In recent months, I’ve begun looking through volumes of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books at church and garage sales in the hope of finding some long-forgotten images worthy of online preservation and contemplation here at RCN, and today, I am delighted to report that I have finally uncovered a series of illustrations that I think stands head and shoulders above the usual good-but-not-great, able-but-uninspired Reader’s Digest fare. The illustrations I am referring to were created by Michael Leonard for The Queen’s Confession, a “condensation” of English novelist Victoria Holt’s first-person narrative of the rise and fall of Marie Antoinette, and the complete package, story and pictures together, was first printed in Reader’s Digest Condensed Books, Vol. III, 1968, Summer Selections. Here are my scans:
[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]
Because Reader’s Digest Condensed Books were generally printed on highly absorbent, low-quality paper to keep the cover price within reach of the average middle-class consumer, the full-colour, painted illustrations reproduced therein always tend to look a little soft. And yet, I think the excellence of Michael Leonard’s work shines through the sub-optimal reproduction.
I’d love to see Leonard’s Marie Antoinette illustrations in person.
POSTSCRIPT:
I just did a bit of Google research, and it appears to me from this online (auto)biography that the Michael Leonard who produced the above illustrations for Reader’s Digest is the same Michael Leonard (b. 1933) who has long been known in fine-art circles as one of Britain’s leading photo-realist painters. You can view examples of Michael Leonard’s paintings and drawings online here and here.
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