Why you shouldn't buy Penguin Clothbound Classics 

One of my favourite books is Jane Eyre. I had a cheap paperback as a child and I read it to pieces. As a replacement, I was given a Penguin clothbound copy for my sixteenth birthday. I turn twenty-six in a month and my copy still survives; despite being read dozens of times and accompanying me on more house moves than I care to remember. It's been shoved in bags and taken on numerous camping holidays and generally loved so it doesn't look new, but nor is it as destroyed as it has every right to be.

this is good it know because I've always thought these books are so pretty but I like my books to last a long time!

Oh that’s such a shame! I was thinking of purchasing one of these editions as a Christmas gift this year. I’m glad I saw this as I wouldn’t want it to be ruined. Thanks for making this.

The designer of the covers has put out a post on instagram I believe about the way the covers will be made going forward should last a lot longer! This was super recent I'm sure and I cannot find it now but I am absolutely certain I saw it - maybe got told off by penguin because they can't prove the longevity yet. I do find that the older ones tended to arrive to me already very worn, but every one that is of newer publication is still in perfect condition. I've noticed the inks on lots of the older ones have also changed colours now (like recent months, I haven't bought any this year!) since they were originally published, maybe they got changed for longevity too??

I experienced the fading or fragile printing on the artwork as well. I solved or remedied it with fabric protection spray of some sort. I opened the book and placed it pages-down on a paper towel outside and gave it a couple of coats. I personally bought The Count of Monte Cristo and it really helped to preserve it.

This was very interesting! It’s a shame they don’t hold well because they are so pretty ✨

Yeah i would be disappointed too if i have spent a good amount of money and it couldn't withhold my handling of it. That Dickens one is gorgeous though. I love the dark color with the pattern.

Thanks for the warning! I had the Brontë sisters bundle on my Christmas list, after this video I'm going to replace them with a different edition.They are gorgeous, but I don't want a book that won't survive being read and reread, shoved in my backpack, lent out to friends, and all around manhandled 😅

I bought the Jane Austen set awhile ago and realize as I was reading Northanger Abbey that the embossing on the cover was completely coming off. I now have them as pretty objects that decorate my shelves but not books I'll ever try reading again. I think if someone wants collector's editions of their favorite classics to exist beautifully on their shelves, these are great. As readable, functional books, not so much.

I've found the texts themselves vary in quality in these books. For instance, The Jungle Book and Oliver Twist use the text of the first editions (Oliver Twist in particular uses the original serialized texts), which leads to stuff that might have been altered in later editions being reinstated, so they're worth checking out just for that (and the notes in the backs of the books mention the major changes between editions for those curious). Then we get to Sherlock Holmes, and it outright uses the infamous butchered version of The Resident Patient that includes the opening paragraphs of The Cardboard Box in it (and the back of the book simply says something like "some editions include a shorter opening here," but doesn't say why and doesn't provide the text of it, despite the shorter opening being the original). Although not available as a clothbound, their English translation of The Nutcracker is phoned in as well (there's a whole section where the Nutcracker is called "Fritz" for a paragraph or two). It just strikes me as pretty humorous that in some of these books clearly put the effort in of reconstructing the original text and listing most of the revisions, while others... really don't.

yeah, i feel like the only function of these books is to stand on a shelf and look pretty. which isnt really worth the money imo, you're not even buying a book just a decoration lol(unrelated but that lipstick colour looks great on you! and that turtleneck really make your eyes pop :)

I'm honestly surprised that the fading was the only issue you had with these books! I was expecting you to say that the spines or glue fell apart as well. I don't know why, but it seems a lot of 'special editions' of books that look like eye candy in the store are terrible quality somehow or another (like those stylish Paper Mill Press editions of classics). On the other hand, the mass market old Penguin Classics I have that are 40+ years old hold up totally fine after many readings! Sometimes penny pinching pays off and results in a collection of boring-looking but reliable books, haha. :D

The only clothbound classic I own is Bram Stokers Dracula and I'm happy with that. I'm gentle with all my books.

I have a Wizard of Oz clothbound and I'm getting a Christmas stories collection as an xmas present. So far my wizard of oz is still looking good. Though I don't handle it too much or keep it stacked too tightly. But I will be sad if it starts crumbling and fading as its so beautiful.

Wish I had known that the design rubs off before I bought the jane austen set. I had to laminate them to protect them and I'm def not buying any more

These are one of the rare series that I am not collecting and I refuse to start now. I would love Middlemarch.

I was considering buy one of these editions. Thanks for the review! It sureoy helped me. I dont think im opting for it anymore now. Also, you got w new subscriber;)

I had bought Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a few weeks ago and now the boat centerpiece on the front of Treasure Island has massive chunks missing from it. I thought there was some kind of production error with my copy or that I wasn’t handling it properly. At least I found this video before getting any more Clothbound Classics, but I’m still really irritated because they were the first books I bought with my own money.

So good to know, I love that pattern on the Jane Eyre; it's very disappointing to see them peeling/fading like that!

My favourite Dickens is David Copperfield. So long but so worth it!

