February Collection

Today sees the end of the New Year Sale at long last and I'm hoping/expecting/assuming that next week we'll be looking at the February collection on the website and hopefully a catalogue to follow (remember the cards last year at this time?). At least it will give us something relevant to talk about.

I spoke too soon - extended until Monday 5th. (Yawn).

I can feel you. At least we now have a thread ready. Do you believe they'll start releasing new books as early as February?

>3 bacchus.: Do you believe they'll start releasing new books as early as February?

If I were a betting man I'd put my money on next week. Having said that, Folio have proven anything but predictable in the past.

Oh good. New releases. Just what I need. Let me just go clean the cobwebs out of my wallet.

I'm wondering if there will be a Feb collection. Usually there are some hints by now. It may only be a couple of titles, not a collection.

I can't imagine what the titles will be.

They have to be clearing room for something. Don't see any other reason to keep extending the sale.

If i had to guess, they were always planning on having the sale run through Feb 5, and the 'extensions' are marketing gimmicks.

>8 gmacaree: I would largely agree, but it does mean that they can end the sale early (that is at the original ending time) if they have sold more than they expected. So I would guess both marketing and flexibility to be the reasons.

So where did you hear that?

>10 Urmut: fake news, or state your sources

This from Folio in response to my enquiry about the February Collection:

"Our next collection of new titles will be launched in our Spring catalogue. This will be winging its way to our customers at the end of this month."

Disappointing, I have to say. But so much for trolls.

>13 folio_books: Three weeks!? I can't wait that long!

>15 Ukinninum:

No, and no idea, in that order.

We'll just have to be patient.

>17 Ukinninum:
You wouldn't happen to know a guy called Urmut would you?

>18 Levin40:

You took my next question straight out of my mouth. Brothers, perhaps?

>19 folio_books:
My money would be on twins ;-)

>20 Levin40: My money would be on twins

Identical, I presume?

>21 elladan0891:

If not conjoined.

>22 Sarah_1978:

Their names have no significance to me.

>22 Sarah_1978:

Google records only 4 occurrences of the string "Ukinninum" on the Internet, one of which is linked to "Urmut":

>22 Sarah_1978:

Ah welcome, Sarah. The third member of the triumvirate. Personally I wouldn't have said those names were ethnic in origin, just unusual. There are plenty of unusual names on FSD.

>24 Ukinninum:

But how would anyone know you are a person of colour?

>24 Ukinninum: And maybe I should flag or report them for inappropriate behavior.

And maybe they would find it an strange coincidence that three new members, who joined on the same day and have engaged in 'conversation' with each other, just happen to have identical ips. But I suppose that's probably because you're all from the same household, and work from the same pc.

The two were also spotted posting in the same thread on a Tolkien blog

>28 Levin40:
>29 thebookrunner:

I'm late to this conspiracy. What's up?

>30 MobyRichard:
New member 'Urmut' turns up yesterday morning. Spams the groups with comments and new topics. At this point it's hard to tell whether it's a very enthusiastic new member - which would be fine of course - or a trolling attempt, but some strange comments like >10 Urmut: above are included. A few hours later a second new member 'Ukinninum' pops us, exhibiting the same behaviour and writing style as the first. Gets called out and indeed some members discover that the names have been linked together on other forums. A third new member 'Sarah_1978' then appears to defend the other two, throwing around accusations of racism as well as downright abuse (see thread: Classic Literature from Folio Society 2018).

Those are the dots, not very difficult to connect them.

>31 Levin40:

My suggestion would be to ignore the dots, period.

>32 drasvola: That is clear now, yes.

Why bother trolling this site? I think it's a "false flag" operation by Easton Press Collectors.

>34 podaniel:
Sheesh, really?

Yes this definitely is the EP collectors trying to turn us against each other.

Also i'm super excited for the end of this month now

>36 harvestRoad:
Heh Heh.

Now is the time for us all to unite and fight our common enemy: the Easton Press Collectors.
We shall go on to the end. We shall fight on the Easton Press Collectors group page, we shall fight on their topic strings and posts, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the comments, we shall defend Folio Society Devotees, whatever the cost may be.

Forewarned is for forearmed.

