends that she be given a social outlet outside of school. Mr. Lisbon and Mrs. Lisbon allow the girls to throw a chaperoned party, at which Cecilia seems oblivious to her sisters and to the neighborhood boys who come as guests. Just as the party's awkwardness begins to abate, Cecilia asks to be excused. Ascending to her bedroom, she jumps out the window onto the fence below, and dies instantly.
The Virgin Suicides
Jeffrey Eugenides, a young American novelist and short story writer, studied at Brown and Stanford and has taught in the creative writing program at Princeton. He first gained acclaim as a young graduate in the mid-1980s for his screenwriting, when he won a Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1986. He has since become known for his shorter fiction, featured in Granta, Conjunctions, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Yale Review, and The Best American Short Stories, and for his first novel, The Virgin Suicides, published in 1993.
Jeffrey Eugenides
The Virgin Suicides
Jeffrey Eugenides
The Virgin Suicides
Sketches
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Author: Jeffery Eugenides Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication date: 1993
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As an ambulance arrives for the body of Mary Lisbon, the final Lisbon suicide, a group of neighborhood boys recalls the events of the past thirteen months. It is June in suburbia, school is out, and summer has begun. Cecilia Lisbon, who at thirteen is the youngest of five cherubic Lisbon sisters slits her wrists while taking a bath. Her life is saved, but the hospital psychiatrist recommends that she be given a social outlet outside of school. Mr. Lisbon and Mrs. Lisbon allow the girls to throw a chaperoned party, at which Cecilia seems oblivious to her sisters and to the neighborhood boys who come as guests. Just as the party's awkwardness begins to abate, Cecilia asks to be excused. Ascending to her bedroom, she jumps out the window onto the fence elow, and dies instantly.
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The VIRGIN Suicides
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Jeffrey Eugenides
"We just want to live. If anyone would let us."
The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides
“Humour prevails throughout but doesn’t deflate the disturbing elements of the tale”
“A subtle and ingenious talent”
VIRGIN
“A subtle and ingenious talent” “Weaves a sinuous spell ... shot through with sneaky black humour ... intoxicating”
“Weaves a sinuous spell ... shot through with sneaky black humour ... intoxicating”
THE
The Virgin Suicides
The Virgin Suicides
“Humour prevails throughout but doesn’t deflate the disturbing elements of the tale”
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
Jeffrey Eugenides
Refined Sketches
SUICIDES
THE VIRGIN "We just want to live. If anyone would let us."
THE VIRGIN
SUICIDES
Jeffrey Eugenides
“Humour prevails throughout but doesn’t deflate the disturbing elements of the tale”
“A subtle and ingenious talent” “Weaves a sinuous spell ... shot through with sneaky black humour ... intoxicating”
Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Eugenides
SUICIDES
“A subtle and ingenious talent” “A subtle and ingenious talent” “Weaves a sinuous spell ... shot through with sneaky black humour ... intoxicating” “Weaves a sinuous spell ... shot through with sneaky black humour ... intoxicating” “Humour prevails throughout but doesn’t deflate the disturbing elements of the tale” “Humour prevails throughout but doesn’t deflate the disturbing elements of the tale”
Jeffrey Eugenides
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
THE VIRGIN
Jeffrey Eugenides
The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are emblamed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who now recall their shared adolescence: the brassiere draped over a crucifix belonging to the promiscuous Lux; the sisters’ breathtaking appearence on the night of the dance; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched a family distegrate and fragile lives disappear.
The Virgin Suicides
Jeffrey Eugenides
The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are emblamed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who now recall their shared adolescence: the brassiere draped over a crucifix belonging to the promiscuous Lux; the sisters’ breathtaking appearence on the night of the dance; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched a family distegrate and fragile lives disappear.
