Recently I happened to be in England, and while in England, if one cares about books one must visit Waterstones. This is a chain of bookstores, present in most medium to large towns, and a delight to book nerds. Alas, not all Waterstones are alike. Some stores have separate sections for crime, or horror. Other store seem to absorb some crime and mystery book into their fiction section, and ignore horror altogether. In my foray into various Waterstones (Reading, Bath, London—-Islington and Hampstead), I came away not so much with books in my current focus of the crime/mystery genre, but a handful of books by Eric Ambler.
A few years ago my father sent me an Ambler novel, The Mask of Dimitrios. This was a spy novel (or thriller, depending on your genre definition), set in Europe in the 1930s. The 1930s is a favorite decade of mine, being between the two world wars. Since my father lives in England, the book was a Penguin Classics edition, with a striking cover of a blood-red harbor and river.
After reading it I immediately sought out other books by Ambler. However, in my local bookstores here in the middle-of-nowhere-USA I found only one book, Epitaph for a Spy. Online, there are a few other books. The US cover, to put it mildly, was horrible, but who cares about the cover? (Yes, for some reason, I do care about book covers…)
In England, in Reading’s Waterstones, I found three books, all by Penguin Classics and with striking covers. Also, in the shelf, were the two books that I already owned. At the time I didn’t remember that my Mask of Dimitrios copy was the same as the one in the store. Still, as I tend to resist buying books that I already own, I left them on the shelf. Then, a few days later in another Waterstones in Bath, three other titles. In other words, I returned home with six new Ambler books, and when I looked at the two that i already owned, I found that I had a nice little collection of seven Penguin Classic editions of Ambler’s novels, with just one outlier.
The covers by Penguin are brilliant, striking! Perusing Waterstones‘ shelves I found several other Penguin Classics editions by other authors, and the book nerd in me wanted to buy them all. I wanted to start a collection based on all their books. Crazy, I know, but just like their older orange editions, these newer editions with pale green spines beckon to collectors, to book nerds. “Buy me,” they said. “Read me, and care for me.” Alas, I had limited space in my suitcase, and only picked up a couple of other Penguin Classic books. This time, at least.
Some of the Ambler books include introductions, while some dive right into the story. What’s the better option? I’m not sure. The Mask of Dimitrios is supposedly a classic. The others? I don’t yet know if they fit that bill, but I know I look forward to reading them all, regardless of thrills or disappointments. I only wish the US publishers had the same panache in terms of design as Penguin.
So, if you happen to find yourself in England in a Waterstones, check out any of the Penguin Classic books. You’ll want to buy them, and you might just discover some great fiction, when fiction was great.
