Which books would you like to see as Folio volumes? #2

The original thread is getting quite long and is starting to take a while to download, so I'm starting a new thread for future additions.

I've been thinking recently that it would be interesting for Folio to do a series of contemporary novels based on fairy tales. There's been a lot of that kind of thing lately (The Tiger's Wife, Mr. Fox, and The Snow Child spring immediately to mind) and much of it has been very very good.

It would match up well with their current lines, but also be new and fresh.

Not sure it really matters but I recently started a new thread on this subject here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/172107

>3 Chris_El:

I did see that, but didn't make the connection because of the word 'reprinted' in the title: I took it to mean that your thread was about books formerly printed by FS that people wanted to see reprinted.

Sorry about this.

No problem. :) My thought process was that Folio books are pretty much always re-prints of previously published books and I phrased my query accordingly. But I can understand how that could cause a bit of confusion.

>5 Chris_El:

Oh, it's true that FS basically reprint everything (in much nicer fashion, mind)! :)

I guess we can leave both threads and let Devotees decide over time which one they want to use? I don't think it's even possible to fully delete a thread on LT.

Sounds good to me.

I do really hope the Hornblower books are coming from Folio. I've read most of them but only have a handful. I would love to have them in Folio quality.

Has anyone read Ian Mortimer's history books? Two of them caught my eye but it seems perhaps not to many copies made it over to the USA. The Greatest Traitor and The Perfect King (The life of Edward the third) both look intriguing and if good books would be interesting Folio books.

>7 Chris_El:

Ditto on Hornblower. I would get a FS set of Hornblower for sure.

I've read the Edward III volume, but not his work on Henry IV yet. I've yet also to read his Time Traveller books - perhaps I'll pick up the Medieval England one when it goes on sale.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, FS needs to publish Watership Down!

So true!

One of the most requested in our recent thread was The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. That needs a serious look as well.

>10 Chris_El:

Every time I hear of The Doomsday Book, I think that it's got to be a typo/mispronunciation for Domesday Book.

The plot seems very similar to a book Orson Scott Card did. The title escapes me, but some folks go back in time to try to fix/alter? the timeline so history changes at the moment Christopher Columbus arrives in the 'New World'. I didn't mind that book, but I think I'd find Doomsday Book far more interesting.

Perhaps I'll swing by the library branch near work over my lunch break, see if I can pick up a copy of Doomsday Book.

I vote for Lucy M. Boston's 'Green Knowe' books for children. These would complement Tom's Midnight Garden very well, with full scope for charming and imaginitive illustrations. How about a box set for Christmas, Mole?

I don't think they are trying to fix or alter the timeline. It's been years since I read it and the beginning is slow. But, mostly it is about a modern young woman trying to survive the outbreak of the black death. I believe this book won a couple of major sci-fi awards.

Easton Press did a printing. I tried to pick up a second hand copy for a reasonable amount but someone else beat me to it.

>13 Chris_El:

Ah, the title is Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus.

In this vein, I'd also love to see FS print Eifelheim, by Michael Flynn.

Complete Christopher Marlowe would be welcome in a nice edition and would not be too big a task to complete.

Another vote for Hornblower. In fact I am surprised that the Hornblower novels have not already been Folio-ised.

Another vote for Hornblower and for the Green Knowe stories, and for Watership Down!

And also for Doomsday Book, although I actually preferred her To Say Nothing of the Dog, which is on the same theme, but set in Victorian times. Would make an excellent partner to Three Men in a Boat!

The mention of Ian Mortimer and his biographies of those Plantagenet kings reminds me: I'd love to see the FS do a series of literary biographies. What about the female titans, for instance Claire Tomalin on Jane Austen, Jenny Uglow on Elizabeth Gaskell, Hermione Lee on Virginia Woolf (and Edith Wharton), maybe Kathryn Hughes on George Eliot and Juliet Barker on the Brontes (or a reprint of Gaskell on Charlotte)? (I haven't read the Barker or Hughes, hence the question marks).