The Virgin Suicides
The Virgin Suicides
Refined Sketches
THE VIRGIN
ONE
SUICIDES
Jeffrey Eugenides
On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Terese -the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope. They got out of the EMS truck, as usual moving much too slowly in our opinion, and the fat one said under his breath, “This ain’t TV, folks, this is how fast we go.” He was carrying the heavy respirator and cardiac unit past the bushes that had grown monstrous and over the erupting lawn, tame and immaculate thirteen months earlier when the trouble began. Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrist like a Stoic while taking a bath, and when they found her, afloat in her pink pool, with the yellow eyes of someone possessed and her small body giving off the odor of a mature woman, the paramedics had been so frightened by her tranquillity that
JEFFREY EUGENIDES
1
On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Terese -the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope. They got out of the EMS truck, as usual moving much too slowly in our opinion, and the fat one said under his breath, “This ain’t TV, folks, this is how fast we go.” He was carrying the heavy respirator and cardiac unit past the bushes that had grown monstrous and over the erupting lawn, tame and immaculate thirteen months earlier when the trouble began. Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrist like a Stoic while taking a bath, and when they found her, afloat in her pink pool, with the yellow eyes of someone possessed and her small body giving off the odor of a mature woman, the paramedics had been so frightened by her tranquillity that
“Humour prevails throughout but doesn’t deflate the disturbing elements of the tale”
JEFFREY EUGENIDES
“A subtle and ingenious talent”
“Humour prevails throughout but doesn’t deflate the disturbing elements of the tale”
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES JEFFREY EUGENIDES
“Weaves a sinuous spell ... shot through with sneaky black humour ... intoxicating”
“Weaves a sinuous spell ... shot through with sneaky black humour ... intoxicating”
The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are emblamed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who now recall their shared adolescence: the brassiere draped over a crucifix belonging to the promiscuous Lux; the sisters’ breathtaking appearence on the night of the dance; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched a family distegrate and fragile lives disappear.
JEFFREY EUGENIDES
“A subtle and ingenious talent”
The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are emblamed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who now recall their shared adolescence: the brassiere draped over a crucifix belonging to the promiscuous Lux; the sisters’ breathtaking appearence on the night of the dance; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched a family distegrate and fragile lives disappear.
"We just want to live. If anyone would let us."
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
Sketches / Title Page
Title Page
the virgin suicides
one
THE VIRGIN
SUICIDES Jeffrey Eugenides
On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Terese -the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope. They got out of the EMS truck, as usual moving much too slowly in our opinion, and the fat one said under his breath, “This ain’t TV, folks, this is how fast we go.” He was carrying the heavy respirator and cardiac unit past the bushes that had grown monstrous and over the erupting lawn, tame and immaculate thirteen months earlier when the trouble began. Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrist like a Stoic while taking a bath, and when they found her, afloat in her pink pool, with the yellow eyes of someone possessed and her small body giving off the odor of a mature woman, the paramedics had been so frightened by her tranquillity that
ONE
jeffrey eugenides
On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Terese -the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope. They got out of the EMS truck, as usual moving much too slowly in our opinion, and the fat one said under his breath, “This ain’t TV, folks, this is how fast we go.” He was carrying the heavy respirator and cardiac unit past the bushes that had grown monstrous and over the erupting lawn, tame and immaculate thirteen months earlier when the trouble began. Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrist like a Stoic while taking a bath, and when they found her, afloat in her pink pool, with the yellow eyes of someone possessed and her small body giving off the odor of a mature woman, the paramedics had been so frightened by her tranquillity that
THE VIRGIN
SUICIDES
Jeffrey Eugenides
1 ONE On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Terese -the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope. They got out of the EMS truck, as usual moving much too slowly in our opinion, and the fat one said under his breath, “This ain’t TV, folks, this is how fast we go.” He was carrying the heavy respirator and cardiac unit past the bushes that had grown monstrous and over the erupting lawn, tame and immaculate thirteen months earlier when the trouble began. Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrist like a Stoic while taking a bath, and when they found her, afloat in her pink pool, with the yellow eyes of someone possessed and her small body giving off the odor of a mature woman, the paramedics had been so frightened by her tranquillity that
THE VIRGIN
SUICIDES Jeffrey Eugenides
On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Terese -the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope. They got out of the EMS truck, as usual moving much too slowly in our opinion, and the fat one said under his breath, “This ain’t TV, folks, this is how fast we go.” He was carrying the heavy respirator and cardiac unit past the bushes that had grown monstrous and over the erupting lawn, tame and immaculate thirteen months earlier when the trouble began. Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrist like a Stoic while taking a bath, and when they found her, afloat in her pink pool, with the yellow eyes of someone possessed and her small body giving off the odor of a mature woman, the paramedics had been so frightened by her tranquillity that
Final Type Based
The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are emblamed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who now recall their shared adolescence: the brassiere draped over a crucifix belonging to the promiscuous Lux; the sisters’ breathtaking appearence on the night of the dance; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched a family distegrate and fragile lives disappear.
