Five Chinese editions of unrelated foreign classics were discovered to have the same cover image, according to a report by China Daily.
The Chinese editions of "David Copperfield," "A Tale of Two Cities," "Resurrection," "The Red and the Black" and "Boule de Suif" all share the same cover: an oil painting featuring French chemist Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier and his wife, Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze.
Painted by French artist Jacques Louis David, the double portrait oil painting is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Sanqin Publishing House and Central Compilation and Translation Press, which published the Chinese versions of "The Red and the Black" and "David Copperfiel," respectively, were both authorized to use the painting. However, the Chinese newspaper reported that no information about the work was disclosed by the publishers.
"In the West, publishers will provide concrete information about the paintings they use as decorative elements in books," said Zhao Wuping, vice president of Yilin Press, in an interview with China Daily.
China Translation Press, which published the Chinese version of "A Tale of Two Cities," lamented about the coincidence, saying the cover was outsourced to a design company.
"It's a shame that we have the oil painting as cover for 'A Tale of Two Cities.' It has nothing to do with the book's content," said Zhang Gaoli, chief editor of China Translation Press. "We will change the cover next time we revise the book."
The similarities between the Chinese editions of the foreign classics were first picked up by a Chinese chemistry student earlier this year.
Industry insiders say that designers get to decide book covers based on what they want, even though there's no relation to the book's story.