The Outlandish Companion

by Diana Gabaldon

  U.S. EDITIONS

  Publisher: Delacorte Press (Dell) Bantam Doubleday Dell Inc. 1540 Broadway New York, NY 10036

  Outlander

  (hardcover)

  ISBN 0-385-30230-4

  Still in print, still with its original cover art, which I like very much. The excellent artist who does all of the U.S. hardcover designs—Kinuko Craft—actually reads the books before implementing her artistry, an attention much appreciated by the author.

  Outlander

  (paperback, limited low-price edition; out of print)

  To facilitate the introduction of new readers to the series, concomitant with the publication of Drums of Autumn, Dell issued a limited special edition of the OUTLANDER paperback, retailing at $3.99.1 However, this edition was sold out, and has not been reissued. The cover design (and contents, naturally) are identical with the regularly priced paperback; the only difference is the ISBN and a large “$3.99” in a red starburst superimposed on the cover.

  Outlander

  (paperback)2

  ISBN 0-440-21256-1

  This paperback has had two covers (so far): The first featured some elements of the hardcover design, including the clock, dirk, necklace, and tartan. However, it also featured a Rather Unfortunate stepback cover (an inside cover, visible when the outer cover is opened. This one, though, is visible through the outer cover, which has a cutout, allowing a face to leer out through the clock), with drawings purporting to illustrate the story within. Okay, the drawing of Jamie is not bad. It’s not quite Jamie, but it’s at least a mildly attractive young man with red hair, and he is holding a sword of the right period and design. The woman (purporting to be Claire, I suppose)… well, she has straight, reddish hair, and she strongly resembles the horse she’s holding.3 The outer cover also featured quite a lot of gold foil.

  The next cover was simply a nice adaptation (for smaller size) of the hardcover art, with solid-color bands across top and bottom, carrying the title and author name. Very attractive.

  Dragonfly in Amber

  (hardcover)

  ISBN 0-385-30231-2

  I’ve always particularly liked this cover, both because it’s very attractive and because it’s the first one I got to say anything about. The artist having done preliminary drawings of the overall scene, the publisher sent these to me, saying that the drawing required a “central object” of some kind, and did I have anything to suggest?

  “Well,” I said, rubbing my hands together, “it is called Dragonfly in Amber. You think it would be stretching things too far actually to have a dragonfly on the cover?” I promptly faxed them pictures (from my research sources) of several “period” Scottish cups and chalices, and lo and behold… a dragonfly, hovering over a cup filled with liquid (it should probably have been red liquid—”Dragon’s Blood,” as prepared by Master Raymond—but I gather the thinking was that this would merely look like wine, whereas the green liquid portrayed looked more like poison).

  Dragonfly in Amber

  (paperback)

  ISBN 0-440-21562-5

  Again, this book has had two covers—or three, counting a sort of intermediary form. The first was a smaller rendition of the hardcover, with a Really Horrible stepback illustration inside. I won’t go into all the gory details, save to note that my final request for the illustration—for a red dress on the female figure (i.e., Claire’s red ball gown, worn at Versailles)—resulted in a depiction of Lolita in a pumpkin-colored gown with a red cloak.

  As for the male figure, who appears to be the illegitimate offspring of Pinocchio and Bob Hope…

  I’m happy to report that the stepback disappeared in the next print run, leaving the book with simply the outer cover.

  When Outlander was re-covered, both Dragonfly and Voyager were redone to match, with the original design preserved, but with solid bands across top and bottom for name and title.

  Voyager

  (hardcover)

  ISBN 0-385-30232-0

  For this one, the publisher actually asked me what I’d like to see on the cover. Always ready, I promptly replied, “A ship and an ocean.” I was very pleased with the result—though the initial design featured a pile of roses on the map in the foreground. I said I thought this rather unlikely, on an eighteenth-century sailing ship, and the roses were obligingly replaced—though with a tasteful thistle, rather than the jeweled dagger I suggested.