I would love a FS edition of Carlyle's French Revolution….

The Long Ships.

> 18 There already is a three volume Folio edition of Carlyle's French Revolution, generally available on the secondary market for around £30 in fine/fine condition.

Another vote for Doomsday Book.
I'd also like to see Folio edition of Gerald Durrell's Corfu trilogy.

Yes, Willoyd, I keep saying that about To Say Nothing of the Dog! Doomsday Book would be good too, since it appears to have lots of fans.

>18 BINDINGSTHATLAST: I would love a FS edition of Carlyle's French Revolution….

I think they have published it.

> 18 There already is a three volume Folio edition of Carlyle's French Revolution, generally available on the secondary market for around £30 in fine/fine condition.

Thank you so much. I didn't know that. I found a new copy online of $60 USD through Amazon. I recently ordered the 7 Dickens novels on the FS sale and this will make a brilliant set to read along side Dickens - you Dickens fans will know what I mean. Now, which will get here (Canada) first, Carlyle from the US or Dickens from England, both expedited, the race is on. I guess I know what I am reading until the Christmas sale now. Hopefully the Summer sale doesn't offer any books i think I need - I doubt my Account can handle another big sale.

Thanks again.

Tim

> 24 Congratulations! That sounds like a great deal for a new set. Enjoy Carlyle and his beautiful prose when he arrives!

Hornblower would be great. I could see a great amount of crossover from the Aubrey-Maturin hordes. A similar presentation to the O'Brians would seal the deal for me.

In a similar-ish vein, would Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series be suitable for FS? I only know the ITV series ('Sharpe's Tiger' has sat on my shelves for a decade unread), but I would imagine there would be a healthy market for it.

"The harps that once..." Sumerian poetry in translation

And "before the muses" Akkadian poetry

Also all of Sappho or any other archaic poets surviving work put into an edition together.

I would absolutely love to see Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death.

Has anyone read it?

Austen h. layarfs first book: Ninevah and it's remains, and his monuments book

Ivan Turgenev - Fathers and Sons!

>30 Evets_Kainzow:
Father and Sons was published by the FS in 1979. Available now very cheaply on secondhand market.

Maybe a new version of Fathers and Sons, for goodness sakes anything beyond 20 years should always be considered for a new remake and design. Not like its over saturating.

> 32
True , but I don't need the temptation of any more "must have" duplicate versions. A recent example was the republication of Brave New World in a stunning design with amazing illustrations. I bought it despite having the earlier FS edition from the 1970s bound in a foil-like cover. That cover was so unique within the FS catalogue that I bought it despite already owning an LEC version. I still haven't read it and most certainly will only do so once. So now I have three editions of something I haven't even read. If Folio starts extensively republishing their back catalogue in snappy new editions, my wallet and my bookshelves will be unable to support my heart's desire.

>32 gatsby61:
You're right! They now have more illustrators and better technology to make better and more original books. I personally love the current version of Great Gatsby over the old one.Also very old folio books do not have that touch of modernity that I like to see in the current ones.I hope they'll republish Fathers and Sons some day,as I need for my Folio collection of Russian masterpieces.

>33 UK_History_Fan:
Haha,I understand totally! But I hope they'll republish some of their previous books which newer members didn't get to enjoy - and here I am especially thinking of Waiting for Godot and Labyrinths (which everybody says is sublime)!

I think there certainly isn't harm, I look at some of the books by Cranford and Hardy and I would love to see what could be done in the present day with designs, illustrations etc.

>32 gatsby61:
Don't write off all the older FS editions. Many of them are absolute gems, and even in fine condition they have the very great benefit of being only a small fraction the cost of a new edition.

>36 wcarter:
Maybe on some but I have yet to find affinity in the Folio editions of authors I want. Reading North and South I think the general populace would think I wrapped a book in an old english lady's tea room wallpaper.

> 28 - I have indeed read it. Well worth the read, but it seems like the kind of book FS does not publish. I wonder what Postman would have said about the internet.

