Paperback 1085: Frenchman's Creek / Daphne du Maurier (Pocket Books 50078)

 Paperback 1085: Pocket Books 50078 (6th ptg, 1964)

Title: Frenchman's Creek

Author: Daphne du Maurier

Cover artist: [Mort Engle?] [Uncredited]

Condition: 7/10

Value: $5

[Riverow Books, Owego, NY, May 2024]

Best things about this cover: 

• When they're underpaying you for your artwork and you're like, "Fuck it, I'm making this one 65% white bedsheet. You want naked ladies and piratical finery, Pay Me!"
• Even the cover copy writer seems to be quiet-quitting: "Let's see. How 'bout: 'This is a novel about this kind of person and that kind of person'? ... yeah, that's good, lunchtime."
• What the hell is on her head. He's got the classic pirate kerchief, but she ... I don't know what she has. Some kind of feathered headdress. It's like she's on a Vegas showgirl on a quick break. "Ma chérie, can't you take off this silly h—" "Can it, Pierre, I've only got 15 minutes, let's do this!"
• I want this cover to be by Mort Engle, only because I can see a signature on the far left side, on the edge of the bed, that kinda looks like "Engle." It's not exactly his style, but it is his general era. Most of his stuff doesn't have a visible signature, though, so ... maybe not. [UPDATE: it’s probably the work of artist James Neil Boyle. (signatures match)]

Best things about this back cover: 

• LOL "fat and stupid husband," yes, do not mince words, drag him!
• Mmm, lonely and mysterious Cornwall estate. Peak Gothic locale.
• Whoa, she actually becomes a pirate! Livin' outside the "bounds of convention and propriety!" Atta girl!

Page 123~

The foolish wager of the wig came to her mind, and she realized then that the Frenchman must have known that Godolphin would be staying with Philip Rashleigh in Fowey that night, and that side by side with the capture of the ship he had planned the seizing of Godolphin's wig.

OK, first of all, that "Godolphin" / "Philip Rashleigh" / "Fowey" trifecta had me howling with fanciful historical-romance name overload, and second of all, how is this novel not called The Seizing of Godolphin's Wig. Something should be called The Seizing of Godolphin's Wig. It's a Restoration-era sex farce at the very least.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and BlueSky]

Paperback 552:Treasure Island / Robert Louis Stevenson (Pocket Books 25)

Paperback 552: Pocket Books 25 (1st ptg, 1939)

Title: Treasure Island
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $25

Best things about this cover:

• This book is from the very first year of mass-market paperback publishing. You can see the original super-nerdy Kangaroo logo for Pocket Books semi-camouflaged in front of the treasure chest.
• The condition on this book, given its age, is astonishing. The original permagloss is almost completely intact, the spine uncreased and square, the colors bold and vibrant. For a 73-yr-old paperback, it's exquisite.
• I don't think you're supposed to wear puffy pirate pants with trainers.

Best things about this back cover:

• "R.L.S."! I didn't know he was *known* by his initials. I thought that was just a stupid crosswordism. Revelation!

Page 123~

For it was not only a piece of stout, seamanly good feeling; it was good policy besides, and showed our enemies that we despised their cannonade. 

I'm not sure what one can add to "seamanly good feeling."

~RP

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Paperback 381: Lord Johnnie / Leslie Turner White (Pocket Books 7010)

Paperback 381: Pocket Books 7010 (7th ptg, 1961)

Title: Lord Johnnie
Author: Leslie Turner White
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Yours for: SOLD!! (1-11-11)


Best things about this cover:

• This is a book about a middle-aged woman fed up with her adult son who won't move out of the house and get a job already: "Lord, Johnnie, I am sick and tired finding your hoop earrings all over my damn house."
• Did I say "adult son?" I meant "flamboyantly gay adult son ... who is really into community theater."
• "Live pink or die, bitches!"

Best things about this back cover:

• Look, all the sword-into-noose imagery in the world is not going to make me believe that guy on the front cover likes to fuck women.

Page 123~

Not over fourteen, he had the look of a crazed ewe, and every sound in the prison set his thin body to quaking.

Every once in a while, Page 123 pays off very, very big. Is he quaking in fear or sexual excitement. I guess I just have to imagine how a crazed ewe would react if she were in prison ... yes, that works.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Paperback 257: Pirate Wench / Frank Shay (Pyramid Giant G75)

Paperback 257: Pyramid Giant G75 (1st ptg, 1953)

Title: Pirate Wench
Author: Frank Shay
Cover artist: uncredited

Yours for: SOLD (July '09)


Best things about this cover:

• Catherine Zeta-Jones stars in ... "Braless Zombie II: Zombie's Revenge"
• As I scanned this image, the Violent Femmes "Prove My Love" was playing on iTunes. It contains the lyric, "... we've all been through some shit." In the case of Pirate Wench, this appears to be literally true. Who draws their braless heroine with brown stink lines emanating from her body?
• "Outlove?!" "Outfuck" really works better here. It's more alliterative. And, I'm guessing, more accurate.
  
• Shirtless man: "I have a gun ... and yet I am powerless to resist her magical pirate dance."
• Shirtless man: "I wonder where I can get a shirt like that ... I'm tired of the crew teasing me about how manly and ungay I look"

Best things about this back cover:

• If you like your sex "raw" and "blood-stained," you'll love "Pirate Wench!"
• " ... a night below deck": That is one, tough, tiring way to "win men's allegiance." How is one woman supposed to put a whole crew together. No wonder this book is "raw" and "blood-stained."
• She's pro-vocative. Screw you, ablative!

Page 123~

There were nine pirates captured and there were nine gibbets; no one about to go on trial would be found not guilty.

"No one ... would be found not guilty." Is that litotes? (Def: A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite, as in This is no small problem.) Pretty fucking uppity for pirate smut.

~RP

P.S. A Portuguese reader (yes, I have one) sent me a link to the following book cover: a Portuguese version of Gil Brewer's "Wild to Possess" (you can see part of the American cover in my header, between "Pop" and "Sensation" ... the redhead w/ the gun). Very cool to see pulpy covers redone for foreign markets.