I bet it makes a damn good shelf, though. Some are history, some are travelogue, some are very out-of-date scientific treatises. It doesn't cost you anything to read them, and it's quite an eclectic mix to own all of them. The Victorian Exploration series is quite beautiful, but it should be said that all of those titles are in the public domain. Anton Chekhov: The Collected Stories - see how the spines form a troika.Of the ones I own, the following also stick out: The Ancient Civilizations set, for example. Some of the best spines in the entire catalogue are also some of the easiest to find. ![]() Currently I have around 150 titles+box sets, or around 280 books of theirs if splitting-up box sets. That may work well for Dune, but shouldn't a romanticist work like Frankenstein have work in a romantic style? Shouldn't expressionist work be expressionist? Maybe I'm the only one that pisses off, I don't know.Ĭriticism out of the way, I'm still happy with their work, even after membership imploded, especially their bindings and trademark slipcases, and have a huge backlog of titles I doubt I'll get to acquire at the rate they go out of print. So if you want it on your shelf, make sure it belongs there.Īs for the illustrations, I am kind of disappointed in the direction FS has gone the last decade or so, choosing ultramodern, sometimes photo-quality digital illustrations, even when paired with works that are anything but modern. If you wanted to dispose of thousands of dollars per book, there's Arion, Phaidon, Taschen, and dozens of smaller independent presses that cater to that. Also keep in mind FS (except for their LE line), represents mid-range fine binding. Of course the covers will look nice they almost always look nice. The text-block is always of first importance to me, and then I consider any special illustrations that may have been commissioned by FS for the edition. If it isn't a subject that interests you, you really are just buying a pretty paperweight. My advice is with editions as expensive as Folio Society/Easton Press/LEC/Heritage etc., never purchase anything you wouldn't at least want to skim-read, and preferably titles that have some meaning to you. I'd really rather have a Loeb that will fall apart in 10 years, or a good quality paperback that won't set me back. As it is, FS has an unfortunately infamous record of re-printing very old and obsolete English translations of Greek/Latin texts that it could well have copy/pasted off the Gutenberg Project, and the main reason I don't own any of their Classical texts. If FS were to recommission some of their classics titles, like Plutarch's Lives or Livy's History, in a similar paralinear set up, they would make for some pretty remarkable editions. Still, I've handled it once and the binding deserves just as much praise it easily rivals their LE's, and probably should have been an LE. ![]() But that is more a result of a virtually unmodified Heaney textblock and credit I suppose goes to Heaney and his original publisher than to FS. ![]() It is special in that so few (really, can't even name the others, can you?) of FS editions that include paralinear texts with both original and translation languages. If you can afford them it's worth waiting till one of their sales hit and it'll have a decent price reduction for all three.Īgreed with the 2010 Beowulf, one of the ones that got away for me. If you're into more traditional fine press productions their limited edition War Poets collection hold pretty true to the fine press tradition, it's a high limitation so far from being sold out. Unfortunately it's long since sold out, but they have a smaller standard edition now available with the exact same artwork. ![]() Of their limited editions, Alice in Wonderland is without doubt one of their finest ever productions, which also justly won the 2016 British Book Design and Production Award. It's one I definitely think is worth scouring the web for, it pops up now and then on the second hand market as it's long since sold out. In terms of my personal favourites based on the binding probably the best volume they've produced from their non-limited range is the 2010 edition of Beowulf (2010 images further down in the post). There might be some titles that are now out of print that may appeal to you more which are likely available on the second hand market. This is a very useful resource in identifying every title they have published to date. It's a bit difficult to recommend anything without knowing what exactly you're looking for, purely for the beauty or particular titles/genres? I would recommend before you go on a spending splurge to delve into their back catalogue of out of print stuff.
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