Completing sets and series

An exchange concerning the currently on sale Oxford Shakespeare led me to start thinking seriously about which Folio sets and series I am (or will be) making a serious effort to complete. The answer is 'not many'; in fact, the only series which I am making a concerted effort to complete is the Nonesuch Dickens, where I have four titles left to acquire. I'd like to complete the Aubrey/Maturin series but with only ten on my shelf (and those the first ten), this aspiration is likely to remain unfulfilled. I have most of the Folio Poets, four of the vellum-spined LEs; most of the Myths and Legends and Victorian Adventure series, and two of the Fairy books and I have absolutely no compulsion to purchase more of any of these. I get the impression that many (perhaps most) here are in the completist camp, so which series have gaps you just have to fill?

I fully understand what you mean, Fiona. I've struggled with the completist itch for a long time and gave in on the Oxford Shakespeare. They are so lovely and uniformly bound and fearing never to see them again I ordered the whole set two weeks ago after failing to find them online on the website. And now they turned up in the sale...

I'm also collecting the Aubrey/Maturin series and too have ten. I don't have Dickens and have not found a series I would like to collect.

If I care much at all for an author I'll usually in the course of time set out to acquire and read most or all of their work, which may or may not render Folio editions an irrelevance to me for writers of whom the FS is only ever likely to publish a fraction. My O'Brian run, begun fairly late, reached completion on one of the last occasions, perhaps the very last, when a general discount was offered. Where possible I'll buy older series, if at all, all at once rather than assemble them gradually in inevitably varying condition: so my Folio Trollope arrived one day in three boxes from Ardis. Dickens I and Hodgkin's Barbarian Invasions came all at once too.

With what I think of as artificial series, though - Folio books in a series binding related by theme if anything and written by various hands - I've generally not the slightest urge to pursue completeness. So, I've currently a solitary Victorian Adventure volume, ditto the Dark History or whatever it's called (Black Death and the rest), three of the '87-'91 Folio Press Fine Editions, and a smattering of the Ancient (etc.) Civilisations, and haven't any plans to seek more of any of those. I've bought a further couple of the run of little volumes with Ann Muir-marbled boards lately, and may eventually own a full run of those, as they're delightful and very cheap: but that incompleteness has so little occupied me that I couldn't say offhand how many I still lack.

None for me also. I buy series as they come along, if interested, and don't generally like to buy secondhand. You don't know where they've been, and postage is punitive. I have complete Austen, Trollope, Dickens, Hardy, Conrad, Eliot, Brontes, Stevenson, Kipling, O'Brien, Chandler, etc. I think I missed one Wodehouse collection, but they're never going to have a complete Wodehouse anyway. I bought some of the original 1950s Shakespeares new, but don't want to supplement them. I had a surfeit of Shakespeare at university, and turn to my old Collins Complete when I want to refer to him. Likewise the only Tolkiens I own are paperbacks with "Instructor's Copy" tattooed on the side. I have a few Folio Poets, excluding the Romantics, though Selected Poems irritate me; it's like censorship having someone decide for you what's worth including.

I'll complete my Letterpress Shakespeare set. Someday. Maybe.

I can be a little impetuous in embracing a particular author. I'd never read a word of, or given a thought to, Ivy Compton-Burnett until scanning eBay's Folio Society offerings one day not long ago. A seller had listed there the 19 volume collected edition of Compton-Burnett's novels, from 1972, limited to 500 copies and published by Gollancz, which he alleged the FS had distributed. I don't know whether that was the case, but was curious enough at the very existence of an extensive uniform limited edition of a novelist published when such events had become few, that I began to read one of the books online. Oh, and I hadn't mentioned that the listing included a copy of her first novel, excluded at her wish from the '72 publication, plus a two volume biography and a companion to her work. My enthusiasm for what I was reading prompted me to pay the buy-it-now price within hours - or was it minutes? - as it was a much gentler financial proposition than the couple of sets available on Abe. Currently reading my fourth of the novels, and well content so far with the result of my impulse buy.

I've completed the Folio Conrad, Hitchhiker's Guide, and will likely complete 007.

I am really strugging with this issue.....

Should I get more of the Oxford Shakespeare set. I originally bought 10 and then 6 more and now thinking of getting more. Should I get the rest of what is avialable as this sort of offer at one stage won't be repeated. The ones that are now not available are the less popular titles.