One book I'd love to see published by FS is Jaroslav Hasek's "The Good Soldier Svejk". This may be a repeat request, but it's well worth it!

I think he would see its usefulness but would not like to see it in school. He never used computers and there are talks of him saying he doesn't use email.

The folio society should publish it as a testimony to his love for the beauty of the written word and his love of printed material over digital media. It seems like the perfect book (thematically) for a fine press to release.

>37 gatsby61: "I think the general populace would think I wrapped a book in an old English lady's tea room wallpaper".

That's a major selling point for me! After all, Persephone Books have built their reputation and style based on exactly that!

http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/books/

>26 edmundoconnor:

I've not read the Sharpe books (there are over 20 so would be quite a commitment for a devotee) but his Saxon Stories series (King Alfred and the Vikings) is excellent, currently running to seven books I think, starting with The Last Kingdom.

Declaring a commercial interest first, Iain Pears is my favourite contemporary author. I do hope the Folio Society takes his work on soon. Why?

(i) 'An Instance of the Fingerpost' is the most ingenious and satisfying historical thriller I have read (and I have read so many others). You will be astounded at what you are reading when you catch up with it.

(ii) And for well-written, amusing and interesting art detective novels, try all of his Jonathan Argyll series starting with the 'The Raphael Affair'.

(iii) Also do watch out for the issue of his novel-in-drafting 'Arcadia' (its provisional name) which will be issued (in 2015?) as an app before being published as a book.

I would love to see some of the works of economists like Adam Smith and Milton Friedman published by the Folio Society. Capitalism and Freedom or the classic Wealth of Nations could even be printed as Limited Editions.

I have been holding back on the Limited Editions until now but if one of these two books is published I will not be able to hold myself back.

The Wealth of Nations was published in three volumes a few years ago - I can check on exactly when when I get home and can check my copy.

You are right, they did in fact publish Wealth of Nations. Still, this outstanding work deserves to be a Limited Edition.
They dont seem to publish too many economics books...

John Forster's Life of Dickens - though preferably with an introduction and extensive notes (to fill in the many omissions) by Claire Tomalin and Michael Slater!

From different perspectives, Lucas Bridges' "Uttermost Part of the Earth" is an overlooked gem, basically life in Tierra del Fuego as the 19th century became the 20th. I could imagine pictures showing the deep south "then and now".

And anything from Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos - with an emphasis on illustration rather than text. Because it would be an interesting switch around. How many literary fictions get swamped by pictures? Might be a fitting merge of art and language.

Has the Folio Society ever printed 1984? I would love to have that :)

>48 Edyno.Bathana:
The new Folio edition is coming this September (or maybe earlier)!

Byron's Don Juan please!

>50 cronshaw: Coincidentally in response to an invitation to do so from FS last week, I requested Don Joo-an as one of my top three choices for FS to publish (along with Dead Souls and Gargantua and Pantagruel).

And Barry Lyndon by Thackeray remains on my long standing request list!

>51 Conte_Mosca: Is that by any chance by the same Korean translator who did The Prisoner of Chi-Ron?

It may well be!

It is a sort of in-joke I had decades ago when I was at a school. I got fed up of people mispronouncing it so I took to only ever writing it phonetically as used by Byron (and the only way it scans properly) and have never stopped!

I overheard in the Members Room there was work being done on HP Lovecraft's works but it was deemed that there may not be enough broad appeal outside America so it's now a 50/50 on whether they finish it. I hope the scales tip as I'd love to see a Folio equivalent of Barnes & Noble's Hp Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction.

>54 wongie: The Library of America has a volume of Lovecraft. For a fine edition of Lovecraft, check out the Centipede Press limited edition - H. P. Lovecraft: Masters of the Weird Tale.

i have a paperback Omnibus, At the Mountain of Madness by Lovecraft; before its time and I would love to see FS do it justice

Off the top of my head:

I'd LOVE anything by Lovecraft, perhaps a 3 volume set (think of the illustration potential!)?

Famous Five and/or Adventurous four series by Enid Blyton.
The Swallows & Amazons series.
The Flashman Series
Biggles anyone?

