Judging a culture by it's book covers

My sophomore year of college, I received an award from the French department and the prize of "Le Voyage en France" by Benoît Duteutre.


Since most of the books I'd had to buy for my French literature classes had colorful covers, I was surprised by the sober Gallimard cover, looking the same as this (title/author different of course):

Then when I came to France for my junior year abroad, I discovered that French book stores were filled with 'blank' book covers.

"Why don't more of them have individualized covers?"I wondered for a long time.

Enter this article on Slate my husband just sent me: Pourquoi en France les couvertures de livres sont-elles si sobre?

It's an interesting historical look at the development of the French literary field. Be sure to watch the video excerpt from INA almost half way through the article (my jaw dropped hearing 1950's opinions).

And after dusting off my book prize and reading short critique on Amazon, I think I should actually read it one of these days.