Should I get Henry IV part 2 instead of just Henry IV part1 which is in my basket. Then after reading these posts hould I get the remaining Tragedies and just have the complete Tragedies set which I already have most of plus just a few of the Histories and Comedies. Then Titus Andronicus and Troilus and Cressida currently don't apeal to me and is Cymbeline part of the tradegies ?

A lot of ins and outs in the buy basket at the moment and currently holding off !l

>1 HuxleyTheCat: I'd like to complete the Aubrey/Maturin series but with only ten on my shelf (and those the first ten), this aspiration is likely to remain unfulfilled.

I'm "only" short of four but I share your view. I'm unlikely to get them given the ludicrous prices on the secondary market. I am a completist at heart, but not at any price.

At this point, if Folio publishes a book as a part of a series, I find myself less likely to even consider buying it. The completist in me knows I will want the complete series, and the realist in my knows that I'm unlikely to get the complete series. I've been burned too many times - missing out on some of the Patrick O'Brians, the never-completed last Jane Austen set, the unlikely-to-be-completed current Charles Dickens set, the I'm-sure-it-will-never-be-completed current Bronte sisters set, and so on - I've come to the sad conclusion that Folio series publications are merely an invitation to disappointment and frustration.

My only Folio series publication purchases these days occur when I can purchase a complete set on the secondhand market for a reasonable price, where I know that the full set already exists, but it is all still available for a less-than-prohibitive price.

It's more by luck than judgment that my O'Brian run is complete. I've never yet been driven to pay significantly above inflation-adjusted Folio Society prices for an OOP volume, as far as I can recall, but if the wrong few of those were missing... I just don't know. I was pretty tardy in acquiring them, I thought. Publication began in 2008, my introduction came by way of getting the first four books free in May 2012's set sale, and I mopped up the last eight at a 30% discount in April 2014.

Lately, when there's been a series the FS is at all likely to complete, it's been one I'm never likely to start to buy: either an author I'm happy to avoid, or one whose work is already represented in a good enough form on my shelves. As said, I've not tended to give any thought at all to those Folio series defined by binding rather than author, but it seems a very long time since one of those last began. There's Lincoln and Jefferson, I suppose, if two books are enough to constitute a series: any others?

I agree that the way FS handles series can be frustrating and even off-putting. There are books I haven't bought because I felt that the sequels wouldn't be published anyway. The latest Brontes are such a frustrating case, for example, only I bought the two books still hoping that they would get to form a complete set at one point. I find them much more appealing visually than the older set, but have been told that no other novels will be released like this. In hindsight, I don't think I would have bought them but gone with the complete set straight away.

What I did complete are the Fairy Books (after at first wanting to buy only those whose illustrations were particularly appealing, then caving in after all), and Hitchhiker's Guide. I'd love for them to do the complete Discworld, but I strongly doubt that will be the case.

I have:

Complete Hitchiker series
LoTR and Hobbit but with no desire to get Silmarilion
First two discworld books and will get more as they are released
First three Fleming books and will get these also as they are released
Would get The Shining if I thought it was going to form part of a set

Non Folio I have:

All three Penguin Clothbound box sets and will get more if they produce them as sets with the cases.
Harry Potter slipcase editions, 1st six and have the final one on preorder.
Bernard Cornwell Last Kingdom series, all 1st edition

So yeah I do like sets and am a bit of a collector completionist. I would hate having books that were part of a set but not having all of them.

Cymbeline is really a Late Romance, although it was listed as a tragedy in the First Folio. It is a superb play, and one of my favorites. Don't miss out on it at this ridiculous price (the same goes for Troilus).

Being raised as a nineties kid in the 'Gotta Catch 'em All'-generation, the completionist urge is quite strong in me, as long as I can see merit in the entire series. As an MA in Latin and Greek, the Myths and Legends series (currently 12 books, including the most expensive books, in) instantly stood out to me, as did the Classical Philosophers, which I already managed to complete through second hand finds. I also picked up the Dickens infection, and am currently trying to complete Dickens III (although I'm in no great hurry, currently at 8 titles). Other than that, I'll instantly buy any books by Isaac Asimov and Ian Flemming, but that's about the extent of the FS series I really want.

I love going through secondhand-bookstores and finding some title I still need for my Myths series or a Dickens tome, and would almost be sad to finally complete them. The surge of happy surprise at the sight of a not yet owned copy is most satisfying (and addicting!). Therefore, I wouldn't really be into buying them on the internet - I'd much rather go on an epic quest for a missing volume through stuffy bookstores and gloomy basements.

