Time stamps (in case you're looking for a specific edition): 00:36 Puffin + Pantone classics 02:09 Pocket Penguins 70s 03:03 Penguin Popular Classics 04:10 Penguin Black Spines (new design) 04:59 Tolkien Collection (Harper Collins Black mass market paperbacks) 06:52 Vintage Austen 08:30 Vintage International James Baldwin 09:48 Vintage Toni Morrison 11:15 Complete Nella Larsen (Anchor books) 11:50 Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Collins Classics) 13:35 Collins Classics 14:44 Norton Critical Editions 18:18 Oxford World Classics 19:01 Vintage Red Spines 20:01 Vintage Future series 21:18 Tale Blazers (Perfect Learning Corporation) 22:18 Hemingway (Arrow Books) 23:14 Faber & Faber (Samuel Beckett, Tom Stoppard) 25:08 Faber Stories (90th anniversary) 26:10 Pushkin Press 27:23 Thomas Nelson’s Seasons Editions (limited) 31:24 Folio Society
I appreciate it so much when RU-vidrs go through various editions of classics. I'm rebuilding my collection I share with my sister, and the choices are overwhelming sometimes. This really helped me out!
I absolutely agree about the Norton Critical editions! The first book I bought from that collection was The Portrait Of A Lady, and I was SHOCKED because I thought it was so long😅😅 then I found out more than half of the book belonged to the notes and extra stuff!
Thank you, Leynes! The Folio edition of The Color Purple is stunning! I love the design of Pan Macmillan Collector’s Classics (light blue and gold combined with artwork). Their tiny size makes them also very easy to take with me in my handbag😊Another series I like very much is the Everyman Classics. When looking for classics I always check first whether they’re available in one of these collections. They’re actually affordable hardbacks.
Am I the only one that constantly gotta back and forth between I just want all my books in one coherent collection & I want each individual book to be beautiful no matter what they all look like together😅
I loove Penguin Popular Classics! I'm not a book collector, but i have like 10 of these😅 the only problem for me is that some copies have seriously TINY font (Vanity Fair, I'm looking at you) but overall I really enjoy their retro look
i love those editions of tolkien ! i think the black and then circular colour design is rly cute, im not sure we have them anymrore but my parents had the trilogy in those editions and i always would take them down from the bookshelf and admire them before i was good at reading! that edition of the colour purple is gorgeous !!
This was another great overview and I liked all the details you showed for the readability of the books and if there was extra information included in the edition. For books I own, I have one complete works paperback edition of the RSC Shakespeare which was relatively very cheap, looking now it's about £20 for 2552 pages, and it has extra information and introductions. But reading it I use a table because it's on the heavy side and it has thin pages. Though it also has footnotes on the text, so it has convenient sides to it too, it's just more of a commitment to pick it up to read. But I'm happy with it because I wouldn't have all his work like that otherwise.
Happy to hear you found this video helpful! :) And yes, there are many Complete Shakespeare editions for that price. I collected all the plays individually and spend a lot more money in total, probably around 100€ (as I got all 40 books used). But for me that was the right decision because I read all of these plays over the course of 3 years so it was super fun to pick up the plays as the years went on. It was like a personal challenge that I had with my self of trying to find the editions for the most affordable price. :>
That sounds like a fun challenge you set yourself and a good price for the amount of books you got. Your editions also look really nice so it was fun to see.
it's very important for me to see other persons who love and care about the font, the cover, and all of that stuff ! i enjoyed this video, thx for ur work !! (i'm french and i may make a lot of mistakes writting in english, excuse me for that!!!)
I don’t know much about collecting editions so this is great. Of the ones I’ve been able to own, are the Norton critical editions. I was gifted one by my English teacher when she was emptying her library, it was for Jane Eyre. And it included letter written by Charlotte Brontë. And I enjoyed the essays, as well as footnotes are so helpful for giving context to words we aren’t familiar with or references. I have one more Norton Critical for North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. But yes I’m glad for this video, I do love bigger text also. It’s helpful for when I want to buy my next book. I didn’t realize how important editions could be to the reading experience. I have a Moby Dick in the Signet classics edition, and it’s so tiny and it would hurt my thumbto try to keep the page open.
Great video!! I also love my classics to match esp the same author. My personal favorite classic edition is Everyman's library because they have sewed binding and acid free paper but for an affordable price.
