THE ONLY STORY - Julian Barnes
‘Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.’
The Only Story, set in 1963, in and around London. Paul, the narrator is 19. He meets Mrs Susan MacLeod, when they become tennis partners at the local surburban tennis club. A relationship develops that lasts for 10-12 years.
Several themes in response to lines within the novel were worked up (shown above).
Paul kept a hardback notebook for decades in which he wrote what people said about love. He assembeled the evidence, then went through it, and crossed out all the quotations he no longer believed to be true. One phrase, ‘It is better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all’ is crossed out, only to be rewritten by Paul. This idea developed as a possible cover approach, but having the title appear twice on the cover, is inheritably complicated and the design needed to feel natural. It required a lot of thought to achieve this.
When Susan finds the notebook she writes…‘with your inky pen to make you hate me’. This helped evolve the cover further, and the smudges and waterstains also convey mood and narrative. The back cover uses the quote that inspired the cover design. The main edition was set against a Basildon Bond blue.
Published on 1st February by Jonathan Cape
For the full design story…
Susan is pictured sitting on a Chintz sofa and wearing a flowery dress. She declares… ‘I’m doing my disappearing act’ The issue with this layout was how would you get lettering to read on the chintz and flowery backgrounds and without revealing Susan’s face. A Fellini film poster inspired these layouts.
Susan is described as having unusual ears, that were discreet with almost an absent lobe. ‘This was all part of her absolute distinctiveness.’ For an authentic period feel 1960s book covers were used as an inspiration for the layouts.
‘Things aren’t what they look like Paul. That’s the only lesson I can teach you’ The 1960s saw the growth of colour printing and abstract art. A series of abstract covers were devised, influenced by the work of Paul Rand and Alvin Lustig, both of whom are design legends and were profilic during the 60s. These visuals played on the idea of theorizing about love and that first love fixes a life forever.
