Folio Archives 423: The Duke’s Children by Anthony Trollope - 2015 LE
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1wcarter
The Duke’s Children by Anthony Trollope - 2015 full leather limited edition
In 2015 The Folio Society published the Duke’s Children as a limited edition in two different bindings, but with identical contents.
1500 copies were half-bound in Indian goatskin green leather with cloth sides and a gilded page top edge. This edition was housed in a slipcase and the original price was £195.
480 copies were hand bound in full green Indian goatskin leather blocked with 22 carat gold decorations on covers and with hand marbling on all page edges. This edition was housed in a Solander case and the original price was £395.
The leather four-banded spines with red title label and gilt decorations, and hand marbled endpapers by Jemma Lewis, were identical in both versions. The numbering of the editions was random between the two versions.
This review is of the latter full-leather bound edition.
This was the first complete text of the book ever published as Trollope (1815-1882) himself condensed the original four volume book to three volumes by removing 65,000 words before its first publication in 1879.
The Duke’s Children was the last of the six Palliser novels and brought a great saga to a close. The principal character, Plantagenet Palliser who is a prominent parliamentarian, becomes a widower and has to raise and mentor his children, a task that he is poorly suited to undertake. The children become independent adults and act in ways that are contrary to the Duke’s wishes with decisions to make marriages that do not fit with the Duke’s ideas of what is right and proper, an expulsion from Oxford university and other poor decisions in life. The Duke has to cope with a changing world far different to the one he knew that had regimented social mores and career structures.
THE NOVEL VOLUME
The xiv + 702 page novel is printed on Caxton Wove paper, has a four page introduction by Joanna Trollope, and a green page marker ribbon. It is unillustrated. The book measures 24x16.2cm.
COMMENTARY VOLUME
Both editions are accompanied by a commentary book that is bound in green cloth with gilt titling on cover and spine, and endpapers that are the first and last pages of Trollope’s manuscript. It contains an introduction by Steven Amarnick that tells the story of the book and its restoration, a detailed listing of the cuts by Robert F. Wiseman, an essay by Susan Lowell Humphreys about Trollope’s style of writing and methods, and contextual notes by Michael G. Williamson on fashion, etiquette and customs. There is also a comprehensive index of characters and place names. It is unillustrated except for a frontispiece photo of Trollope, has a green page ribbon marker, measures 24x16.2cm. and has 150 pages.
THE SOLANDER CASE
The green cloth Solander case was exclusive to the full leather edition. There was gilt titling on the edge, it is lined with dark red paper and the box measures 26.4x18.8x9.1cm.
A pdf of the FS brochure for this book can be downloaded here.
1991 EDITION
The Duke’s Children was also published by The Folio Society in 1991 as an abbreviated standard edition. It had an introduction by Roy Jenkins, 16 leaves of illustrations by Llewellyn Thomas and was quarter bound in dark purple binding, with pale blue paper boards bordered in purple. It had pale blue endleaves. a pale grey slipcase, 570 pages and measured 22.7x15cm.
The same volume was reissued in 1993 as part of a six volume (two three-volume sets) complete collection of the Palliser novels.
COMMENTARY VOLUME
HALF-LEATHER 2015 LIMITED EDITION
1991 EDITION
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
In 2015 The Folio Society published the Duke’s Children as a limited edition in two different bindings, but with identical contents.
1500 copies were half-bound in Indian goatskin green leather with cloth sides and a gilded page top edge. This edition was housed in a slipcase and the original price was £195.
480 copies were hand bound in full green Indian goatskin leather blocked with 22 carat gold decorations on covers and with hand marbling on all page edges. This edition was housed in a Solander case and the original price was £395.
The leather four-banded spines with red title label and gilt decorations, and hand marbled endpapers by Jemma Lewis, were identical in both versions. The numbering of the editions was random between the two versions.
This review is of the latter full-leather bound edition.
This was the first complete text of the book ever published as Trollope (1815-1882) himself condensed the original four volume book to three volumes by removing 65,000 words before its first publication in 1879.
The Duke’s Children was the last of the six Palliser novels and brought a great saga to a close. The principal character, Plantagenet Palliser who is a prominent parliamentarian, becomes a widower and has to raise and mentor his children, a task that he is poorly suited to undertake. The children become independent adults and act in ways that are contrary to the Duke’s wishes with decisions to make marriages that do not fit with the Duke’s ideas of what is right and proper, an expulsion from Oxford university and other poor decisions in life. The Duke has to cope with a changing world far different to the one he knew that had regimented social mores and career structures.