Other than that I own a few random books from a series (e.g. 4 Rainbow Fairies, 2 Jane Austens) but there's no itch, partly due to the costs, partly due to a lack of interest, in completing those at all.

That having been said, if I order a book in a non-FS series, it needs to be the same size, lay-out and publisher throughout the series at all times. I hate mismatching books within the same series and will actually avoid publishers who fail to make matching editions within a series, hoping that some day they will see the error of their ways.

>12 terebinth: "There's Lincoln and Jefferson, I suppose, if two books are enough to constitute a series: any others?"

Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie / As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning
Patrick Leigh Fermor - A Time of Gifts / Between the Woods and the Water
Primo Levi - If this is a Man / The Truce

Being a relative newcomer to Folio and this forum, I was wondering how many books the Victorian Exploration series consists of? To judge if it is worthwhile to chase them all, in contrast to the ones who speak to me right now. These are the ones I found in the prospectuses (non-alphabetical):

The Source of the Nile
Into the Dark Continent
Special Correspondent of the Times
Captain Cooks' Voyages
History of the Conquest of Mexico
Pathfinders of the American West
The Fatal Shore
London Characters and Crooks
The Raj
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (going of the book design)
The Great Game

>19 HuxleyTheCat: Edit:

The Quest for the Northwest Passage
Darwin's tetralogy(?)

>18 NLNils: The Quest for the Northwest Passage
and, following the same binding style, but perhaps a controversial inclusion, the Charles Darwin tetralogy.

>18 NLNils:

Full list here:

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

>17 HuxleyTheCat:

Laurie Lee a bit dubious, Fiona - different format, and dissimilar bindings. But there is a nice pair of DH Lawrence, The Rainbow/Women in Love.

>18 NLNils:

Not sure what the fourth one may be, but FS published at least three books by Darwin:

On the Origins of Species
The Descent of Man
The Voyage of the Beagle

Somewhere there is a thread here on FSD on Victorian exploration series.

ETA: Thanks to the previous post I now know that the fourth Darwin in this series is:

The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals

I'm never put off buying because I'd feel compelled to buy a whole series. I usually come to a decision a book or two in, and more often than not leave series incomplete.

I bought the O'Brian as they were published, being already a great fan. I completed the FPFE and Conrad with some enthusiasm, the above-mentioned Victorian Exploration rather less enthusiastically. I have nearly all the poets - the real, early, small format series, and would buy the missing volume if I noticed one in good condition. But I have only just over half the Trollope, only about half the Hardy, two or three Folio Poets - too clunky, only the more recent Ancient Civilisations - some of the others are badly dated, two of the new Jane Austen, only the classical period Myths and Legends, and by an act of will (ha) just thirteen of the Letterpress Shakespeare. With these last, I drew up my list after acquiring two, and bought those and only those; some were bought without commentaries, so I also have bought the Oxford books
to match. I'm tempted by the sale to get more of the Oxfords when I get home, so I'll end up with three groups of Shakespeare: letterpress and Oxford, Oxford only, neither. And among more recent offerings it's a firm zero for fairies, Fleming and Pratchett.

>22 affle:

affle,

I have been eyeing some of the Ancient Civilizations series. I would not know when looking about the publ;ishing dates of the original books, unless matching the authers and titles but which ones would you NOT recommend as being badly dated. I guess this will be always an evolving field

(ps also, its probably Monday, what does the FPFE stand for? )

regards

>20 affle: Outstanding link! Immediately bookmarked for further reference. Could you explain to me how I lookup series by publishers, just like this one, on LibraryThing? Many thanks!

When I consider this question, I find that I am not a compulsive completist, as I am happy with about 15 Trollope and 7 from the Hardy sets.
Still wanting to get the Second Jungle Book in the correct size format (bought on the secondary market without realising there was a larger size printing), in which case I will have completed that series (in one size).
I have 6 of the Victorian Exploration and Travel volumes, and will pick up a couple of more I suspect, but feel no need to complete.
I have not yet completed the HHGTTG set, as I only read the original trilogy and suspect that I would have a similar conflict if/when they proceed with the Earthsea trilogy.

However, I have sought out all the Paul Cox Wodehouse (I think, having only one Psmith, are there more?) and Dorothy L Sayers (although these volumes have disappointingly been done in different formats and the recent short stories are illustrated by Paul Cox rather than Natacha Ledwidge. I eventually purchased the second volume of Father Brown Stories about 15 years after buying the first.
I will also probably collect Pratchett volumes as they are issued (hopefully another two this year?), although I would not expect FS to publish the complete Discworld set.