I immediately noticed this would be an issue when I bought my first one. I got Wuthering Heights, and I made the mistake of taking the sticker on the back off, and the whole design that was under the sticker was just completely peeled off along with the sticker. It's a shame because they're really nice books. I always stop and look at them whenever I'm in Waterstone, but I refuse to get them because of the quality

Is it a bad idea to buy them? Maybe. Am I going to do it anyway? Yes.

Oliver Twist is a really good read.

Honestly that feels like a scam. I only have one of those books - Pride and Prejudice - and I was already a bit iffy about it when I saw bits of the design come off with the tag and the way the glue had darkened that patch of the cover. I was planning on reading it since I only read the book in french so far, but I guess that's not gonna be the edition for it... Your poor Villette book looks so sad. I'm fine with books that show their age and use a little, it's part of the charm, but that only screams poor quality. I don't know if you or anyone you know is artistically oriented but if I wanted to save it I would probably brush/rub off the whole design and try to repaint it, either with special fabric dye or just acrylic paint without water.

I have two Bronte's in these beautiful clothbound versions, they're stunning and a piece of a gorgeous collection, that being said... I have not touched them at all. AT ALL. whereas my penguin versions are beloved, lived in, crinkled and written in and my most prized compared to the clothbound. I don't think I'll spend anymore money on them at all unfortunately.

Hi, all you need to do to actually read these books is to put a (folded cover) dust jacket that you make yourself on to them to use when reading. I use wrapping paper it’s usually reasonably sturdy without being too thick. Obviously only put sellotape to join the wrapping paper to itself. Don’t put any sellotape in contact with the actual book itself. You only need to fold in the bottom edges of paper. Leave the top open. When you have read the book simply slide it out of the paper and use it for your next clothbound book. Happy reading Claire Bott 🎉

Thank you so much for making this video. I've been eyeing these bad boys for a while now but now I can focus on other things! Hoping the best for you and your channel! Happy holidays!

Finally someone said it!! These books look so pretty, but it is just so sad that they fade so quickly!!

I have a set of the Jane Austen ones and after a few years they are really fading! Keep in mind I hardly ever touch them. I paid $100 but now I will have to sell them and lose out on money. 😢

Yes, you're right about the pattern fading. The same happened to one of my Penguin Classics...

i have about 35 classics. i use the library covers. my Dracula got messed up. so i bought them plastic covers. they are too nice to be spoilt😊

I think they're more beautiful when they fade, like an old book that has lost it's dustcover (even though I know they never had them to begin with!)

I do bookbinding. I never touched a book of that colection but it can be because it isn't embased in the book with the proper tools, It may be pressed with a hot press and foil, that is cheaper to make and can be machine made. The correct or more high end to do it is more custom and needs more human work, so it showld be a lot more expensive. It is also a trade that is kind of lost, so very little people do it

i buy in bulk for the same size from a school book website. it works out cheaper. i still need covers for the smaller ones like freud civilization and its discontents.

I totally agree with you and thankfully I have only purchased two of these…… I also don’t like the fact that they don’t open very well for reading. Thank you for the video.

Oh, dear. I have a few of these books. I haven't looked at them since I bought them and placed them on my book shelf. I'm going to go and do that now. PS: please tell your cat I love her.

Yes, I found this happening to my copies too. If you actually read these copies the print will rub off.

Ive seen them in the stores with the spines and covers rubbed off which is why I don’t collect them. I only have the Charles Dickens Christmas Stories one because its the only print I’ve found with those stories in it (so far) and it was on sale for half off.

Everyman's Library is a great alternativr if you want beautiful hardback books 💚💚 They are sturdy and will last a long time!

I have a few clothbound classics and I did read them and they became misshapen after I read them and now they don't look good on my shelf. So I think I'll stop collecting them, too.

Literally just finished Treasure Island, my first of this collection, and still have red on my hands from where my fingers have decimated several parrots from the cover. So I searched to see if was the only one and found your video. Thanks for confirming it’s not just me. Such a shame!

I collect these books and have recently picked up loads from Vinted for like £5 per book!

Oh, that is a shame! Thank you for this warning. I have been wanting to get better copies of some of my favorites. I would be so upset to see this happening to my books. What a disgrace that they are made so poorly. I've seen books decades old that didn't look so bad.

I took some wipes for disinfecting and removed the red rubber print from my copy of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. This took about two minutes and now it's just a grey book but at least my hands won't turn red anymore. I think I'll do the same with Tolstoy's war and peace. One thing is for sure, I won't buy those clothbound editions anymore.

I have the paperpacks to read and want the clothbound classics to decorate my shelves. I want to collect the Jane Austen one in this version. I bought sense and sensibility from amazon but it had white flowers😭. I want the pink one to complete my collection. How did you get the pink one?

Thank you for the great information.

