Possible new titles

I'm a newbie here but have enjoyed reading the group as I negotiate starting up my Folio collection. I've just been sent an email by Folio with possible future titles in it and thought I'd share them with everyone in case some didn't get the email. There seems to be a few oft-requested items here such as Rabbit and Hornblower and I'm v excited about the Camus (and the Updike).

GUY DE MAUPASSANT, THE COMPLETE STORIES
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE: 500 YEARS OF WESTERN CULTURAL LIFE by Jacques Barzun
Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£80.00

LAURA INGALLS WILDER: THE COMPLETE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE
Eight volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£160.00

THE BEST OF JUST WILLIAM by Richmal Crompton
This set comprises the first four volumes: Just William, More William, William Again and William the Fourth. Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£100.00

ANTROBUS COMPLETE by Lawrence Durrell
(Esprit de Corps, Stiff Upper Lip, Sauve Qui Peut)
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£60.00

EVELYN WAUGH: TRAVELS
(Labels, Remote People, Ninety-Two Days)
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

A PEOPLE’S TRAGEDY: THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£70.00
THE ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS by Lo Kuan-Chung
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE CITY OF GOD by St Augustine
Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£80.00

THE WILDERNESS JOURNEYS by John Muir
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA by Thomas Pakenham
Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£80.00

ALMS FOR OBLIVION by Simon Raven
Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE NOVELS OF ALBERT CAMUS
(The Outsider, The Plague, The Fall)
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£60.00

CIVILISATION AND CAPITALISM by Fernand Braudel
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE DECLINE OF THE WEST by Oswald Spengler
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE STUDY OF HISTORY by Arnold Toynbee
Twelve volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£420.00

GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£70.00

BARBARA PYM QUARTET
(Some Tame Gazelle, Jane and Prudence, The Sweet Dove Died and Quartet in Autumn)
Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£100.00

A SUITABLE BOY by Vikram Seth
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

THE RABBIT NOVELS by John Updike
Five volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£150.00

AGATHA CHRISTIE: THE MISS MARPLE MYSTERIES
(Murder at the Vicarage, The Body in the Library, A Pocket Full of Rye, Sleeping Murder)
Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£100.00

HISTORY OF THE REBELLION AND CIVIL WARS IN ENGLAND by Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon
Six volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£180.00

MODERN IRELAND: A HISTORY by Roy Foster
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

ART AND CIVILIZATION IN THE RENAISSANCE
Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

BLACK LAMB AND GREY FALCON by Rebecca West
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE COMPLETE GREEK TRAGEDIES by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides
Five volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

A SCOTS QUAIR by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR by Shelby Foote
Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£160.00

THE HORNBLOWER TRILOGY by C. S. Forester
(The Happy Return, A Ship of the Line, Flying Colours)
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

RELIGION AND THE DECLINE OF MAGIC by Keith Thomas
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

LEGENDS OF THE AMERICAN WEST
(Daniel Boone by JM Faragher, Geronimo by A Debo, Jesse James byTJ Stiles, Buffalo Bill Cody by RA Carter)
Four volumes.GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

DON JUAN by Lord Byron
Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£60.00

W. A. MOZART by Hermann Abert
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE by James Bryce
Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£60.00

PEOPLES OF THE BIBLE
(The Canaanites, The Philistines, The Israelites)
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE COMPLETE STORIES OF MARK TWAIN
Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

Thanks for the list! How can I show restraint with two kids in college when there is so much that I want?
--BJ

Too many temptations. Sincerely hope they won't be able to publish all the list. ;-)

PS - I vote (at least) for
EVELYN WAUGH: TRAVELS
GONE WITH THE WIND
HISTORY OF THE REBELLION AND CIVIL WARS IN ENGLAND
(Very interested in Clarendon's history. If I were not, who would be?)

ha...I wonder if it was just me asking Roy Foster's Modern Ireland. Quite a few attractive options in there - lets hope they come to fruition.

I'd really like to see

GUY DE MAUPASSANT, THE COMPLETE STORIES
GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR by Shelby Foote
THE RABBIT NOVELS by John Updike
AGATHA CHRISTIE: THE MISS MARPLE MYSTERIES
THE COMPLETE GREEK TRAGEDIES by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides
THE HORNBLOWER TRILOGY by C. S. Forester
LEGENDS OF THE AMERICAN WEST
DON JUAN by Lord Byron
THE COMPLETE STORIES OF MARK TWAIN

I'd probably go for:

Guy de Maupassant
St Augustine
Camus
Spengler
Toynbee
Hyde
Byron
The Greek Tragedies

I like that they're exploring multi-volume classic (but quirky) works on culture/civilization/history - I'd like to see this extended.

That's... oh my. Possibly the best and worst list ever. Bankruptcy ahoy if they publish that lot!

What LizT said.