  Voyager

  (paperback)

  ISBN 0-440-21756-3

  Again, the original cover is an adaptation of the hardcover. This time, I succeeded in preventing any attempts to depict literal characters from the book, and while there was a stepback cover for the first printing, it shows only tumbling ocean waves, with review quotes superimposed; a vast improvement. This cover was “refreshed” to match the others, with solid bands top and bottom replacing the original Celtic-themed lettering for title and author name (and covering up the thistle), but the general design was kept intact.

  Drums of Autumn

  (hardcover)

  ISBN 0-385-31140-0

  By this time, I trusted the artist implicitly, so merely suggested some sort of outdoor scene, preferably with the “feel” of an eighteenth-century landscape—and sent along a bundle of photocopies of “possible objects,” as well as a few samples of paintings that I thought had the correct atmosphere.

  This was a very successful cover; in fact, so successful that the Swedish publisher used it intact, and the German publisher used a variant of it.

  Drums of Autumn

  (paperback)

  ISBN 0-440-22325-X

  The cover design is an adaptation of the hardcover, with bands top and bottom. The stepback in the first printing shows a tartan background, with review quotes superimposed.

  CANADA

  Publisher: Doubleday Canada

  105 Bond Street Toronto, ON M5B 1Y3

  Since Doubleday Canada belongs to the same parent company as does the U.S. publisher, there is no separate Canadian edition, per se. Doubleday Canada handles distribution of books within Canada, but uses the same edition (same content, cover, ISBNs, etc.) as the United States.

  NB: French translation editions of the books are distributed within Quebec by an affiliate of the French publisher.

  FRANCE

  Publisher: Les Presses la Cité”

  12, Avenue d’Italie 75013 Paris

  NB: French editions are distributed in Quebec by an associate of the French publisher, rather than by Doubleday Canada, who handles the English editions in that country.

  All French titles are published as trade paperback editions rather than hardcover and/or mass market paperback.

  Le Chardon et le Tartan

  (Outlander)

  ISBN 2-258-03984-3

  This literally translates to “The Thistle and the Tartan.” It’s bright blue and pink, with a castle in the background and flowering plants in the foreground. It doesn’t quite look Scottish (possibly owing to the fact that the plants look like azaleas), and the overall tone is pretty gooey, but it does look vaguely historical.

  Le Talisman (Dragonfly in Amber) ISBN 2-258-03985-1

  A talisman is something like a good-luck charm, and one French reader translated the title as “The Lucky Charm.” Personally, I wouldn’t have thought that’s what the dragonfly in amber was, but mine is not to reason why. Possibly “dragonfly” means something obscene in French.

  It’s a very interesting-looking cover, though it looks more like the novelization of a PBS production of a Henry James novel

  than anything Scottish. Very French, though. Gray and brown tones, with a street scene, featuring a carriage and a superimposed picture of a young woman in what appears to be a modish velvet hat (a la mode of the early 1900s, that is), looking thoughtful.

  Le Voyage (Voyager)

  Again, a quietish sort of cover, echoing the Talisman one; this in pale grayish-blue, featuring misty people on a boat and a super-imposition of a nice-looking woman
in her thirties or forties in the upper right. I really wish they wouldn’t put faces on the covers, but no stopping them—and they did at least pick a woman of the proper age, and the right coloring.

  ITALY

  Publisher: Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri

  Bompiani, Sonzogno, Etas S.p.A. Via Mecenate, 91 Milano

  Ovunque Nel Tempo (Outlander)

  (hardcover, out of print, and a good thing, too)

  ISBN 88-454-0510-9

  The original cover design wasn’t bad; a pair of shadowy female eyes, hovering in the air over Stonehenge. I found the book-club edition objectionable—featuring a raven-haired gypsy wench sprawled on the grass, low-cut gown in disarray—but not as horrifying as the book itself. Both editions were roughly one-quarter the size of the original manuscript.

  SPAIN/LATIN AMERICA

  Publisher: Emece Editores, S.A.

