Brilliant works of literary fiction with cover art to match.

A great book cover can do many things: alert the reader to the quality, style and tone of the words they are about to read, say something of the author’s taste (or tastelessness), and perhaps something of the reader’s good (or bad) judgement.

The artwork on the jacket can communicate a lot about what we are about to read. In the 1940s, Mr Alvin Lustig created book covers for Messrs Federico García Lorca, Henry Miller and Tennessee Williams that took their cue from modern art, not commercial imperative. Arguably art in their own right, the covers also said something meaningful about the work inside.

Sometimes, book covers do the opposite, such as Mr Paul Bacon’s legendary design for Mr Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. A book about masturbation, Mr Bacon wisely decided to illustrate simply with author and book name against a vibrant yellow background.

While it would be unwise to judge all books by their covers – not everyone has designers like Mr Lustig or Mr Bacon to hand – if the stars align, for-the-ages visual art will pair with a great literary work. Here are three such examples.

by Ms Olivia Laing Art: Mr Wolfgang Tillmans, Picador, UK, 2018

For Ms Olivia’s Laing’s just-published debut novel, Crudo, the author has selected a great piece of contemporary art, Mr Wolfgang Tillmans “Astro crusto” (2012) as her cover. The image – of a black fly tucking into a sumptuous seafood lunch – is not the most appetising. But it gives the reader food for thought, speaking directly to Ms Laing’s art. The 2012 photograph connects with a specific scene in the book (Ms Laing’s lead character smashes a crab with a hammer and reveals something of herself) and the book’s wider concerns of opening up emotionally. Ultimately, the cover whets the appetite for the literary feast ahead.

by Ms Hanya Yanagihara Art: Mr Peter Hujar, Doubleday, US, 2015

New York downtown artist Mr Peter Hujar’s photograph, “Orgasmic Man”, depicts a man in sexual ecstasy. So why is it the cover art for Ms Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, a novel that obsessively catalogues human cruelty? You have to get through the harrowing 700-plus pages of this Booker-shortlisted read to understand the connection. Mr Hujar’s image could as easily be of someone in excruciating anguish and A Little Life is a book all about human extremes. Pleasure and pain are the chief sensations experienced when reading Ms Yanagihara’s operatic melodrama. This is cover art that also inadvertently speaks to the book’s Marmite quality.

by Mr Bret Easton Ellis Art: Mr Marshall Arisman, Picador, UK, 1991

The author Mr Bret Easton Ellis so effectively nails his protagonist in American Psycho, Patrick Bateman, that to attempt a cover illustration of everyone’s favourite Wall Street maniac appears ill advised. But artist Mr Marshall Arisman gets right under the skin of this perfectly deranged character here, depicting Mr Bateman as a horror in a pinstripe suit. It’s clever and abstract, full bodied without spoiling it for the reader. This cover art is also incredibly in tune with its creative source; an illustration that would not look amiss on Bateman’s Upper West Side apartment wall.

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