>17 HuxleyTheCat: I agree with >20 affle: that I had never thought of Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie / As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning as a FS series, although consecutive autobiographical books, as their binding is in no way compatible (although they are adjacent on my bookcase), and FS have not published A Moment of War.
I wish they would reprint the Patrick Leigh Fermor Between the Woods and the Water, but I guess I will get on the secondary market at some stage.

>25 CarltonC: Not in series, but themed with The War in Granada, The Spanish Bawd, Shades of the Alhambra and South from Granada. I shelve the five together.

>23 peto11:

At least three of ancient near east books are over fifty years - I had The Hittites in paperback when I was an undergraduate well over fifty years ago and it wasn't new then. At least two of the Latin America books are over forty years old. This is not to say that the books won't provide an introduction, and they are well made and available rather cheaply, but archaeology has changed so much that I'm not at all sure they can be relied on.
.
FPFE = Folio Press Fine Editions, a very nice set of fine press standard books from about 25 to 30 years ago:

http://www.librarything.com/publisherseries/Folio+Press+Fine+Editions

If you search these FSD threads you'll find a fair bit of discussion of them.

>24 NLNils:

The easiest way to find FS publisher series is to put 'Folio Society' into the site search box at the top right of the window, then scroll down the left hand side of the results page until you see 'Series', and click on that. That will give all the series with Folio Society in their names.

You need to remember that publisher series are part of the Common Knowledge feature of LibraryThing, which means they are made and edited by members of LT, and may not be either complete or accurate. Much more could be done on the FS publisher series, but there isn't much enthusiasm for the work among the FSDs, and they aren't often referenced. The reference I gave above, and the FPFE one just above, are reliable however.

Remember also that the FSD wiki has a wealth of FS bibliographical information.

>27 affle: I thank you once more for taking the time out of your day to be of such great assistance!

>20 affle: >25 CarltonC: Well, the format is exactly the same and both are printed in Walbaum, so there are at least some similarities, but, if you are not willing to concede on Lee, how about Christopher Hill - God's Englishman / World Turned Upside Down?

No, there is only the one Psmith (pronounced "Smith," hahahaha!) from FS.

Overlook/Everyman Wodehouse has published the entire canon.

>29 HuxleyTheCat:

I shouldn't have have forgotten Christopher Hill, Master of my alma mater - it's a very good pair of books, and well matched, a clear mini-series.

I'm away from home, so can't check, but my distinct recollection is that Cider with Rosie is a narrow book, and the other is not, although I'm happy to concede... for the moment.

>31 affle: "Cider with Rosie is a narrow book" https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22418031568&searchurl=tn...

Cider with Rosie - is there some confusion with the 'collectable' edition?

>33 bookfair_e: No, no confusion, we are discussing the 2003 Folio edition and the 2010 As I Walked Out...

>32 HuxleyTheCat: Fascinating, as my recollection of the two volumes was that As I walked out one Midsummer Morning was narrow, but they are the same size.
But the design is very different, with an illustrated paper front cover on Cider with Rosie, with an illustrated slipcase. See

The titles down the spine are also designed very differently.

But then if I look at my two Dorothy L Sayers sets, they too have differently designed covers (although the same illustrator).
Fascinating how we can view books differently.

Not a completist at all. My collection now is smaller and much more targeted. Limited strictly to things I love and that matter to me. This has made it impossible to be a completist as there are very few series of books that I've loved from start to finish.

Though I do have the complete Tolkien, but that was for my wife.

>12 terebinth: >17 HuxleyTheCat: House of Borgia / Rise and Fall of the Medici
Dead Sea Scrolls / Rosetta Stone
The Silk Road / The Spice Route
The Brontes: A Life in Letters / Jane Austen's Letters
History of the Indians of the United States / Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee
Mill on the Floss / Middlemarch

>37 HuxleyTheCat:

Ah, yes, there have been quite a few such couples now you mention those: and unless there are any other Amblers I'm unaware of, The Mask of Dimitrios / Epitaph for a Spy can be added to the list.

I should apologise for being woefully unclear in the question I left hanging, or meant to leave hanging, in my post above:

"As said, I've not tended to give any thought at all to those Folio series defined by binding rather than author, but it seems a very long time since one of those last began. There's Lincoln and Jefferson, I suppose, if two books are enough to constitute a series: any others?"

