Modern Masters

                                                       

                                                 

Although this is exactly the type of "beginner's guide to thinker X" book I would have devoured as a young hungry mind, I don't think I ever actually read a single one of the Fontana Modern Masters series. But I sure remember these alluring covers - particularly the orange-y hued ones. 

Is it just me or is there a sly hint of the swastika to this Nietzsche cover?

Not sure if Robert Conquest would be the first person that would spring to mind as the fellow to do a balanced consideration of Lenin... 

Written and edited by Frank Kermode

As I scoured the internet for Modern Masters, was surprised to see the series extended to the French  deconstruction / post-structuralist / critical theory crew. I associate them lot with the Eighties, and Fontana Modern Masters feels very Seventies to me,

Then they went and spoiled it with a design overhaul.