  Alsina 2062 Buenos Aires, Argentina Emece Editores Espana, S.A. Mallorca 237 08008 Barcelona

  All tides published in trade paperback only; slight differences in cover design between Spanish and Latin American editions, text identical. My guess (judging from the size of the books) is that the text has been cut slightly, and/or the content paraphrased quite a bit.

  Forastera4

  (Outlander) Latin American edition

  ISBN 950-04-1317-5

  Forestera

  (Outlander) Spanish edition

  ISBN 84-7888-193-X

  Well, it’s orange. Other than that, it’s quite nice; a very old-world, misty depiction of a castle, with lots of feathery-looking trees, dripping moss. Not that there happen to be lots of moss-dripping trees around your average Scottish castle, but it’s a nice picture anyway.

  Attrapado en el tiempo (Dragonfly in Amber) ISBN 950-04-1622-05

  This means “Trapped in Time,” which is at least minimally appropriate.

  La Viajera (Voyager)

  ISBN 84-7888-363-06

  This tide means “The (female) Traveler,” which is more or less okay. It features a view

  (from behind) of two people on a boat, sailing away. Judging from the dress of the people, they’re from fifteenth century Spain, rather than eighteenth century Scotland, but you can’t see their faces, and one is disposed to be grateful for small mercies. A pale and misty blue in tone.

  SWEDEN

  Publisher: Bra Bocker

  Bokforlaget Bra Bécker AB 5-26380 Hoganas Sweden

  Telephone: 042-39000 FAX: 042-30504

  Framlingen (Outlander)

  (hardcover)

  ISBN 91-7119-917-97

  The early Swedish covers are … er… well, I like them, they’re just very strange. Framlingen (which I gather means “stranger”) has a background done in green and blue swirls, like the peacock endpapers of a very classy book. The title is superimposed on this in flowing white script, and above the title is inset a really odd painting (it’s a real Scottish museum painting, titled—heaven knows why—“Gow leading the Glee Maiden”). It shows a very large brown-bearded Scotsman, wearing a white shirt and a plaid, and carrying a mandolin. A much smaller woman, wearing (no doubt for excellent reasons) a low-cut white chemise and leading a small dog, is attached to the Scotsman’s arm and trails after him, head drooping.

  Slanda i Bérnsten

  (Dragonfly in Amber)

  (hardcover)

  ISBN 91-7119-923-3

  I think this really does mean “Dragonfly in Amber.” The cover design is similar to that of Framlingen; however, the background is done in a green, pink, and purple plaid, and the inset photo (again, a reproduction of a museum painting), shows a dark and brooding gentleman with a mustache and a gaucho hat, evidently just in from riding the pampas. (I had lunch once with my Swedish editor; he was a very nice man, who certainly seemed entirely normal….)

  Sjéfararna (Voyager)

  (hardcover, published in two volumes) Vol. 1: ISBN 91-7119-723-0 Vol 2: ISBN 91-7119-833-4

  I can’t say whether it was in response to reader mail or not, but with this book, the Swedish publisher suddenly abandoned their truly unique notions of cover art, and started using the American designs. Sjéfararna (which I think does mean “Voyager”) has a slight variation on the ship/ocean concept of the American edition.

  Sjéfararna

  (Voyager)

  (paperback)

  Vol. 1: ISBN 91-7133-261-8 Vol. 2: ISBN 91-7133-262-6

  I believe this is the only one of the Swedish editions published in paperback (more of a trade paper edition than a mass market paperback), but I can’t be sure, because of the bewildering multiplicity of book-club editions produced in that country. Same ocean/ship design—on both volumes—as in the hardcover(s).

  Trummornas Dan (Drums of Autumn) (hardcover) (1997) ISBN 91-7133-313-4

  This book is almost identical (externally) with the American hardcover; the size, cover design and artwork are the same, but with a difference in the typeface used for title and author name. I don’t know whether (or why) the publisher decided that the two-volume approach wasn’t satisfactory, but they did do this one as a single volume, in spite of the fact that it’s longer than Voyager (Sjéfararna).