I guess I'm a sucker for a series.

>54 wongie:

I would be all over Lovecraft!

I'd also enjoy Robert. E. Howard and other early Weird authors.

Lovecraft would be a great addition :)

Hume - Treatise or Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Les Murray - Killing the Black Dog
T.S. Eliot - Four Quartets (reprint)

Sandor Marai , Stefan Zweig would both be lovely as FS editions.

Burr by Gore Vidal

The Four Feathers by A. E. W. Mason

C. R. Boxer's 'The Portuguese Seaborne Empire', 1969. Just the kind of vintage history FS usually publish, and a suggestion I offer in supreme self-interest as I can't find a cheap, good cond. second-hand copy on the web.

> 64

I agree 100 per cent with you and would buy it instantly. My old Pelican copy is in a bad state. Luckily I have a hard back copy of his The Dutch Seaborne Empire, still unrivaled in English. Perhaps the FS can do a boxed set of CR Boxer's works, these two titles along with one of his books on early Brazil? Anyhow, a fascinating man who lived through most of the 20th century, dying as recently as 2000.

The same goes for J.H. Elliott - I would snap up a boxed set of his most important books at once.

Whatever happened to our mole? It has been rather quiet of late -- no more protesting its existence, I see.

》64 I would be really interested in this book as well. The Portuguese innovations in navigation allowed them to sail south, out of sight of Polaris, and this opened up sea trade. The Venetians were the big losers as goods were slower through their overland routes. That's how I think it started and I would love to know more. Thanks for sharing tbis one.

Boxer's Christian Century in Japan would interest me very much as well.

Edited to show which message I was replying to.

> 66
I think demand for this book is now overwhelming! All we need now is an Aubrey-maturin-style series of novels in the 15th century Portuguese fleet.

I'm baffled why Nabokov has never been issued! I keep hoping he's next in the mysterious Folio queue.

I'm reading Jens Malter Fischer's biography of Gustav Mahler in a very bland Yale hardback, but it's an excellent (and very fat) book. I think this is something that would be served very well by an FS confection, perhaps an imaginative design with Art-Nouveau / Klimt motifs.

>68 Bond_Girl:

I can only assume his rights must be very expensive. Otherwise, there's no good reason.

What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson (also author of I Am legend)

I'm going to repeat the suggestion I make almost quarterly as Moles are notoriously short-sighted. It would be dandy if you could see your way to giving the Folio treatment to Ashenden by Somerset Maugham. Thank you dear Mole.

I second the motion.

A Pippi Longstocking book by Astrid Lindgren

I'm surprised Folio haven't continued with more of Jules Verne's oeuvre following the success of their strikingly handsome 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Folio's earlier editions of Around the World in 80 Days and Journey to the Centre of the Earth look dull and dated in comparison. Verne may not be the greatest writer with respect to narrative style or characterisation, but he's a very popular and imaginative author whose adventures are a gift to illustration.

>77 cronshaw: I second that. I would love to see more Jules Verne. His books were part of the books that got me into reading (If I remember correctly they were small abridged versions with black and white illustrations every other page). Around the World in 80 Days is one of the suggestions I have in my FS Account.

>78 c_schelle:
I think I read the same edition of 80 Days as you when a child. I loved the book and have been cursed with incurable travelust ever since!

>80 UK_History_Fan: Could be. I can't find the books on the internet, but I bought them at the end of the 90s (in Germany). I would have to look in my parents attic where I store all the books I bought as child/teen. My most vivid memory was however of From the Earth to the Moon.

Edited for afterthought.

>77 cronshaw: onwards. 20,000 Leagues is one of my favourite standard Folio editions from the last few years, and I, too, would like some more Verne. I have very nice LEC copies of Around the World in Eighty Days, and From the Earth to the Moon / Around the Moon but the one title I've been searching for a decent copy of for years is Michael Strogoff: Courier of the Czar. The 1975 tv series made a bit of an impression when it was shown during the school summer holidays (a reminder for the nostalgic : https://youtu.be/47Y1iiLKCe8 ), and I wanted to read the story ever since, finally succumbing to a freebie e-version a couple of years ago. I wish Folio would hurry up and publish it, as I'd hate to have to buy the Easton edition.