I just got inferno yesterday and the paint is already rubbing off on my hands 😔

Honestly considered collecting these but I've moved quite a bit in the past couple of years so I've stuck with lighter, more easily moveable paperback collections instead and honestly thank goodness I did. You're not the first person I see talking about how fragile these editions are and honestly that just annoys me? Like that is just such poor business practice? When you dish out that much money it is not at all unreasonable to expect that the books could actually survive being read and displayed, like that is literally the two things they are supposed to be able to do? Ridiculous tbh, definitely steering clear of them now

you might be able to get them rebound or preserved somehow but i think thats gonna cost morw than the original book 😢

Does that version of Wuthering Heights also include Agnes Grey in it?

this is so sad. I just bought the Jane Austen and Great Expectations cloth bound collection. I wonder how long it will last.

Not only do they crumble a bit on the covers, but also I hate holding them open personally? The pages don't have the best integrity, and I hate the material of the cover when I'm reading.

Oh no, I've been saving up for the Bronte collection. 😢

The Moby-Dick I bought in the store was already a little worn, some of the whales had little nicks on it. On one hand I regret purchasing it because they're apparently fragile, on the other it is probably the best design of Moby-Dick I've ever seen. For one there's actually a white sperm whale on the cover, you'd be shocked how often publishers get that wrong!

Such a shame! I’ll have to check my Picture of Dorian Gray

i buy super old books from downtown LA at a spot i got. will probably last me a while. and idc about the book cover. you shouldn’t. the treasure trove is just a peek away.

It's really sad as I prepared to buy a dozen 😢, Black paperback classics instead.

They should’ve come with a dust jacket and maybe the books would be better preserved. Or you can always make your own.

Thank you.

the sheets will make them last. i dont ever touch the books with my grubby hands😂 my first book was Dorian Gray the first book they did.

What bothering me about Penguin the last few years is the physical quality of their books, The physical quality of their paperbacks is going down. The last few I bought had a plastic coating on the covers that begins pealing upon reading.

miso is so cute...

*Me having just bought 2 of them* Oh no...

Surely the issue you're having with your Charlotte Bronte novel is a fault. I was going to purchase Don Quixote, but I think I'll pass. Thanks for the warning.

Oof. Thank you for making this video before the holidays, LOL. I've never been fond of getting new beautified editions of classic books, especially the most-circulated classics that you can find in any used bookstore, particularly if they don't come with any supplementary materials (notes, introduction, etc). To me it seems mostly just wasteful of both money and paper, although I can't fault anyone for liking them or buying them if it's what they want. I think, for me, the problem with these kinds of books is that I think they have a particular appeal to young/new-blossoming readers who don't have a lot of experience buying books to know what's worth it. If you go into any Barnes and Noble (/Waterstones/whatever else but I'm American so I'm going with B&N), you'll see tons of displays on the first floor for books that are full of just public domain text, with nothing else, but there'll be a fancy cover, and it'll just be so attractive and new. I can't help but imagine the targets for these books are young readers going to the bookstore with what little money they have, reading some of their first classics ever. And because they're inexperienced with buying books, they'll see a ten-to-fifteen-dollar Wuthering Heights or Pride and Prejudice and buy it, thinking it's a steal, because a lot of new, modern novels are in the twenty-to-twenty-five-dollar range. But if they aren't as familiar with their local used bookstores, which tend to be less frequented by children and teenagers, they might not realize that they're paying for just the cover, essentially. You can get these books used for less than five dollars, almost everywhere else. But, well, if you're old enough and have your own money and know that you're paying a premium just for the cover, go ahead! I have definitely bought new editions of classics as gifts for people, too-a book has a very different sentimental meaning, I think, when it's a gift. A new book can have whatever sentimental meaning you want. You can buy it if you think it's pretty and will look nice on a shelf, but that's always the vibe I've gotten from series like the Penguin Clothbound Classics. The fact that they are so well-represented in brick-and-mortar stores does lead me to believe that this is somewhat the case; they must sell relatively fast. It's a shame then that they're as cheaply-made as you've shown... Although, for all my trash-talking, all that paper being wasted on new editions of A Tale of Two Cities, or whatever, when you could just buy one at a used bookstore, doesn't really bother me as long as they're finding homes and readers who want them. What pisses me off for REAL is when they sell people (definitely a lot of teenagers) the "complete works/plays" of William Shakespeare with absolutely no notes, introductions, anything. That is the only thing I'd call outright a predatory ripoff. Any new reader of Shakespeare is gonna find the plain text incomprehensible; and they really might be naive enough not to realize that nobody who reads and understands Shakespeare, reads and understands him like that. But they'll be like, "oh a pretty hardcover with 38 plays, and it's only $25! I'm a young eager English literature nerd! That's a steal, I'll buy that!" OH they are gonna get the money and the wind knocked out of them so fast. They're paying for a decorative doorstop and that's it. It's not the that they're usually priced at so much money to waste, but that it takes advantage of seeming like such a bargain for what must ultimately be a discouraging product to any prospective readers. Ugh. Now THAT is where Barnes and Noble can bite me, LOL.

I find everything Peng. Classics has done for the last 20 years or so to be disappointing. They designed to look pretty on the shelf for people who use books merely as decoration.

U can buy clear covers for them can’t u ? I like the feel of the cloth over and don’t mind mine without the design but u can get covers if u want the design to stay on

That's why you should use plastic covers or something like that.

She rambles without getting to the point. I thought this was about the problems of the editions not a tour of her faves.