I'd intended to relate my sense, right or wrong, that the FS has moved away from initiating series by putting disparate books by various hands but with some thematic connectedness into a common style of binding - the Ancient Civilisations, the Dark Histories, the little volumes mostly of memoirs with Ann Muir boards - and to ask whether that's just me imagining a particular lack of such series in recent years. So that was my "any others?", uttered while voicing semantic doubt as to whether the possible exception that occurred to me, Lincoln and Jefferson, should be considered an exception at all, since there are only two of them. In any other context, a series of events, or novels, or whatever, wouldn't be taken to merit the term if it had but two members: that's just a pair.

>37 HuxleyTheCat: / >38 terebinth:

Another good example are the Umberto Eco books, The Name of the Rose / Foucault's Pendulum, whose spines together make a subtle 'FS': http://www.imgrum.org/media/1310023885785492037_629060199

>38 terebinth: Perhaps some of the pairs or couples were originally intended to grow into series; I'm thinking of the George Eliot reprints for example.

>39 MST-3000: I really like the binding design for the Ecos - very attractive books.

Upmarket, there's Finnegans Wake and Ulysses. It would be good if that pair would grow - perhaps Portrait and Dubliners in one volume would make a book of matching size.

I have two books from a Folio Society set of Graham Greene: The Quiet American and The End of the Affair. They look very nice in green binding. Any body know how many Graham Greene books make up the entire set? And what are their titles? I’ve read The Quiet American, and it’s a great book. I have not yet gotten around to The End of the Affair.

>42 ramon4:



Poor quality Photo from the internet, but it gives you the answer you are looking for.

Then there is a matching blue set of Greene's entertainments, also a set of 6. I'm out of town, but I'm sure you can search for it on ebay. And then there are 3 (I think) matching single volumes: The Human Factor, Travels with My Aunt, and The Comedians.

Yes, three matching single volumes.

NLNils

Thank you. I have almost the same set. Only my volumes are individually slipcased, and instead of GRAHAM printed across the top of the six volumes, each of my two volumes says GRAHAM GREENE in black letters on an orange background. Then on the bottom of the spine, instead of saying GREENE across the bottom of the six volumes, mine says on each volume FOLIO SOCIETY in black letters on an orange background.
The two volumes I have I bought individually at two different points in time. Unless somebody tells me different, I’m going to assume that the six volumes in your photo were are one time sold individually with this slight variation on the spine.
I don’t know if I’d be interested in completing the entire set. Except for The Power and the Glory, I have not heard of the other titles. I would be interest in picking up The Power and the Glory if the Folio Society releases it again. And I’ll keep a look out for it on the used market.
Thanks again.

I am one of those people with Inferno and Purgatorio but no Paradiso.

I check ebay about one a week for that elusive tome

>47 el_danos: I've been tracking the Paradiso for over 5 years. Three years ago I picked up a copy for $250 to finish my daughter's set. Still looking for an "affordable" copy to finish my set.

>47 el_danos: I don't think you have any chance with a weekly check, as a copy at a decent price will be snapped up very rapidly either by someone who actually wants it (which would be good) or by someone who knows that they can make a profit on it.

I keep thinking it would be great if we (as FSds) could organise some form of information exchange where we can list wants and notify of matches when we find them, but I don't know how we would go about creating such a thing in a suitable place and in such a format that it wouldn't be abused by non-members.

>49 HuxleyTheCat: We do have the informal Enablement: Good Deals on FS books thread.

>50 kdweber: We do, but I was thinking of something a bit more targeted.

For example, Paradiso: a couple of years or so ago, I was in Kensington, where there is a bookshop which often sells Folio Society books. Amidst the two bookcases full of good quality Folios I found two still shrink-wrapped copies of Paradiso, at £40 each. I bought one and left the other for some lucky soul, but it would have been great to have been able to directly pm those who I knew were looking for a copy - there are many people with a history here for whom I would have been quite happy to have bought the book then and there, in order to secure it for them - but at least those who genuinely wanted a copy would have had a much better chance of getting it. The main problem with the "Enablement..." thread in this circumstance is that it will undoubtedly be monitored by resellers.

Anyway, just some random thoughts.

I got lucky, and discovered all 3 Dante volumes in the Oxfam shop in York at £100 for all three, which I snapped up. Unusual, in that Oxfam is usually the worst charity shop for prices, systematically selling FS volumes at ridiculously overinflated prices, often in terrible condition. Apparently they have someone look on the internet for "average" prices and then put them up for sale at that level, irrespective of whether they have actually sold at that price, and without thought to condition (The Oxfam employees that do this obviously have no idea of the importance of the presence of a slipcase!).