  GERMANY

  Publisher: Blanvalet Verlag GmbH

  Neumarkterstrasse 18 W-81664 Munich Germany

  Feuer und Stein (Outlander)

  (hardcover, regular edition) ISBN 3-7645-0697-0

  This tide means “Fire and Stone”; adventurous, if not particularly referent. The cover art, oddly, is essentially that of the American edition of Dragonfly. (The book-club edition was plainly done as “women’s fiction”; a plaid background with an inset of the face and bust of a highly undistinguished-looking

  Feuer und Stein (Outlander)

  (paperback)

  Same art as the hardcover. German paperbacks tend to be smaller in dimension than do American ones; the effect of this, given a very long book, is to render the result somewhat cuboidal.

  Die Geliehene Zeit (Dragonfly in Amber) (hardcover) ISBN 3-7645-0702-0

  This means “The Borrowed Time,” which is really rather an appealing title. With (I suppose) perfect logic, this book uses an adaptation of the American Outlander art—the clock and tartan motif—though in this version, the ornate French clock has been replaced by a large pocket watch.

  Die Geliehene Zeit (Dragonfly in Amber) (paperback)

  When this paperback arrived, my husband looked at it and said, “When one of your books gets to be as thick as it is wide, do you get some kind of prize?” If you laminated a few of these things, you could build walls with them.

  Ferne Ufer

  (Voyager)

  (hardcover)

  This means “The Far Shore,” which is okay, if not inspired. Not yet released in paperback (as of the publication of this Companion, that is).

  The art department seems to have caught up with itself; this one uses a variant on the American Voyager cover.

  Der Ruf Der Trommel (Drums of Autumn) (hardcover)

  I think this means “The Sound of Drums,” which is actually something like the original; rather a change. Like the Swedish edition of Drums, this one is almost identical with the American version, save for the dimensions; it’s slightly shorter and fatter. (I think this paperback just might win that hypothetical prize.)

  UK (AND COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES, INCLUDING AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND, BUT NOT CANADA)

  Publisher: Century Random (now Random House UK)

  20 Vauxhall Bridge Road London SW1V 2SA England

  Cross Stitch (Outlander) (1991)

  (hardcover—out of print; may be available in

  reprint) ISBN 0-7126-4760-0

  This book was originally published in hardcover, but that edition is out of print. However, Random House has indicated an intention to reprint the hardcover (with original cover illustration, which was quite pretty) in a limited quantity, for library consumption. It may be possible to obtain copies of this reprint edition; if not, I have ordered a small quantity for mys
elf, to fill orders from people wanting autographed copies.8

  Cross Stitch (paperback) ISBN 0-09-991170-1

  There have been three (wildly) different cover designs for the paperback, so far: The first was truly disgusting, being orange with bouquets of pink roses, tied with MacKenzie tartan ribbons, stuck through with souvenir-stand clan badges. The second was very appealing; it shows a young, quintessentially English-looking couple, standing near a large boulder on a rocky hill. It’s a quiet-looking cover (pale yellow in tone), but nice. The third features a full-face, leering portrait of some ghastly female, on a white background. No, it doesn’t look like Claire.9

  (Following prolonged obnoxious complaint from the author, the publisher has announced its intention of reissuing the entire series of paperbacks with Much Improved Covers, which we await with eager anticipation.)

  Dragonfly in Amber

  (paperback)

  ISBN: 0-09-929471-0

  Dragonfly was never published in hardcover in the UK.10 It has had two iterations of the paperback cover; the first being both lovely and suitable, one of my personal favorites11—a pointillist-style depiction of a Highland meadow, with a black stone sticking up out of it, and two tiny, faceless figures (tall, red-haired male, shorter bonneted female) crossing through it. The second is/was an iteration of the frightful woman (no offense to the hapless model who posed for it; I’m sure it wasn’t her fault) on the Cross Stitch cover.

  Again, there should be a third—much improved—cover for this edition, to be issued simultaneously with this Companion.