Now, off to warn them to find their long bows and broad shields, fill the moat with extra crocodiles, pull up their gates, and armour up.

So, to reset the topic. Do we have any guesses for what might be coming. They've been a lot quieter about letting things slip lately and it's not quite as fun in the lead up.

My original intention was that this would be a hard news thread regarding the February collection. It's just a shame Folio have delayed it, for reasons best known to themselves. But I would have thought we have more than enough "guessing" threads already.

>13 folio_books: "Our next collection of new titles will be launched in our Spring catalogue. This will be winging its way to our customers at the end of this month"

Does it mean they're replacing February and May releases with a single Spring collection? That would actually be good news to me, as that would probably mean fewer books released a year, which would give me a chance to catch up on the wishlist backlog.

>38 podaniel: Meanwhile I'm just sitting on the sidelines with my pile of George Macy books munching popcorn.

>32 drasvola: Yeah I'm in agreement that it's a little odd, but honestly what's the point of engaging? I figure you respond to constructive comments, ignore or flag others as appropriate, but don't make a big deal out of it. Why waste more time and effort than needed?

>42 elladan0891: And the May collection is usually much better than the February one, so it's cool that it looks like we'll be getting it sooner

>42 elladan0891: Does it mean they're replacing February and May releases with a single Spring collection?

They didn't say but I wouldn't be surprised. I'm really missing my regular contact who's been "away from the office" for months now, not back till, quote, "Spring".

What I would like to know is, what limited editions the FS will produce this year.

>45 wcarter:

My latest theory, after they cleared the decks and then pushed back the February Collection, is that an LE release may be imminent. I repeat, it's just a theory. I think the Charles van Sandwyck would be a likely candidate, based on the blogs.

>46 folio_books: There's also The Wanderer and Other Poems, which should be very close and will be heading to my shelves on the day it's released.

>47 gmacaree:

Yes, indeed. A few have been discussed. I'd be tempted by The Wanderer just as much as the CVS. I'd really like to see them first, though.

I was informed that The Kama Sutra was to be published early 2018 in a LE - I think it has been mentioned here previously.

>43 Edmund_Fitzgerald: Please be sure to wash your hands before handling the GM books :-)

>50 ultrarightist: did you mean after the Kama Sutra or the popcorn

>51 gmacaree: Good one

>50 ultrarightist: touche
>51 gmacaree: Whatever you do don't mix the Kama Sutra and popcorn . . . that's how you get yeast infections

Well if they're gonna publish, i mean let's just face it, porn, with 120 days and Kama Sutra being mentioned, why can't it be Lady Chatterley?? DH is such a wonderful writer and all his other novels have been published by FS before.

>54 harvestRoad:

I see where you're coming from, but I think that there's more to the Kama Sutra than just saying it's porn. There's a spiritual significance behind it. And it's a historically valuable artifact. I'm not saying that you have to agree with the Hindu take on sexuality, especially considering that even many Hindu sects don't align with the idea of sexuality as portrayed in the Kama Sutra. Nor am I trying to imply that a discussion of sexuality doesn't contain some element of concern with sexual gratification. But the Kama Sutra is part of a larger theological tradition that examines sex through a broader spiritual lens. Yes, you can say that it's just smut at the core of things, but it argues that sexuality and the simplicity of sexual desire is not something we should be ashamed of because our bodies our divine. That adds a lot to the conversation.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that yes, by western standards, the Kama Sutra might be considered pornographic. But what's interesting is that the Kama Sutra doesn't consider itself pornographic, nor was that it's intention when it was originally written. It's intention did overlap with ideas of sexual gratification, but only because the cultural context in which it was written didn't require the two things to be kept separate on the basis of sex being pornographic as a general idea. In other words, the fact that we even can dismiss the Kama Sutra as pornographic is an artifact of the impact of Abrahamic theology on society, and that speaks to the significance of the Kama Sutra as a response to those ideas. I'm not saying that Abrahamic ideas are a bad thing. In fact, there's been a lot of cultural transaction between Hindu and Abrahamic beliefs over the years, and Hinduism itself has changed since the Vedic days of the Kama Sutra. I only think that we should enrich our cultural understanding by not limiting ourselves to Abrahamic persepectives, the Kama Sutra has something to add to this conversation by presenting a different attitude towards sex.