>26 drasvola:

Talking of books not in series but "themed and shelved together", is it mischievous of me to make Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine neighbours on my shelf? Somehow it tickles me, but no-one else seems to notice.

>53 Conte_Mosca:

Michael: Contrasts and contradictions are the spice of life. And yet, there are nuances that help sometimes. If Burke was against the French Revolution he understood the misgivings of the American colonies. Paine was most influential in America and on political movements at the time; both shared the idea that man's lot on Earth ought to be based on rational grounds. I think that you shelved them together very appropiately.

>53 Conte_Mosca:

Further to your comments, it has been pointed to me (by affle) that I have shelved Lolita next to Alice in Wonderland. Yet, it happened by pure coincidence. Affle's keen eyesight discovered my "mischeviousness."

>53 Conte_Mosca: is it mischievous of me to make Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine neighbours on my shelf?

Both mitigated by the immediate presence of Citizens, which adds a further nuance, with Tom Paine an outspoken supporter of the Revolution but very lucky to get out of Revolutionary France with his life. Nor was life smooth for him in post-Revolution US. Principles are fine until you actually gain power, it seems.

>55 drasvola:

I wonder how many other weird shelf companions we have. I have noticed my Richard Dawkins volumes are shelved next to Bede's History of the English Church and People,

>57 Conte_Mosca:

Entering a territory fraught with danger. Shelving is directly related to structure and Weltanschauung. Shelf materials and dimensions limit some choices. Order, category and classification offer multiple options. Colour and size might decide attraction or rejection. Theme and author can be used for distinction or similarity. Read or unread might become criteria. And then there's language to be considered. Dear me, Michael, I'm afraid to continue...

>57 Conte_Mosca:

One day, somehow, my shelves will have system, and order, and stacks, except very minor ones of solander boxes, will be a thing of the past: in the meantime books go where they may. It took my wife to remark on Aleister Crowley rubbing shoulders with the fifteen volume Works of Jeremy Taylor.

>25 CarltonC: Happy to get an excellent copy of The Second Jungle Book today (in the same size as the rest of my set) at our local market, which was only £5 due to the poor condition of the slipcase.
I think that I now have the complete set of works printed in the 1980's other than Short Stories, which I do not feel the need to collect as I have the five volume Complete Short Stories.

>57 Conte_Mosca:

I've just noticed I have Jennings Goes to School shelved next to Songs of Innocence and Experience.

Yes, I can be a thorough-going completist, but only when I believe the full set is worth getting. Thus I have complete sets of Aubrey/Maturin, Hardy, Dickens (II) - I pretty much bought the O'Brians as they came out once it became clear that they would go the whole way. I wouldn't pay the prices now being asked, and faced with that, I'd probably eventually dispose of those books I had rather than have an incomplete set. On the other hand, I waited five or six years to complete my set of Hogarth Virginia Woolf volumes of essays, so maybe I wouldn't!

I've never tried for the complete Trollopes, but do have a complete run of the Barchester and Palliser novels, plus one or two others. I'm not a fan of the bindings which I think are unimaginative and too easily marked, and would love to swap the Barchesters for the new series (if they ever complete) but can't justify the cost to myself. The mismatch between Cranford and the rest of the Gaskell sequence that FS published is a constant source of irritation, but I reconcile myself simply because the former is listed in Wikipedia as a 'novella' rather than one of her full novels, thus enabling me to assuage my completist thirst.

Quite a few authors I've followed up complete sets on the secondary market rather than buy later selective editions - e.g. Eliot and Forster. Others I've bought sets which I wouldn't have bought unless complete, e.g. , the original Austen, Bronte sisters, Sherlock Holmes, and Dark is Rising sets as they came out. (Actually, Austen was my original free gift, so purchased is the wrong word, but it was the completeness that attracted me). Equally, I can't bring myself to buy some authors where only one or two have been published (the Woolfs in particular irritate the h*ll out of me, as do the Sparks). I think that's why I'm buying fewer FS books than ever before, as they now seem to have moved away from completing series (I'd love them to do the full Rougon-Macquart cycle, or a proper set of Woolfs).

