Kelmscott Chaucer

I have just enough (a bit over 300$ US) to spend on book(s) and I'm contemplating the offer for the Kelmscott Chuacer for $300 that I received today.

Anyone have it yet? Any thoughts?

Any other great suggestions for that amount?

Jeremy

Jeremy,

I just received my Kelmscott and it is a magnificent volume with William Morris designs and Burne-Jones art. It is heavy since they used top quality vellum-type paper and leather with Morris gilt bindings. Worth every dollar....

Linda

Re #2: Just out of curiosity, did you buy it primarily as an objet d' art or as a beautiful reading copy? I suspect most people who buy it want it as an example of fine bookmaking, and/or they are partial to the Arts & Craft style. I think few will read it in the original Middle English and those that do will probably never get past the Prologue (and perhaps "The Miller's Tale").

Incidentally, if you are partial to the Arts & Crafts style (I'm not), you are right about the book being a bargain: my new Riverside Chaucer, the definitive text today, was $100 and is half the size, without illustrations, and serviceably but not beautifully cloth-bound on "Bible leaves." My 30 years-old Riverside Chaucer did not survive my 2 semesters of Chaucer study in very good condition and needed to be replaced, so I doubt my new one is much more durable. I think the Kelmscott is good value, especially at the introductory price. It's just not for me.

>2 lindalar:

There was a leather bound edition in 2002, but the edition now being sold by the Folio Society is bound in buckram. And it weighs 6.4 kg (14 lbs) without the slipcase.

I'm getting a complex because my own Chaucer is vastly inferior, being the 1978 third printing of a modern translation by Nevill Coghill, with woodcuts by Edna Whyte, bound in a rough kind of cloth and quarter-leather. Oh well. But at least it isn't too heavy, and at least I can understand it. I remember struggling through the medieval text of The Knight's Tale at college and thought, never more.

It's too bad they had you read "The Knight's Tale" and not one of the livelier ones--the Middle English really isn't that hard, but I empathize with not wanting to have to struggle with archaic language unless there is a real reward at the end. I think there is in reading Chaucer in the original, but "The Knight's Tale" is not the place to start.

Should you decide to give Chaucer's original another chance, Everyman's Library has a fine version with good marginal glosses defining the words which aren't recognizable from modern English and excellent but not overwhelming footnotes at the bottom of the page (not at the end of the book which they were in my Riverside Chaucer--one of the reason the book is in such bad condition).

If you want a nice illustrated edition with a modern English rendering, for the price of the Kelmscott, you can find online the Rockwell Kent-illustrated edition from the 30s or the Limited Editions Club Arthur Szyk-illustrated from the 40s. I would say they are preferable to the Kelmscott if you want a fine illustrated edition in modern English, and should alleviate your edition envy.

thanks for all that information, Django. I believe we did read some of the more earthy tales at school, I remember the lads sniggering at some of the lines.

Question about this: Is this book worth the money, or is it like the Norton Shakespeare? The Norton Shakespeare was also expensive when it first came out, and I was really disappointed with the poor quality of the pages. Any word?

Please excuse the vague terminology but ... The paper in the Kelmscott facsimile is quite heavy and course to touch - Not smooth and shiny like the pages of the Norton Shakespeare . The Kelmscott paper is described in the End papers as " Oxenford twin-wire laid , specially made at the James Cropper Mill at Burneside in Cumbria , supplied by John Purcell Paper " . I like the feel of the paper and the look of the text on it , however it is definitely not a reading copy ( for me ) . The dense old fashioned font style makes the text a little difficult to read but very pleasant to look at . I would consider it an "object'd art" as mentioned by django6924 above .

I have purchased this facsimile and am awaiting delivery.

I wonder suddenly, why would the FS sell such a glorious volume at 50% reduction in price?

Is this an indication of how it is perceived by booky-folk or do they sometimes do these price reductions on facsimiles?

I thought that they kept the prices solid to retain book value post purchase?

10 > I'm also wondering if a little-less-than-expected intertest in a (limited edition) book might sometimes result in a price cut. I'm a bit worried with that on the Letterpress Shakespeares I must say.

The initial limitation on the first 12 plays being 3750, and now greatly reduced to 1000 for the newest four, the Letterpress Histories. This makes me wonder how many of the plays in the second or third set (the Four Commedies and The Four Roman Tragedies) were actually sold. I hope they're not going to do a huge price cut any day soon to clear some stock, especially not right after I've payed the full price ;-)

Of course, I do want everyone to enjoy these great books at a nice price, but massive price cuts on L.E.'s don't seem like a very good idea from a "early adopter" customer satisfaction perspective. Does anyone know if FS has done this in the past or not?

I am only aware of price cuts on the Kelmscott Chaucer and the Shakespeare First Folio volumes which are sold as Fine Editions rather than Limited Editions.