I would very much like to see Folio have a go at The Illuminatus Trilogy. It was originally published back in the seventies but it is so on the ball regarding how weird politics and the news have got lately that it almost makes one believe. And they didn't even have the internet.

The scary thing is the authors were only putting into words what their readers were telling them when they (the authors) were magazine editors.

It's also a gift for an illustrator: the lost city of Atlantis and talking dolphins, just for starters.

(And, if Illuminatis is too unhinged for Folio, Watership Down is a beautiful, engrossing, perspective-altering book.)

Islandia by Austin Tappan Wright, seeing as it's currently out of print.

I like many of the other suggestions in this and related threads, especially Shogun and Watership Down

>84 Cecrow: - I have a copy of that book but have never gotten around to actually reading it.

Another I've just thought of, The Raj Quartet in four volumes, with maybe Staying On as a kicker.

>86 Cecrow: Folio published the Raj Quartet in 2009. There are several sets on abe starting at £45 from Ardis.

Raj Quartet's been done.

Excellent!

>86 Cecrow:
>88 Jayked:

A matching Staying On would be good.

The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler. The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu.
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.

>91 MobyRichard:
If you want a nice copy of Pearl Buck's Good Earth, may I recommend a 2005 Westvaco edition? Very nice book that can be picked up fairly cheap on ebay, especially if you're in the US (Westvacos are rarely found outside of the US, so shipping costs would add up). Cloth box, cloth binding, good paper, crispy nice typesetting, 2-color printing - a really lovely book. I can probably snap a couple of pictures tomorrow if you're interested.

It also comes with a cd, which is missing in some listings. If you look for it on ebay, you might have to search for "meadwestvaco", not just "westvaco", as the company adjusted the name following a merger in the early 2000s or late 90s. The edition was also subtitled "A Silk Road Journey" on the box (and box only), with E.M. Forester's A Passage To India issued the following year as "A Silk Road Journey II", also a lovely effort. Sometimes people sell both of them in the same listings.

Some sample ebay listings, no connection to any of the sellers:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/A-Silk-Road-Journey-by-Pearl-S-Buck-in-Presentation-Box...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pearl-Buck-SILK-ROAD-Good-Earth-Limited-Edition-Westvac...

>92 elladan0891:

Thanks! I'll have to check that out.

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago

>94 LesMiserables: Already been done (although fiendishly hard to find, in my experience)

>94 LesMiserables:
Published 2005. HCbooks has a copy for £50.

>94 LesMiserables: it’s an abridged one volume edition. See:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/41345#692389

I don't recall seeing this one yet: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. If any recent book calls for a Folio Society illustrated edition, I think this is it.

A House for Mr. Biswas (by VS Naipaul)

>99 bookaroo:, oh heck. I was about to triumphantly correct you, by telling you that Mr. is actually Ms. And I got trumped instead. What I get for not having read it yet.

A House for Mr Biswas

THE BELL JAR by Sylvia Plath. Volume II of her complete letters is coming out this fall, so interest will be elevated.

A Tyndale new testament. Wonderful English and the pocket sized one that I have from the British library is fine for the pocket but something with larger print would be welcome.
Plenty of scope for some marvellous illustrations.

OK Folio, you’ve published three out of four books I have requested (The Great Escape, I Am Legend, and Night). Now you’ve just gotta publish What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson and I will be forever grateful. And maybe The Road by Cormac McCarthy while you’re at it.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath; The USA trilogy of John Dos Passos; The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass; The Dollmaker by Harriet Arnow; A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul

I'll echo The Bell Jar. Seems like the type of book to be given the Folio treatment too.