Having said that, I'm a lot more relaxed about completions now than I used to be. I do have a complete set of Fairy Books, bought largely as they came out, but am planning to dispose of them all, and the same with the Poets. I completed the series, but find I don't read them...... Equally, I am a fan of the Jungle Books and the Puck/Rewards pairings, but am disposing of the rest of the Kipling children's series as I cant say they do much more for me. And so on.....

>63 EclecticIndulgence:
As far as I am aware, the list linked by >20 affle: is complete (19 titles).
See:- http://www.librarything.com/publisherseries/Folio+Society+Victorian+Exploration+...

>65 EclecticIndulgence:
The trouble is that there is no official list of what makes up the set. The Oregon Trail is the same height as the others, has a similar cover design, is set in a similar era, but is a bit thinner than all the others.
I have shelved Oregon Trail with the others in the series and it does not look out of place.
I suspect it is a very subjective matter of opinion as to what constitutes the set.

>66 wcarter:, >67 EclecticIndulgence: I have about half a dozen of these titles and do not have them grouped together, but always mentally include The Stones of Venice, as although different genre, the cover design is consistent, if more elaborate. I recall that the FS catalogues did group some of these titles together, but did not include The Stones of Venice which was published at the same time, so I guess this is out of the official canon, but it feels consistent to me.

>66 wcarter: >67 EclecticIndulgence: It is subjective, and personally I do shelve the Oregon Trail with the rest of the series - it looks close enough. But I agree that exactly what constitutes the set is a little vague. It's been given the collective name 'Victorian', but then we have Captain Cook and the Conquest of Mexico taking place long before and The Seven Pillars of Wisdom taking place afterwards. One title that's not included in the list but falls right into it in terms of subject matter and (almost) cover design is Churchill's My Early Life. However it's a few mm taller than the others.

One of my favourite Folio series in terms of general aesthetics and I wish they'd do more of them.

>65 EclecticIndulgence: etc

It occurs to me that the oddness of this assertion arises because of confusion about editions. The book was first published by the FS in 1973, and was very different from the new edition of 2008, which seems to me authentically part of the series, differences of style being no more than might be expected because the binding design is not by David Eccles himself. The other late book in the series, The Great Game, is also by another hand, I assume because Eccles had retired.

>69 Levin40:

There's also 'The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy' which, design-wise, is more or less part of this series.

As I see it… The ‘odd-one-out’ of the nineteen books is The Source of the Nile. Each of the other eighteen books, has, at the bottom of the spine, a black decorated bar in keeping with the design on the spine, with (most of them) the Folio Society colophon being a scroll device above the bar.

The Source of the Nile stands out by having no bar and the colophon is circular.

>71 MobyRichard:

I would say that

1. 'The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy' is actually in series with 'The Stones of Venice'.

2. These two are not part of the so-called Victorian Exploration series.

I agree, though, that the two series are superficially similar.

As a buyer of FS books, I preferred the not-so-old days, when FS would state in advance that they are committed to producing a set. Unless my memory fails me, they did this for both the Patrick O'Brien series and the Andrew Lang Fairy books. Back then, if one committed to purchasing early there was a bit of a discount. As a result, I purchased them upon publication, and completed both sets.

With the secondary market asking prices for some of the books in these series, if I had waited til they ended publication, I would not have completed either series.

But today, FS seems reluctant to commit. I have in mind both the recent Jane Austen set and Ian Fleming's 'James Bond' set. While they did complete the Austen set, FS never explicitly committed before hand to do so. I did buy them as they were produced though, and it is a handsome set. The 'James Bond' set would be only 14 books, yet there is not commitment by FS to produce them all. While I am purchasing them, I wonder how many other folks have passed, and sought alternatives, rather than risk having another incomplete collection.

>74 sdawson:

I couldn't say if the same applied to the Fairy Books, but with the Aubrey/Maturin titles there was quite a period between the publivcation of the last of them and their beginning to go out of print, so nothing to stop a relative late comer to the series from completing the run at reasonable prices. I did so myself, beginning with the first four books in May 2012's set sale, and finishing with the last eight in April 2014 when a discount (20 or 30%, I'm not sure which) was offered on them all.

>75 terebinth:

Fairly said.

> 74 The reluctance to commit is well illustrated by the proposed L.E. of great war poets. The F.S. indicated that at least four would be published, but it seems that this will be a 'series' consisting of two books.

>77 xrayman: it seems that this will be a 'series' consisting of two books.

Have you heard something about the Owen that I haven't?

