Don’t Judge By Them

September 22, 2016 12:23 AM

The Brothers Karamazov: Illustrated Platinum Edition
Other “illustrated platinum editions” courtesy of illustrator “Pablo” and author “Read Monkey” include Jane Eyre, Dracula, Hamlet, The Time Machine, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Flatland, Persuasion, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, A Tale of Two Cities, Kim, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Little Women, Little Men, The Illiad, Northanger Abbey, The Red Badge of Courage, and many, many more.
posted by Going To Maine (17 comments total)

I would definitely read a Stoner Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Seriously, some of these are amazing. Is it some kind of random image search with a posting script?
posted by Mogur at 4:23 AM on September 22, 2016

Or a bot making books for bots?
posted by hat_eater at 4:24 AM on September 22, 2016

I want Infinite Jest with a Sweet Valley High cover.
posted by ocschwar at 5:16 AM on September 22, 2016

You've got to be careful when choosing which edition of a classic work to get, my copy of A Tale of Two Cities is missing all the sections set in present-day Toronto.
posted by tomcooke at 5:22 AM on September 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Previously.
posted by misteraitch at 5:49 AM on September 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

Every one of these links seems to be a link to Amazon. It would be nice to not support one of the worst corporations out there (re their treatment of warehouse workers) by linking their products on the blue.
posted by splitpeasoup at 7:49 AM on September 22, 2016

Pepsi Blue?
posted by Mister Bijou at 8:07 AM on September 22, 2016

It would be nice to not support one of the worst corporations out there (re their treatment of warehouse workers) by linking their products on the blue.

I would be very surprised if this thread leads to even a single unit increase in sales of these titles, but people are weird.
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:38 AM on September 22, 2016 [4 favorites]

Although I'll admit I'm tempted to buy History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Oman Empire.
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:42 AM on September 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

You can tell by that photo that Dmitri is coked out of his gourd while he attempts to "mock" strangle me. I have no idea why it looks like I'm smiling -- what I was thinking was that it's absurd I have to tolerate this buffoon. That expression is actually more a retching in disgust.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:01 AM on September 22, 2016 [3 favorites]

Although I'll admit I'm tempted to buy History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Oman Empire.

You should, its chock full of illustrations of American Colonialists and Natives for some inexplicable reason.

Chuck Tingle should become a publisher so these wayward books have a home.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 2:31 PM on September 22, 2016

I would definitely read a Stoner Yankee in King Arthur's Court.


I'm a Stoner Yankee... Hmmm....

When I hear 'Platinum' I just think 'Platinum Games', so I'm imagining classic literature updated with finely-tuned character action combat. I guess they kinda already did Dante's Inferno and The Bible....
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:17 PM on September 22, 2016

I feel like this is halfway to being a fascinating bit of Internet weirdness, but without some backstory on what Read Monkey is trying to do, it's just mildly weird as opposed to "Oh, my God, this is crazy and fascinating."

I've tried to google up more information about Read Monkey and whether it's a human or a machine, but all I could find was this blogpost by somebody who is clearly as puzzled as I am.
posted by yankeefog at 7:16 AM on September 23, 2016

I'm having trouble accessing the illustrations, as opposed to the covers. "Look Inside" doesn't help and my Google Fu is ineffective. Help?
posted by CCBC at 1:55 PM on September 23, 2016

Alas! I had no luck with that either.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:03 PM on September 23, 2016

That said, it seems that the “more inside” for The History of the Oman Empire does include illustrations.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:04 PM on September 23, 2016

Thanks, Going To Maine. I actually did not realize that this was Gibbon's work and not some obscure Middle Eastern thing I'd never heard of. Anyway, the illustrations are not by an individual named Pablo, but are paintings and such ripped from Google. Several of the ones I looked at were of North American Indian paintings by European artists, including a buffalo jump, which has nothing to do with Antonine Rome.

I don't know. The covers are funny sometimes, but the whole project just depresses me.
posted by CCBC at 2:39 AM on September 24, 2016