The snobbish uppity Henry Higgins undertook the makeover on a bet. The bet was a bet among gentlemen and one that gentlemen would make - like betting on a horse at the Royal Ascot. In Professor Higgins' case, the bet was on a makeover. The wagered makeover was of transforming a never polished Cockney flower girl into well bred Lady.
The magical Fairy Godmother madeover the mistreated Cinderella, downtrodden by her evil stepmother and step-sisters, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drizzella. But, magically appearing, the Fairy God Mother and makes over Cinderella with a silver blue dress, footman, and carriage just in time to attend Prince Charming's Ball.
Anyway, as I sit on the divan, nodding, nearly napping, but watching CNN, loosely following headlines coming from chatty voices, and then CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien begins talking of Anne of Green Gables. Jolted by the talk of Anne of the Red Hair amid reports of riots, rebellions, and assassinations, I pinched myself to register my consciousness. Over the next several minutes, anchors Soledad O'Brien, Christine Romans, and guest Abby Huntsman pilloried the perpetrators of a new low concept of Anne as a blond vixen. The story has not changed, just the cover has morphed Anne into a hottie.
The purveyors of this feeble literary effort is CreateSpace of Amazon.com. This new book cover may catch the eye of the Harlequin set but electronic book marketing companies may as well discard all the classic book covers and re-package them with some cutie-pie.
CreateSpace is a design, editing, and marketing firm and that capitalized on the fact that Anne of Green Gables' copyright expired in 1993.
Said L.M. Montgomery scholar Irene Gammel, "It's legitimate to update the packaging of a text to make it accessible to the new readerships, but it's another matter to miss the point of a novel." She also said, "It's weird to package Ann like a soft porn star...This strategy may well backfire.
CreateSpace's fling at publishing has achieved, ingloriously, notice north and south of the border. The U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) headlined:" Anne of Green Gables gets a bad makeover." The National Post of Canada wrote: "Anne of Green Gables get sexy makeover...Canadian fans are not amused." The New York Daily News wrote: "Meet the sexy blond Anne of Green Gables." CNN gives them a public spanking.
The defect in CreateSpace's product is that it sponsors an adage it must know as true: "You can't tell a book by its cover."
The marketers at CreateSpace may well be planning an onslaught of new book covers for any book including the classics. They may be starting out at Ulysses as it is often viewed as the number one novel of all time and comes in a plain cover. They may not have to think too hard to find a new cover.