Memories, Dreams and Reflections by Carl Jung

So Long, See You Tomorrow

I'm enamoured by Dali's illustrations for books. I'd like to see more of those - I know some other publisher did "his" Alice in Wonderland not too long ago and of course FS did a recent very lovely LE of that title with another illustrator (Sandwyk?) - but Dali did 100 or so projects of book illustration. Although I wouldn't want them to be as expensive as their 1001 Nights as beautiful as that is. Perhaps a smaller edition wouldn't do justice to his water colours though? Idk

edit: grammar

>109 ProbisPateo: I have a copy of the Princeton University Press Alice, and in no way do they do any justice to Dali's wonderful vibrant illustrations. If Folio were to do an edition it would have to be on the same scale as 1001 Nights, otherwise simply don't bother.

The White Goddess by Robert Graves. I would buy that in a heartbeat!

>110 HuxleyTheCat: I was wondering about the quality of the Princeton. I think I agree on the size being necessary. I am glad to have the 1001 Nights and I would be, begrudgingly willing to pay for the same experience.

- The Tibetan Book of the Dead

- A non-LE of the Kama Sutra

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Anything by Alice Munro
A newer edition of Borges's Labyrinths
Some Indian literature

Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden.

Still waiting for some T.S. Eliot, Mr. Mole.

Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz

Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith

>117 devilsisland: "Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith" An interesting choice, and to my mind a considerably better book than some of Folio's recent choices, but I would have thought that Gorky Park would have been the more obvious suggestion.

A reprint of The Apocrypha.

>118 HuxleyTheCat:

Polar Star is, in my opinion, the best book in the series.

I picked this one because I have come to the realization that quite a few of the classic detective books were better in my memory than they actually are. I have reread some of my former favorites recently and I have to be honest, I can't recommend or defend them anymore.

Time and place.

>116 d-b::

Second the TS Eliot; Samuel Beckett would be welcomed as well

Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations.

Did somebody mention The Bell Jar? Absolutely.

Re: Black Narcissus.

I don't know the book but the movie is riveting.

Emotions. How do we respond to them? Button them up? Let them flow freely? How does that affect those around us?

Absolutely stunning.

I would certainly be interested in a Folio book that came even close to Pressburger and Powell :-)

Nice to see someone who appreciates Powell and Pressburger!

How about The Last Samurai, by Helen DeWitt - I quite enjoyed that book. Some web site rated it the best novel of the century so far.

I'd love to see the Folio Society publish The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It would be wonderful to see it illustrated, perhaps with Max Vandenburg's hand painted book to Liesel Meminger as an insert. I'd love to see it produced in a few volumes of different sizes, featuring covers from some of the books in Liesel's collection, but I suspect that might be prohibitively expensive. It's a book I enjoy rereading.

>126 fiascoborelli: Good choice.

Top picks for me would be Fallada's "Alone in Berlin", and Chabon's "Wonder Boys".

Maybe a key Buddhist text. Ideally the Diamond Sutra, otherwise the Heart Sutra or the Dhammapadda.

Oh and a volume of the Upanishads and the Ramayana.

Also, I would like a reprint of The Apocrypha.

>130 Diglot:

Why? There are several Fine and Near-Fine copies on Abe for £20-£30: a reprint I'd guess would be more than £60 even if the leather spine and silk sides were dropped for something cheaper. It's a large book. I'll be surprised if it does get reprinted any time soon, not least as stocks of the former edition were cleared (unless my memory's playing tricks) at something not much over £10 in a sale.

>131 terebinth: good point! The Apocrypha happened to pop up on an old thread I was reading here, so I quickly put it in this thread before the secondary market could pop into my head.

Just purchased a near fine copy of it on Abe Books for $20 (+ $4 postage).

>132 Diglot:

Glad to have done a spot of enabling! At present secondary market prices it's one of the most remarkable Folio bargains, I would expect a price around £100 if there were a 2018 reprint of the same quality. And it wouldn't be (as my 2007 second impression is, most likely the first was too, and I doubt there's been a third) printed in Bury St Edmunds and bound by Hunter and Foulis of Edinburgh.