Also, the idea that the Kama Sutra is exclusively pornographic is more of a popular belief that isn't necessarily entirely accurate. Obviously the explicit discussion of sex is the most well-known part of the Kama Sutra, but the bulk of the work actually discusses the philosophy of how sexuality and love should be integrated and balanced with other needs for a healthy life. That part is interesting for two reasons. First of all, it provides a historical snapshot of Vedic culture. But also, some of the ideas that it raises are actually quite interesting, though others are of course very anachronistic (only natural for a text that old). Most of western theology draws from Abrahamic traditions which carry implicit assumptions about sexuality that we just seem to take for granted. But Hindu theology is an entirely separate school of thought, and it's interesting to see how the belief that human bodies are divine (and expressions of God) plays into a different outlook towards using those bodies for 'base' things like sexual gratification. So even if you don't see the point of the 25% of the book which deals explicitly with sex (to be honest I never saw the appeal of it either - though I recognize it's an important historical source), there's a lot more to the Kama Sutra that isn't at all pornographic.

I'd love to see Lady Chatterley's Lover get published. I've actually never read it myself but I do enjoy DH Lawrence. But I'd rather lift Lady Chatterly's Lover up rather than push the Kama Sutra down by dismissing it as purely pornographic. Obviously not everyone would want to buy the Kama Sutra, and honestly I probably wouldn't either, but I think it would be interesting to see Folio Society take it on.

>54 harvestRoad:
>55 Edmund_Fitzgerald:

I subjected both these books to a lot of thought and analysis when I first read them at the age of twelve. I came to the conclusion that the the Kama Sutra was by far the better buy as most of it was wall-to-wall filth, whereas Lady Chatterley, while good in parts (particularly those of a private nature), only contained two or three chapters of interest.

>56 boldface: Lady Chatterley ..... only contained two or three chapters of interest.

I know the chapters you mean :) But I do agree Lady Chatterley would make an eminently suitable Folio. And I said yes to Kama Sutra on the survey. But definitely no to the 120 Days.

>55 Edmund_Fitzgerald:

Thank you for the interesting explanations and background.

Lovely post edmund_fitzgerald, Kama Sutra definitely deserves a Limited Edition by FS treating, most out of any of the three books.

I'm just on a major D.H Lawrence trip lately, that's all!

Will there be one new Pratchett book or two? I really think we are owed two. Not to be negative, but it could be zero as well.

>60 Eastonorfolio:

Unless something has changed recently, I'd bet on zero.

I found a site called The Spring Collection on foliosociety.com: http://www.foliosociety.com/category/10174

I could not find the first book on that page, Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World by Niall Ferguson (http://www.foliosociety.com/book/BMM/), in the wiki list of the published books.

Edit: The title page shows MMXVIII as publication year.

>62 c_schelle: Good detective work! Certainly the first new title of Spring Collection. Seems like they might be drip-feeding them onto the website, just as they did last time.

There is also another link with the headline New Titles with three books (http://www.foliosociety.com/category/10175) including Empire and additionally Under Fire by Henri Barbusse and The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (is this a rerelease?).

Anne Frank is definitely a re-release, got it on my shelf at home. Can't say for sure if the font or anything like that has changed but the main features (cover, slipcase, images) all look to be the same

I don't see the Anne Frank diary on the new titles page. Removed perhaps?

>66 adriano77: It's still there for me. I'm glad to have the chance to pick it up.

>67 gmacaree:

Weird, I just see Empire and Under Fire. I don't need a copy (got one sealed a few months ago) but I just wanted to take a look at the page.

-edit. Can someone provide the direct link please?

Here is the link to the Anne Frank: http://www.foliosociety.com/book/DAF/diary-of-a-young-girl

"Searching for a specific book or page? We're sorry. The page you were looking for cannot be found. Try searching our site or clicking on one of the links below."

Weird.

-edit. I switched my region and now it's showing. I guess it's region-locked for whatever reason...

Also, yes, this is exactly the same as the previous edition.

