Last year I posted these two interesting French editions of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian from the early 1950s. Back then foreign publishers, once they acquired the rights, usually had their own artists create the covers, likely because it was too much bother to ship over the original artwork and recreate the whole thing all over again, wasting time and money. Remember, there was no internet or overnight delivery back then. Things weren’t as easy as sending some graphics files as an email attachment and altering the text or size.
When the books were re-released in France in 1973, the same was true.
The French translation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe remains the same: The Lion and the White Sorceress, which, admittedly, still sounds more elegant than the original title. Both pictures retain a juvenality, but this time it’s less charming and more like a comic book. I see a little Jack Davis, even, in the Prince Caspian cover. It’s busy and energetic, but also veers on parody with the googly eyes on the trees and dwarves, implying a lot of goofy, good-natured fun.
Now, Prince Caspian does have its moments of playfulness, but overall it’s a downer of a book, what with the Pevensies returning to find their former home in ruins and all the magical creatures gone and Caspian’s literal flight for his life. He wouldn’t be grinning so cheerfully as he sets off into the wild. He looks even sillier in the Medieval Germanic costume the artist put him in with its puffy shorts.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe fares better, but again, looks kind of cheap. There was no scene in the book, either, where the witch appears dramatically on a pinnacle and looks down on her foes. I can understand the artist’s decision to go for a dramatic effect, but technically it’s a bait and switch.