THE NOVEL VOLUME
The xiv + 702 page novel is printed on Caxton Wove paper, has a four page introduction by Joanna Trollope, and a green page marker ribbon. It is unillustrated. The book measures 24x16.2cm.
COMMENTARY VOLUME
Both editions are accompanied by a commentary book that is bound in green cloth with gilt titling on cover and spine, and endpapers that are the first and last pages of Trollope’s manuscript. It contains an introduction by Steven Amarnick that tells the story of the book and its restoration, a detailed listing of the cuts by Robert F. Wiseman, an essay by Susan Lowell Humphreys about Trollope’s style of writing and methods, and contextual notes by Michael G. Williamson on fashion, etiquette and customs. There is also a comprehensive index of characters and place names. It is unillustrated except for a frontispiece photo of Trollope, has a green page ribbon marker, measures 24x16.2cm. and has 150 pages.
THE SOLANDER CASE
The green cloth Solander case was exclusive to the full leather edition. There was gilt titling on the edge, it is lined with dark red paper and the box measures 26.4x18.8x9.1cm.
A pdf of the FS brochure for this book can be downloaded here.
1991 EDITION
The Duke’s Children was also published by The Folio Society in 1991 as an abbreviated standard edition. It had an introduction by Roy Jenkins, 16 leaves of illustrations by Llewellyn Thomas and was quarter bound in dark purple binding, with pale blue paper boards bordered in purple. It had pale blue endleaves. a pale grey slipcase, 570 pages and measured 22.7x15cm.
The same volume was reissued in 1993 as part of a six volume (two three-volume sets) complete collection of the Palliser novels.
COMMENTARY VOLUME
HALF-LEATHER 2015 LIMITED EDITION
1991 EDITION
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
2BorisG
Thanks for the great review! (As always!)
I had the full leather binding – it’s such a beautiful design / production, especially the edge marbling… but I ended up selling it, as I didn’t like the novel itself, and it just ended up standing on the shelf unread.
I think it can be acquired second-hand well below the published price (I paid around £220 for my copy).
I had the full leather binding – it’s such a beautiful design / production, especially the edge marbling… but I ended up selling it, as I didn’t like the novel itself, and it just ended up standing on the shelf unread.
I think it can be acquired second-hand well below the published price (I paid around £220 for my copy).
32261
Thank you for the review. Your reviews are one of the reasons I keep returning to this forum. This edition was one of the first LE's I ordered after having discovered Folio far to late in my life and it created a benchmark for what Folio LE's could be in terms of design and production. Unfortunately with only a few exceptions has Folio achieved this in latter years.
5boldface
Thanks for your comprehensive review, beautifully illustrated as usual. I'm firmly of the opinion that this complete-text version transforms the novel as originally published. We get a much more rounded story, which gets to the heart of the relationships involved, making for a more satisfying conclusion to the Palliser series as a whole than we had before.
Incidentally, the edition also comes with a special bookmark-cum-line-counter which facilitates following the many references given in the Commentary volume:
The "Complete Edition" was also published in the Everyman's Library (no. 378), with much-abbreviated editorial matter, two years after the Folio edition, in 2017.
Incidentally, the edition also comes with a special bookmark-cum-line-counter which facilitates following the many references given in the Commentary volume:
The "Complete Edition" was also published in the Everyman's Library (no. 378), with much-abbreviated editorial matter, two years after the Folio edition, in 2017.
6podaniel
I have both bindings as I ordered the full binding and was originally sent the half--once I contacted them, FS then sent me the full binding.
7Pepys
I happened to read The Duke’s Children in the last months. But it was in the 1991 edition (second-hand). So, I don’t know if I am allowed to give here my impressions…
I embarked in this reading because I had rather liked Phineas Finn, read last year. But The Duke’s Children gave me a rather hard work, and I needed 2 months to complete my reading. (Or is it me getting older? Perhaps.)
For a foreigner, Trollope is a delight to read. But, definitely for me, Phineas Finn is better.
I embarked in this reading because I had rather liked Phineas Finn, read last year. But The Duke’s Children gave me a rather hard work, and I needed 2 months to complete my reading. (Or is it me getting older? Perhaps.)
For a foreigner, Trollope is a delight to read. But, definitely for me, Phineas Finn is better.
8DukeOfOmnium
Shockingly, given my forum name, I just have the half-leather version!
One of my favourite books :)
One of my favourite books :)
