The Happy Reader Issue 18
The Happy Reader is a magazine published by Penguin Classics in collaboration with the creators of the award-winning Fantastic Man. For avid readers and the uninitiated alike, it is a chance to reengage with classic literature and to stay inspired and entertained.
The concept of the magazine is excitingly simple: the first half is a long-form interview with a notable book fanatic and the second half explores one Penguin Classics title from an array of surprising and invigorating angles, through fashion, art, lifestyle, history, film and more.
The Happy Reader never patronizes, nor does it seek to baffle its audience with literary name-dropping or pedantry, wearing its bookish curiosity with a playful lightness of touch, delighting in the potential for whimsy and humour.
The magazine is centred on the concept of ‘precious print’, as embodied by Penguin Classics and Fantastic Man. It explores the myriad advantages of the printed word and image: beautiful typography, high dwell time, the matte charm of ink on paper, the calming luxury of being ‘offline’. The magazine is a design object in and of itself.
In this issue:
On the cover, photographer Davey Adésida captures the immeasurable energy of DIANE VON FURSTENBERG.
The Book of the Season, Nella Larsen’s novel PASSING, prompts stories on race, code-switching and the whirlwind of Harlem in the 1920s. This novel about race caused a major stir in 1929, only to then be forgotten and for its author to effectively vanish. It’s now recognised as one of the greatest books of the Harlem Renaissance. Contributors include: Willy Ndatira, Awol Erizku, Morgan Jenkins, Roisin Kiberd, Gabrielle Bellot, Wayde Compton and Georgina Lawton.
