Name of Folio series (and list of volumes)

Hi all,

There seems to be a series of Folio books with very beautiful covers and often about adventures, travels or historical accounts - but also sometimes "normal history".

The books I'm thinking of, is the likes of:

Richard Burton - Secret Pilgrimage to Mecca & Medina (2004)
Richard Burton - The Source of the Nile (1993)
Captain Cook - Captain Cook's Voyages 1768-1779
Charles Darwin - The Expression of the Emotions (2008)
Charles Darwin - The Voyage of HMS Beagle (2003)
Peter Hopkirk - The Great Game (2010)
Roger Hudson - The Raj: An Eye-Witness History of the British in India (1999)
Lawrence James - The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (2005)
T. E. Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom (2000)
Lewis & Clark - Pathfinders of the American West - The Journal Of (2000)
Francis Parkman - The Oregon Trail (thinner than the others, but similar design)
William H. Prescott - The Conquest of Mexico (1994)
John Ruskin - The Stones of Venice (2001) (Perhaps not part of "series")
William Russell - Special Correspondent of The Times (1995)
Henry Morton Stanley - Into the Dark Continent (2002)
Glyn Williams - The Quest for the Northwest Passage (2007)
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EDIT: Missing books from the above list:
Charles Darwin - The Descent of Man
Charles Darwin - On the Origin of Species
Robert Hughes - The Fatal Shore
Henry Mayhew - London Characters and Crooks
---

Questions:

Does this series have an (un)official name? Is it a series at all? The books are on diverse topics and diverse genres, but their covers kinda signals "I'm buddy with the next book".

Have I missed any books in the "series"?

>1 adasfar: You are correct that is is a sort of "series." I don't know the complete list, but there are two more Darwins that could be added. I think I have a catalog from the early 2000s that refers to them unofficially as Victorian Exploration and Travel. I don't think Stones of Venice is considered part of the "series." I think The Great Game was the last one published continuing the design format.

>1 adasfar: This question came up on a recent thread. Here is the full list of titles in this series (19 in total).

http://www.librarything.com/topic/153667#4074220

On these boards the series has gone by a variety of names. In Joseph Connolly's essay in Folio 60, he refers to it as "Epics Of Empire And Exploration".

EDIT: I meant to add that Folio 60 confirms this to be a definite formal series, stating (in the entry for The Source Of The Nile) "This was the first in a series of Victorian or similar works of travel and exploration, each with a binding designed by David Eccles in imitation of a gold-blocked publisher's binding of the period.". As a consequence, it has also been referred to as the "Victorian Travel And Exploration" series, as brother_salvatore rightly says.

Thank you both for the quick replies!

I allow myself to update my first post for completeness sake.

This set of books is identified as a Publisher's Series in LT's Common Knowledge:

http://www.librarything.com/publisherseries/Folio+Society+Victorian+Exploration+...

The covers are mostly wrong, of course, because most of the books are published elsewhere in commoner editions.

Does anyone own all 19 books in this "series"?

>6 Eastonorfolio: Yes.

I bow down to you.

Welcome to LT and the Folio Society Devotees. If you expose yourself much to these threads, you will find the need to acquire complete sets grows within you, and drives out repose.

You should take a photo and share it with everyone. I viewed the image that Dr. Carter put up and it was impressive, even at only 8 or 9 books.

I have all these and the Stones of Venice (not really part of the set but similar). However, I only have about half of them shelved together. The rest are all over the place according to subject matter.

I have a mere 13, but I only buy the books I want to read, so not tempted by the remaining six.

>12 wcarter: I support your choice Dr Carter. I too don't have the completist gene that would compel me to purchase books in a series that I'm not interested in. Then again, Folio editions have known to bring me to read on topics I would never have considered appealing before...

Warwick, just now saw you'd uploaded the above photo montage... GORGEOUS! Thanks so much for that. So far, I only have London Characters and Crooks and will eventually receive The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, but I'd very much like to have On the Origin of Species and The Source of the Nile also. Won't shop around for those. Won't. Not yet anyway, as it is only too certain I'll end up wanting many more of them along the way, if only so I can have all those beautiful spines sitting side by side.

Because of this photo, I am now trying to collect some of this series. Just received "On the Origin of Species", and "Pathfinders of the American West", is on it's way. I think I'm ready to order "London Characters and Crooks". I don't think I'll buy the entire series since some of the subjects do not interest me, but they all look very well designed and blocked. I found many titles on Amazon's secondary market at very reasonable prices.