Hope you take another crack at some Vintage Red Spines because not all font/formatting is the same in every book!! (depends the author really) Also thank you so much for showing me the spines of the classic Toni Morrison editions, I would’ve personally disliked them 🥴 I just ordered the new Vintage author series of hers and currently have some of her work in Everyman’s Library Contemporary Classic Editions which are hands down my favorite editions and I’m a slut for paperbacks so that says a lot about the quality
Somehow the Vintage Red Spines never „win“ when I‘m comparing covers, so I dunno when I‘ll try another one of those. And yes, I‘ll definitely give the Everyman‘s Library editions a go. Personally, I don’t like the new Vintage Morrison series, I wish they went with a pattern like they did for Austen or Woolf, and not put photographs of people on the cover. To me, that feels lazy in comparison to the previous designs. :(
Note, the larger paperback is a trade paperback (or just, paperback) not a mass market paperback. Mass market paperback as are the ones with smaller dimensions.
Unfortunately perhaps not readily available in GB/Europe: Library of America, regrettably the dust jackets are uniformly black but the acid-free paper and nice flop are big improvements over older editions; New York Review Books, unfortunately very stiff on the flop so much so that unless you are willing to break the binding you must hold the book firmly and almost crane to read the last word at the break; Everyman’s Library, best version of many unheralded classics (Joseph Roth, Ítalo Svevo). Also earlier Modern Library before the tie-in covers to the latest movie or BBC version of the novel.
The Norton Critical Editions are so bad at the same time as being so so good! I buy them sometimes in addition to an alternate version just so I have the massive amount of extra content. They are not the best for readability with the small text and thin paper (excluding the use footnotes which is awesome). Also, they use unusual translations (not the academic standards), being as they go for more academic readers, though I guess this is down to the publisher monopoly of Penguin RH etc. I wish I could find their work in hardback with bigger text.
I totally agree with you! The additional information they provide is unmatched but in terms of quality of the binding/pages/font etc. there's lots of room for improvement.
@@booksbyleynes Yes, I wish they could up their game on it even if it cost a bit more. I guess they went with a compromise of having all that content while still being affordable.
This series has been fantastic...it's not so easy to get penguins collections here in the States ...I'm so jealous of your beautiful collections. And not to be a prude but it is so nice not to hear the f bomb dropped every three minutes...when the word is in your native tongue it's real meaning is heard each time.😳
I have to say, the popular classics series by Penguin ages pretty badly. My mum has a lot of them from her broke uni student days and they’re quite literally falling apart despite being kept carefully in a dry, clean environment with no drastic temperature changes. Not worth paying for books that essentially self-disintegrate, in my opinion, unless you can’t afford anything else.
Hello :) Je te recommande l’auteur Emmanuel Dongala et ses livres « Photo de groupe au bord du fleuve » son meilleur et « La Sonate à Bridgetower » :) Love you and your vids as usual !!!
I have to disagree about that Anne of Greengages edition, it's just a green and white book cover, it's bland and unimaginative. But I love old books, the smell is amazing, and the yellowing is beautiful. Books to me are like wine. New books are pretty, cool, and to be the first one to make the used mark or softly break the spine is nice. But to get a used book is like saying, "you're home now."
Everyone has different taste. I love that Anne of Green Gables edition and it's one of my favorites out there. Only topped by the most recent French hardcover edition which just captures Anne's free and roaming spirit so well. :)
My favorites: 1. Everyman's Library. In general, these are my favorite for the combination of great quality and great price (relative to quality). 2. Modern Library. Similar to Everyman's Library in terms of the combination of quality and price. I tend to prefer Everyman's slightly more, but honestly it could be more or less a toss-up between Everyman and Modern Library depending on the particular book in question (e.g. Moby Dick in the Modern Library has Rockwell Kent's absolutely beautiful artwork). 3. MacMillan Collector's Library. These are great little books as long as one doesn't mind the fits-in-the-palm-of-your-hand size. They're super affordable too, at least in the USA. Currently around $15 or less. 4. Library of America. As is obvious from the name, it only has American literature (e.g. Melville, Twain, Faulkner). Also, the paper is a bit thin, with associated issues (e.g. bleed-through), whereas I tend to like heavier gsm which tends to be more opaque like in Everyman and Modern Library. Still, the Library of America produces high quality volumes that are worth owning. 5. Thomas Nelson seasonal collection. A bit big, bit beautifully designed and affordable. Currently, there isn't a huge selection. 5. Folio Society. As most bibliophiles know, this is the highest quality, but also the highest price. I'd love to own one of these someday, but I won't be able to afford it any time soon!
Thank you so much for creating such an awesome video, it was just what I was looking for!! Definitely got my eye on those norton critical editions now. Actual footnotes instead of going back and forth while reading? Sounds like a blessing to me xD
Excellent video! You gave so much information about each publisher which was greatly appreciated. The dip in the middle of an open book is called the gutter. It’s where the biscuit crumbs hide if you’re a naughty reader.
Excellent video as always! I really enjoy your content and perspective. Also a fan of deckled edges, French flaps, and Faber. I highly recommend Faber’s new ‘Faber Editions’ especially Mrs. Caliban and Palace of the Peacock (the latter with a forward by Jamaica Kincaid).
