Thursday, November 15, 2007

Good News for Mary Stewart Fans
























Chicago Review Press
has reissued two classic Stewart suspense novels: The Ivy Tree and Nine Coaches Waiting, with moody new covers and trade paperback formats.

While I wouldn't re-read most books simply because I saw them with different covers, Stewart's books are an exception. The cool new covers are just an excuse to read her books again, so one or both of these are going on my Christmas list.

I'm also glad to see Stewart in the trade size, since the old books I have, which may well be relics from the 60s or 70s, are hard to read in mass market size with the extremely tiny print that many books had back then.

Nine Coaches Waiting is a book with a Gothic feel, and this new cover captures that with its mysterious dark look and red lettering. Kudos to whomever decided to re-imagine the cover for this classic tale.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love that new cover. I may have to reread these myself. It's nice to have new editions of some older favorite books come out because tiny print doesn't work anymore for these eyes and my treasured copies of some books are read to fall apart.

Julia Buckley said...

I agree. How did we ever read those old versions?

Linkmeister said...

Those were probably the Fawcett Crest paperbacks. I still have a couple of them, but Harper Collins has been re-issuing them in larger print paperbacks these days, so I've been filling in holes with the newer ones.

Julia Buckley said...

Yeah--I mean, did anyone ever have eyesight that good? :)

Linkmeister said...

Grins. I was gonna say "Me!" but then it occurred to me that I got my first pair of eyeglasses when I was about eight.

Julia Buckley said...

I was 12. :)

But before then my eyesight was pretty amazing, so I guess I probably could read tiny print for about twelve years.

Dani said...

Stewart's Merlin trilogy can't be beat .... they're still my favorite Arthurian novels. Hubby and I re-read them every few years, not because we forget the story, but simply because the words are so lovely to savor.

Julia Buckley said...

Oh, I so agree. I remember especially that she wrote so beautifully about Merlin's perception that King Arthur had been conceived--something evident in the night sky after the illicit meeting of lovers. It was so poetic that even my teenage soul was moved to tears.

Unknown said...

I originally read Mary Stewart's books as Readers Digest Condensed Books when I was in elementary school. The city I lived in then only had public libraries within the city limits and those of us in the suburbs/county had to pay for a library card- and for the time- it was pretty pricey. I pretty much read what we had in the house and what I found in classroom collections in school. When we move to a small town in Florida as a teen, I could get my own library card and tried to make up for lost time. Mary Stewart's books took me world's away. I wanted to learn French just so I could truly understand everything in Nine Coaches Waiting. I'm glad to read of its re-release . The Arthurian trilogy has long been on school reading lists here in Jacksonville.

Julia Buckley said...

They really do take you worlds away--and I guess a part of me never came back, because I am forever devoted to M.S.