>77 xrayman:
If you go to the Folio Blog Archive for June 2017, JWB says there that although the Rosenberg has been dropped the Owen will appear in time for his anniversary. In an earlier blog he mentioned the illustrations that had been commissioned. I can't see FS dropping the most admired of the war poets -- if war poets the previous two were.
At one time FS took completing series more seriously. When the mammoth Trollope issue was under way they regularly reprinted earlier titles that had run out.

>77 xrayman:
So far it looks like it will be a series of 3. Joe personally confirmed to me that they decided to drop Rosenberg /insert a bunch of expletives here/, but will publish Owen this year - I expect it will come out in early November to commemorate Owen's death, just like the first 2 volumes were released on centenaries of deaths of Brooke and Thomas. Nevertheless, your point still stands.

ETA: hadn't realized >79 Jayked: beat me to it when I was posting

>79 Jayked: '...if war poets the previous two were.'

Not much doubt about Edward Thomas, but better to call Brooke a soldier poet, I think.

>78 folio_books: >79 Jayked: >80 elladan0891: I stand corrected. I may be wrong again but I believe Rosenberg is the only one of the four that the FS have not previously published, it seems odd that he should be dropped.

>78 folio_books: I think it unlikely that I would ever hear something regarding the FS that you hadn't ;-)

>79 Jayked: >81 affle: Much as I admire Thomas, of the four I would regard Owen and Rosenberg as truly poets of the war. Brooke barely had a chance to experience the protracted horrors, let alone have them influence his writing. Admittedly the fact That Jeffrey Archer is such a devoted fan of Brooke may also prejudice my thinking.

>82 xrayman:
>83 xrayman: "Admittedly the fact That Jeffrey Archer is such a devoted fan of Brooke may also prejudice my thinking."

I presume he's biased because of both having lived at The Old Vicarage, Grantchester at one time or another.

I bought the Brooke, but was put off continuing with the series when FS reneged on the Rosenberg, "the only one of the four", as you say, "that the FS have not previously published." Also, I wasn't greatly impressed by the quality of the letterpress in that first volume.

I started with the FS Dickens (Nonesuch in the maroon/brown leather binding) when most of the series was still available. But, it took me quite a bit of effort to find the last two volumes eventually. When I had them all except for the last one, I didn't mind paying double the new price for the last one ;-) It was great to finally have them all complete as a set in my library. Still think it was good to complete the series.

Same for the Folio Poets: bought most of them new, but had to track down the Kipling with a bit more effort to complete it.

>83 xrayman: I think it unlikely that I would ever hear something regarding the FS that you hadn't ;-)

It's more likely than you might think, hence the question. I was quite prepared to believe they'd reneged on the Owen, after the Rosenberg debacle.

My main man at Folio has disappeared for several months now and the flow of useful information has entirely dried up in that time. I'm told he will be back "in the spring". I have two theories, both probably wrong.

Edited for afterthought.

>74 sdawson:
Unless my memory fails me, they did this for both the Patrick O'Brien series and the Andrew Lang Fairy books.

I couldn't say about the Fairy books, but there was definitely a period of indecision over the O'Brian series. I remember phoning up and asking early on about whether the series would be completed, and those at FS said that they were waiting to see what the response was like. I'm fairly certain it wasn't until at least 5 of the books had been published for a while that the FS finally committed to the whole series.

Does anyone know if Folio Society will release another edition of the Fairy books by Lang?

>88 Matthew1956: I think it's unlikely. It is a big series (12 volumes), and Folio hasn't re-released similar 10+ volume series in the past that I know of (excepting the Dickens sets, and the last one of those was not all the volumes previously released).

I'd be up for another large 10-12 book series from FS. I wonder if they are?

If we get enough signatures, maybe we can get FS to finish the novel collections of the books they have not finished, like Sherlock Holmes, Bronte Sisters, and others.

>91 Matthew1956: These sets already exist. It's true it can take time to find them for a reasonable price and in excellent condition on the secondhand market, but I expect it is a better use of your time and efforts than writing to FS with requests.

>90 sdawson: Me too! Perhaps another series of children's books. These seem to sell well.

>92 wdripp: it is a better use of your time and efforts than writing to FS with requests.

So very true. If everyone on FSD requested the same book, it would still represent only a tiny proportion of the customer base as a whole. And it's worthwhile pointing out that Folio routinely scan this Forum (the Mole - see the FSD Wiki) and can detect any upsurge in interest. We can only guess what may be in their minds but I'd be astonished if a reprint of the Fairy Books figured at all. Less likely than even the O'Brians.