Folio Archives 302: Christmas Books by Charles Dickens 2007
Talk Folio Society Devotees
Join LibraryThing to post.
1wcarter
Christmas Books by Charles Dickens 2007
The Folio Society has published complete and incomplete sets of Dickens’ works several times :-
- Three incomplete sets 1952-7, 1970, 2007-17
- Comprehensive sets 1981-89, 1994, 2003-7
This is the most recent set, although it is incomplete and consists of only seven books. Those included are:-
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Bleak House
- Christmas Books
- David Copperfield
- Great Expectations
- Oliver Twist
- Pickwick Papers
The contents of this set are identical to the comprehensive set of 2003-2007, but in a different binding. All the books in the set are bound in a similar style.
Considering the season, I have chosen Christmas Books as being a representative volume from the set.
This anthology contains five stories, A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man. The book is introduced by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst while the 66 integrated illustrations are by multiple artists taken from the original editions.
The volume is quarter-bound in red buckram with brown paper sides, cover blocked in gilt with a phrase. The endpapers are plain light brown, the25.4x16.6cm. slipcase is maroon, and the book has 482 pages.
A Christmas Carol was also issued in 2015 as a stand-alone volume as one of the now defunct Folio Collectables series. These books had a slightly less sturdy cover and no slipcase, but coloured page tops and a ribbon page marker.
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
The Folio Society has published complete and incomplete sets of Dickens’ works several times :-
- Three incomplete sets 1952-7, 1970, 2007-17
- Comprehensive sets 1981-89, 1994, 2003-7
This is the most recent set, although it is incomplete and consists of only seven books. Those included are:-
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Bleak House
- Christmas Books
- David Copperfield
- Great Expectations
- Oliver Twist
- Pickwick Papers
The contents of this set are identical to the comprehensive set of 2003-2007, but in a different binding. All the books in the set are bound in a similar style.
Considering the season, I have chosen Christmas Books as being a representative volume from the set.
This anthology contains five stories, A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man. The book is introduced by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst while the 66 integrated illustrations are by multiple artists taken from the original editions.
The volume is quarter-bound in red buckram with brown paper sides, cover blocked in gilt with a phrase. The endpapers are plain light brown, the25.4x16.6cm. slipcase is maroon, and the book has 482 pages.
A Christmas Carol was also issued in 2015 as a stand-alone volume as one of the now defunct Folio Collectables series. These books had a slightly less sturdy cover and no slipcase, but coloured page tops and a ribbon page marker.
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
2CarltonC
>1 wcarter: Thanks again for this beautifully illustrated article. I only have an incomplete set of this incomplete Dickens set, including this Christmas Books, and will have to read more than just A Christmas Carol from this volume. I do like the clear style of the covers with a well known phrase from the book.
There is another Folio edition of A Christmas Carol from 2003, with colour illustrations for the front and back end papers, a further 8 colour and 29 b&w illustrations by Michael Foreman. It is bound in blue buckram with a blocked design, and a plain red slipcase. Although the illustrations are a reprint from a 1983 Penguin edition, and are probably from a children’s edition, I like this slightly outsized edition.
There is another Folio edition of A Christmas Carol from 2003, with colour illustrations for the front and back end papers, a further 8 colour and 29 b&w illustrations by Michael Foreman. It is bound in blue buckram with a blocked design, and a plain red slipcase. Although the illustrations are a reprint from a 1983 Penguin edition, and are probably from a children’s edition, I like this slightly outsized edition.
3mr.philistine
This new binding from 2011/ 12 showcased in the first photo of the OP is one of few sets I completed 'brick by brick' a few years back.
4N11284
I'm currently reading this as I do at this time every year. My edition is from the 2003-2007 series and has a red ribbon marker. I love the feel of the heavy pages - curtis cream wove paper.
5assemblyman
I like all the editions FS has done on Dickens. I considered all of them before I went for the Nonesuch Dickens III which I started earlier in the year, although I don't see myself collecting them all. Coincidently my third which is also Christmas Stories arrived this morning after reading this always welcome Archive post.
>4 N11284: I love the paper too.
>4 N11284: I love the paper too.