I can see all three titles. I m a ROW customer if there is a kind of geo-limitation.

Disappointed here by the titles anyway. WW1, WW2 and Empire are a bit cliche.

Edit : less sarcasm.

Under Fire! Great news! This might just break my, ahem, very firm resolve not to order anything until Summer sale. If I do manage to hold out for now, I'll definitely order it during the Summer Sale at the latest.
Already have Anne Frank.

>62 c_schelle: Nice find! We'll probably get to see more and more titles added there the coming few weeks.

Hopefully the other books will be more to my liking, none of these tickle my fancy. If I wanted Anne Frank, I'd buy it on the second hand market for 15$ instead of new for 35 GBP RRP...

Under Fire with photographs instead of illustrations? Seems like a mistake to me. Still tempting though.

>71 Niurn: Edit: less sarcasm.

I admire your self-control.

Under Fire looks like a possibility though I'm starting to OD on Folio WW1 trench memoirs. Empire is another example a la Great Contemporaries of a horrible, dull, utilitarian binding, so no chance. And Anne Frank is yet another reprint, good as it is. My wallet can start to come out from hiding - there's no immediate danger.

Very odd binding design for Empire: it just has me thinking of a 1980s/90s dust jacket, and not a particularly inviting one at that.

I do not hold Niall Ferguson in high regard, quite the opposite. His market is mostly American conservatives, so the choice of title is really strange as well.

>77 NLNils: His market is mostly American conservatives,

No potential FSD customers, then.

>78 folio_books: Is that sarcasm?

Sufficiently advanced sarcasm is indistinguishable from...well, something.

>75 folio_books:
Perhaps the long overdue appearance of Le Feu is timed to precede the LE of Wilfred Owen; Owen, a Francophone, was introduced to it by Sassoon, and influenced by it -- as have been any number of French novelists mining the subject.

>81 Jayked:

I think it likely I'll pick up Le Feu even if I'm finding it hard to get enthusiastic about it yet. I have no such doubts about the Owen LE.

At first, Empires being less than stellar in appearance, and considering my overall disinterest in the Folio-ization of less than dead historians; I wouldn't have considered the Ferguson book for five minutes. However, it was brought to my attention that Ferguson's audience was largely American Conservatives... I'll have to at least do some research. Although I highly doubt the definition of Conservative I use and the one implied, which is generally anyone that isn't a Socialist in the U.S., will bring me to the same conclusion, I need to at least do my homework before dismissing the title. Knowing Folio definitely leans Communist, I always do my best to help balance it out. But don't get too hasty, I even read Christopher Hill.

>58 SF-72: >59 harvestRoad:

Thanks! I always appreciate the chance to pontificate.

I haven't read any English translations of Le Feu, but the excerpt from Robin Buss's on the website isn't reassuring. "Squaddie" wasn't in use until the 1930s.

>75 folio_books:
Anne Frank appears to be a new edition with a new introduction and preface. It also more pages than the earlier edition (294 v. 320).

>88 wcarter:

I think The Diary of A Young Girl is a reprint of the 2005 edition. It appears to be the same as the 2005 edition that I have - the same introducer: Eva Hoffman; preface, editor and translators. The 2005 edition has xxvi prelims followed by 294 paginated pages, totalling 320 pages, the same as the new release.

>87 Jayked:

I would counter by saying that English wasn't in use during the Trojan War.

>90 MobyRichard:
Hardly a valid comparison. WW1 is (just) within living memory. It's not asking too much of a translator to find an idiom in keeping with the period.

>89 bookfair_e:
Thank you

>91 Jayked:

Well, he could have translated it as "swaddie." Or he could have left all the French words with no English equivalent at the time untranslated. Both perfectly correct. Would that really be more comprehensible?

>93 MobyRichard:
It would have been truer to the spirit and the times of the original. which should be a higher priority for a translator than being merely comprehensible.

>93 MobyRichard:, >94 Jayked:

Was there a French equivalent of Fritz or Tommy? I can't bring it to mind. And 'poilu' became English slang at that time, and would be acceptable in a translation.

For the Germans, the French used fritz, boche or chleuh/schleuh.
Talking about themselves, the poilus would say bonhomme or biffin.