I don't think Folio will discount any LE because it would undermine confidence in the LE publishing programme and would devalue their exclusivity.

When I was in the Members Room on Friday I bought what is apparently the final remaining stock copy of the LE Decameron - no price reduction was available on it despite it being an old LE.

I had a look at the Kelmscott when I was there. It is very beautiful, printed on a thick pulpy type of paper which I am sure is true to the original. But it is massive - not a book you would want to read in bed !! Its value is as a fine edition rather than as a reading copy.

Oh, the Alice Adventures Under Ground were discounted when I bought them. *runs off to check webpage* Discounted by 16%

>13 J_ipsen: - Eh? What? Why? How?

Normal price £95.00, but now reduced to £79.95, which is a discount of 16%. This is the first time that I have seen a reduced LE, and was a major factor in my decision making process to buy the book.

The Kelmscott Chaucer is magnificent. I wouldn't consider it a reading copy as it is quite cumbersome, unless you read at a table or desk.

I think that the discounts on the fine editions are simple economics. They have not sold as well as anticipated and the FS is left with a ton of books in inventory. They understandably want to move this inventory out as soon as possible. That being said, although I will probably never attempt to read my copy since it is in Old English, I love to open it up and thumb through it. It is wonderful.

I don't believe they would discount the limited editions and have never seen them do so in the five'ish years I've been a member. While they almost definitely print all the sheets for the editions (at least the Letterpress ones) at the same time, they only bind them based on demand; it being much more manageable and economically sound to store the unbound sheets. So they don't have a bunch of finished high-value LEs sitting in inventory. And just because an edition has a limitation of 3750 does not mean that they necessarily will bind them all. If there is no demand, they won't. If the demand is slow they will bind up small batches. The longer they wait, the more likely they will have to pass on increases (due to materials, labor, etc.) to the customer. I've seen this with other fine presses as well.

Another thing I have seen with other presses is variant bindings. Although there may be other reasons for them (purposefully producing several "states" of a limited edition), maybe the original binding material can't be obtained anymore and they are forced to go to a variant. Ann Muir, who did the marvelous marbled papers for the LP Shakespeare's and many other FS books, recently passed away. I'm assuming she left behind a company still producing the stunning papers that she did; but if not, the FS will have to look elsewhere and may not be able to find anything at a similar quality or pricepoint.

So your best bet for a "discount" is to take a chance on the secondary market. eBay often has the LE's with fairly low starting bids. I obtained the Tolkien LE's that way but I believe I paid more than the FS price.

Good to hear that there is no past example of discounted Limited Editions. Sound like FS is being solid there.

>15 J_ipsen: - Was that a special offer or something? Normal price for me.

The Kelmscott Chaucer is amazing - I was struck by the sheer size of it in the Folio members' room last week - quite unreadable but beautiful! It is massive with enormous thick heavy pages - definitely for those wanting to admire a bookbinder's work of art rather than peruse an accessible text though! If that's your cup of tea then £150 reduced from £300 seems reasonable value for what you get.

#15, 19
Just checked the FS website without logging on. Seems Alice's Adventures are discounted 16% on the British and Rest of the World sites only.

>21 haniwitch: - Oh, all right; I'm US, so no wonder. Still, I wonder why the discount...

Perhap the discount was necessary to shift such a high number of copies (3,750) of a limited edition at a time when so many people are feeling the pinch of the credit crisis! Most 'limited' editions are a lot more limited than this!

>23 ruskee: - Yeah; perhaps it would be wise to limit the limited editions a bit more. It'll freak people out, compelling them to overlook the incredible price-tag. ;-)

Being a Yank myself, I am a little bit irritated at the discount of Alice in other countries. If the mole is watching, I would like to officially say that the minute that the price cut is extended to the US, I will be purchasing a copy of it myself.

#25
Yes, you'd think if they were discounting it because of the financial crisis they'd take pity on the States too. You were hit just as badly as Britain. I can see them not worrying as much about Canadian buyers. We seem to have ridden the crisis out fairly well (and barely noticed it at all here in Manitoba).

If they just explained it I would be more understanding. I understand the copyright restrictions that they have to operate under (ex. Simarillion), but this just defies any explanation. Anyone have any ideas?

Maybe it's related to the exchange rate? The USD is not faring so well against other countries at the moment.

I thought of that too, but the pound is having troubles as well and things really haven't changed all that much. The current exchange rate is essentially 1 pound to 1.60 dollars, while a year ago it was fully 2 dollars to 1 pound, so the dollar has actually improved to the pound over the last year. The FS has always fared well on exchange rates relative to the US because they always use the 2:1 exchange, which has tempted me a couple of times to buy some of the bigger ticket items in the UK, or to have someone I know in the UK buy the item for me and ship it back.