The cover illustration was commissioned from designer Celia Birtwell, a British textile designer renowned since the 60s for her fabrics which defined the look of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Paloma Picasso. This is her first book cover.

A small print run collection of classic literature – very popular with collectors and increasingly difficult to find now. Each book is bound in cloth and features unique wraparound artwork by different contemporary artists – working under the brief of designing a non-repeating narrative pattern. The books are largish hardbacks with Smyth-sewn pages; they use thick, acid-free paper and the top edges are colour-stained; and they include a bound-in ribbon bookmark. Internally, the books have illustrated endpapers (an inverted version of the cover design) and a decorative title page, and the text is elegantly typeset in Monotype Haarlemmer, and right-facing pages are joined to the overleaf by a catchword: an older practice wherein a hanging word at the bottom of the page provides the opening of the following page (intended to assist with reading flow). The books were issued with an obi-wrap (or belly band) detailing the benefits of the editions.