Monday, June 17, 2013

Re: Life-changing books

As a rule I don't read self-help books (surprised?), so that's out, but I can't help but feel that a large portion of my life and psyche was determined by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. They've shaped my comprehension of sense and nonsense, and I'm utterly obsessed with Sir John Tenniel's illustrations.


One interesting thing I've noticed is that not all of Tenniel's illustrations are rectangular. Scattered through the books are a handful of L-shaped images, like so:

  

Obviously these images are meant to have the text flow around them and fill in the white space, as in this edition here:


But I've also seen editions in which, evidently out of carelessness, these same illustrations were treated as rectangular, and the page was left with a big empty expanse. Shame on the typesetter, I say.