They might have used tommies, will have to look it up.
Edit: yes, they did.

>96 overthemoon:

Haven't come across biffin, Barbara, and it's not in my large Hachette - thank you.

Does anyone know what words the Le Feu original uses?

I've never heard biffin before, either, and I wouldn't have guessed bonhommes, but I found them in several sites devoted to military "argot".
Sorry, I'm on a different keyboard and can't find the arrow for linking to message 97.

>97 affle:
IIRC (it's been a while) Barbusse uses poilu for enlisted man, Boche for German, without elegant variation. Officers are given their rank. As the book progresses, Allemand is used more often than Boche as the futility of war is realised. British troops aren't mentioned much if at all. There is, briefly, a contingent of black African conscripts. There is in fact a lot of dialect and colloquial speech, sometimes challenging, with inevitably vocabulary for details of military life, but it doesn't extend to specific slang for military types.
Bonhomme is used occasionally, but I wouldn't have thought it specifically military.

edited for spelling

Monday would be a welcome day for the unveiling of the new February collection. Looking forward to the new fiction titles, as I found the soft-launched non-fiction books thus far non-exciting. Anne Frank is a deft production, but that’s the unique one I can read in the original Dutch.

I think it might almost be a better idea to release a few books a month. Then there would always be something to look forward to, and it would keep interest up and steady.

Might be less of a drain on the wallet in smaller chunks.

The big sales are really the events now.

Considering their shipping fees I definitely prefer it when the releases are in few bigger batches. It's one thing when they sell slowly and it doesn't really matter if you take a while, but that's not always the case.

The sad truth is; I received the same email response just a couple weeks ago >13folio_books, and it seems a pretty automated response. They have been known to shuffle a bit, but I think the soft release was probably meant to hold us over until March 1st. That's also a Thursday, one of Folio's favorite days to post the new collections. The only hope is, the titles, which I can't even search Anne Frank, sell very poorly and they get fidgety and post a week early.

Oddly, I received a small brochure in the mail marketing the new titles Empire and Under Fire. No discount offered or mention of the Anne Frank volume. I say oddly because I usually receive the mailers well after the titles have been advertised on the website and by email.

New title on the website (unless I missed it)
Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese & Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece
Patrick Leigh Fermor

Introduced by Artemis Cooper
Illustrated by Katyuli Lloyd
Photographs by Joan Eyres Monsell

Patrick Leigh Fermor’s celebrated travel memoirs of Greece, presented in a two-volume set, illustrated and with photographs from the first editions.
US$ 135.00

One more: The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise
Alfred Russel Wallace

Introduced by George Beccaloni
Preface by Steve Jones
A milestone in the theory of evolution and one of the greatest books of 19th-century historic travel, this lavish two-volume edition brings together a wealth of illustrative material.

$180.00

>108 sdolton:

Neither are new--I own them both (and highly recommend them both).

>107 sdolton:
You can check what has already been published by the FS by referring to the Complete List of FS Books at:-
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Groups:BOOKS_PUBLISHED_BY_THE_FOLIO_SOCI...

Thank you! Great list.

So, it's the Spring Collection, 12 titles, 3 of which we already know.
As they replaced February collection with Spring, I wonder if May collection would follow or not.

From their facebook page: "There will be more clues before next week :)"

How do I buy the new release of Anne Frank, anyway for the USA to purchase this from the website brand new?

No, unfortunately not. I believe that it is a rights issue.

If you know anyone in the UK, I would ask them to purchase and then ship to you afterwards.

It is the rights issue. Folio can't sell it in the US and Canada. Look for it on ebay and abebooks. I bought my still sealed perfectly new copy on ebay from a US-based seller. I paid $41. You might have to set up searches and wait some time until a copy in desired condition at a reasonable price shows up.

>115 Loki_Lulamen: Great idea, I don't know anyone in the UK, but if someone has one, please message me.

>116 elladan0891: Wow, nice price. Time for me to set up some searches. I really would like to obtain this new version as I don't have any Anne Frank editions, just a kindle version.

Thanks for the assist.

I have a simple solution for you :) Please see the private message I sent.