Thank you for doing this follow-up video! I really appreciate the effort and all the detailed information about the different editions! :) Also your enthusiasm for classics is absolutely infectious :) Are you considering doing a similar video about german classics (or german translations of classics)? I find it so much harder to find somewhat pretty editions of german classics and I‘d really appreciate your take on it :)
I don’t own many German classics but since so many people asked about it, I might do some research and show the ones I‘be got and prettier editions that are out there. We‘ll see.
I love these videos. I mostly 'collect' vintage hardbacks of books that I know I love and want to keep forever. I also love the special editions though, like the Penguin classics - and those Pantones are gorgeous! I may have to start treasure hunting for those.
I own the complete works of Mark Twain in one volume and reading it is a nightmare. But I could never get rid of it because it was a present from the US. The price tag is still on and it says 12 $ which is INSANE. The Norton editions seem to be exactly what I am looking for because notes are very important to me. Your video is fabulous and informative as usual. Thank you so much !
Thank you! :) The Norton Critical editions are perfect if you enjoy notes and commentary. They have such rich analysis in their editions, they're fantastic!
These videos always have me examining my own shelves to pick favorites lol. My favorite spanish edition is Anagrama, I have so many in this edition. One english edition I love is the Harper Perennial Modern Classics paperbacks, the ones with the little P.S. in the bottom right corner. They have a lot of extra features like forwards from other authors, info about the author, etc, and they are super floppy and with nice font, and some have really beautiful covers imo. I have works by Sylvia Plath, Françoise Sagan, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston and H. P. Lovecraft, and Fear and Loathing in this edition. Some of these I've had for 10+ years and have reread a lot and they still hold up
I love these videos! I own the Penguin Complete Works of Jane Austen, which looks pretty on the outside but has very thin paper and really small font. Not my best purchase, but it's all I have to work with. I also own the collected works of Oscar Wilde and I agree that it's not worth it to buy the complete works of an author like that. Those are the only ones I own and I sort of regret the Austen one especially.
Hello! I love your videos and would be happy to see more! As someone who recently moved to Germany from Canada, where do you buy English books?? Do you mostly order online? I have a Graf and a Thalia in my city, but the English sections are so small 🥲
Folio Society. That Color Purple you have is stunning. Tempting! I have two, Blood Meridian and The Road (figured you couldn't have one without the other). I have a bunch of Franklin and Easton Press editions (i can't get enough of leather bound books) and a bunch of Heritage Press books (the cheapest of the premium books, but still so very premium). Shipping charges: Try your luck buying secondhand. eBay is full of fantastic deals shipped more locally.
This was great! Actually my copy of The Color Purple is so ugly and falling apart, I am very tempted by the Folio Society one! It would be my first one. I'm a little afraid I might like them too much! :) I have another series suggestion for you to check out if you are interested. Library of America, which is similar to Everyman's. They publish small size hardcovers of American authors only, and each volume is about 900-1000 pgs and usually will have 3 or 4 novels, or a bunch of short stories, etc. They come in slipcases if you are a subscriber, or with a very old-fashioned looking black dust jacket and author photo on the front if you are not a subscriber, but the book itself is the same. Without the dust jackets, the book covers are maroon, navy blue, green, and tan. The pages are thin but not see-through, they have a ribbon bookmark, and the font is small but okay. Honestly they probably are not good for annotating, though - not a lot of space and the thin paper would cry out for those Bible highlighters. I am weird in that I will annotate paperbacks but not hardbacks so it doesn't bother me, I just use Post-It flags in my hardbacks. They are a nonprofit and so the books are relatively cheap - $25 with free shipping in the US if you are a subscriber (not bad for 4 books in one). You can often find them cheap used on Ebay because despite the fact that the subscription is easy to pause and free to return an unwanted volume, people are lazy and get titles they don't want. Even though they are anthologies, they are easy to carry around because they are small. Not like your Oscar Wilde!
Haha! Folio is easy to get addicted to... but they are rather expensive. :> I know of the Library of America ... I like their quality but I'm not the biggest fan of bind-ups, I prefer reading novels individually.
Hi!! I just wanna make sureee for the Vintage Jane Austen edition. Is it not difficult to read and open even in the middle part? And the spine doesn't crack afterward? As i heard people said they are not the floppy type of book. I was thinking of buying the russian classic one (specifically Anna Karenina) >_< thank youu
All those paperbacks ... As I get older, I have gotten rid of most of my paperbacks and kept the hardbacks. For my favorites, I replaced any paperbacks with hardbacks. The only paperbacks I kept were favorites that are not available as hardback. New reads ... I borrow from the library. I only purchase the books that I truly love.