The V rg n Su c des
“A subtle and ingenious talent”
The V rg n Su c des Jeffrey Eugen des
“Humour prevails throughout but doesn’t deflate the disturbing elements of the tale”
Jeffrey Eugen des
Title Page
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
THE VIRGIN
ONE
SUICIDES
Jeffrey Eugenides
On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills , like Terese -the two paramedics arrive d at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope. They got out of the EMS truck, as usual moving much too slowly in our opinion, and the fat one sai d unde r his breath, “Thi s ain’ t TV, folks, this is how fast we go. ” He was carrying the heavy respirator and cardiac unit past the bushes that had grown monstrous and over the erupting lawn, tame and immaculate thirteen months earlier when the trouble began. C ecilia , the younge st, only thirteen , had gone first, slittin g her wris t like a Stoic while taking a bath, and when they foun d her , afloat in her pink pool, with the yellow eyes of someone possessed and her small body giving off the odor of a mature woman, the paramedics had been so frightened by her tranquillity that
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Final Type / Image Based
The Virgin Suicides
The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides
"We just want to live. If anyone would let us."
The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Eugenides
Title Page
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
The Virgin Suicides
1
Jeffrey Eugenides On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills , like Terese -the two paramedics arrive d at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope. They got out of the EMS truck , as usual movin g much too slowly in our opinion , and the fat one sai d unde r his breath, “Thi s ain’ t TV, folks, this is how fast we go. ” He was carrying the heavy respirato r and cardiac unit past the bushe s that had grown monstrous and over the erupting lawn, tame and immaculate thirteen months earlier when the trouble began. Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrist like a Stoic while taking a bath, and when they found her, afloat in her pink pool, with the yellow eyes of someone possessed and her small body giving off the odor of a mature woman, the paramedics had been so frightened by her tranquillity that
1
Final Nirvana Based
SUICIDES
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
THE VIRGIN
THE VIRGIN
SUICIDES
“Humour prevails throughout but doesn’t deflate the disturbing elements of the tale”
Jeffrey Eugenides
“We just want to live. If anyone would let us. ”
Jeffrey Eugenides “A subtle and ingenious talent”
Jeffrey Eugenides
Title Page
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
one
THE VIRGIN
SUICIDES Jeffrey Eugenides
On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills , like Terese -the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope. They got out of the EMS truck , as usual movin g much too slowly in our opinion , and the fat one said unde r his breath, “Thi s ain’ t TV, folks, thi s is how fast we go.” He was carrying the heavy respirato r and cardiac unit past the bushes that had grown monstrous and over the erupting lawn, tame and immaculate thirteen months earlier when the trouble began. Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrist like a Stoic while taking a bath, and when they found her, afloat in her pink pool, with the yellow eyes of someone possessed and her small body giving off the odo r of a matur e woman, the paramedics had bee n so frightene d by her tranquillity that
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