Crap. I like every single title in that list

A second selection:

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY: THE STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR AS TOLD BY ITS PARTICIPANTS by Henry Steele Commager. Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

AUDUBON’S MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA by John James Audubon. One volume. GUIDE PRICE: GB£295.00

THE DARK IS RISING by Susan Cooper. Five volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£125.00

A HISTORY OF THE MAKING OF ITALY 1848-1867 by GM Trevelyan. Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

THE FIRST AND SECOND WORLD WARS by Martin Gilbert. Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£80.00

MODERN PAINTERS by John Ruskin. Eight volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

THE FAERIE QUEENE by Edmund Spenser. Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

TRAVELS IN ARABIA DESERTA by Charles Doughty. Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£60.00

EMPIRES OF THE STEPPE (The Scythians, The Sarmatians, The Huns and The Mongols). Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£100.00

THE BEST OF MAIGRET by Georges Simenon. Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£100.00

THE FORSYTE SAGA by John Galsworthy. Six volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£150.00

EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE MADNESS OF CROWDS by Charles Mackay. Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

BOOK OF MARTYRS by John Foxe.Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE GOLDEN BOUGH by James George Frazer. Twelve volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£350.00

THE ROMAN NOVELS by Allan Massie. Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

THE MOOMINS by Tove Jansson. Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

TRAVELS by Alexander von Humboldt. Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE ART OF WAR IN THE MIDDLE AGES by Sir Charles Oman. Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£80.00

AMERICAN LANGUAGE by H L Mencken. Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE USA TRILOGY by John Dos Passos. Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£70.00

THE THISTLE AND THE ROSE: LIVES OF THE TUDOR AND STUART MONARCHS
(Henry VIII by JJ Scarisbrick; Elizabeth I by Alison Weir; Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser; King James VI and I by D. Harris Willson). Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH by William Golding. Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£60.00

THE GREATEST BENEFIT TO MANKIND by Roy Porter. Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£60.00

MOVIE MURDERS: FILM NOIR
(Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith, Rear Window by Cornell Woolrich). Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

EUROPE by Norman Davies. Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST by Wu Ch’eng-en. Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

MEMOIRS by François-René de Chateaubriand. Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE VIKING TRILOGY by Henry Treece. Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

FEUDAL SOCIETY by Marc Bloch. Two Volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£70.00

THE ALEXANDER TRILOGY by Mary Renault. Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR by Donald Kagan. Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

THE FOUNDATION TRILOGY by Isaac Asimov. Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

THE CAIRO TRILOGY by Naguib Mahfouz. Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE FIRST WORLD WAR by Lyn Macdonald. Five volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£150.00

JOHN STEINBECK (Volume I: Tortilla Flat, Volume II: Of Mice and Men, Volume III: Cannery Row). Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

THE COMPLETE WILHELM MEISTER by JW von Goethe. Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£60.00

Gosh, it seems like just last week I was talking to someone about what bilge the Foundation books are...less attractive to me than the first list. I was interested in The Golden Bough but I'm not sure I'm twelve volumes interested....

These books are absolutely going to destroy my band account...

I received a different list:

THE TALE OF GENJI by Murasaki Shikibu, Six volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£150.00

THE LIFE OF DARWIN by Janet Browne, Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£80.00

FROISSART’S CHRONICLES, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

FOUR RESTORATION COMEDIES, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

007: THE BEST OF JAMES BOND by Ian Fleming (Volume I: Dr No, Volume II: From Russia With Love, Volume III: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Volume IV: Goldfinger) Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£100.00

THE GRAND TOUR by Jeremy Black, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

SIR WALTER SCOTT: THE GREAT NOVELS (Ivanhoe, Redgauntlet, Old Mortality, The Heart of Midlothian) Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

THE HISTORY OF EUROPE by H.A.L. Fisher, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

PARADE’S END by Ford Maddox Ford, Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£100.00

A COUNTRY CHILDHOOD by Siegfried Sassoon (Volume I: The Old Century, Volume II: The Weald of Youth, Volume III: Siegfried’s Journey) Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

HITLER AND STALIN: PARALLEL LIVES by Alan Bullock, 2 Volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£80.00

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE by A.L. Rowse, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE STORY OF POETRY by Michael Schmidt, Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

ALAN GARNER (The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Moon of Gomrath, Elidor) Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES by Robert Musil, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE BALKAN TRILOGY by Olivia Manning, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

NATURAL HISTORY by Pliny the Elder, Five Volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£150.00

FRANZ KAFKA: THE COMPLETE NOVELS & STORIES (The Trial, The Castle, Amerika) Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£75.00

THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASS by E.P. Thompson, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

LITTLE GREY RABBIT by Alison Uttley, Eight volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£120.00

THE FOLKTALES OF BRITAIN by Katherine Briggs, Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£100.00

DOROTHY L SAYERS: FOUR MYSTERIES (Whose Body?, The Five Red Herrings, Hangman’s Holiday, Busman’s Honeymoon) Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£100.00

D. H. LAWRENCE: THREE GREAT NOVELS (Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love) Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE MASNAVI by Rumi, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE SLAVE TRADE by Hugh Thomas, Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£80.00

TO THE FINLAND STATION by Edmund Wilson, Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£50.00

JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS by Thomas Mann, Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£100.00

FRANCE AT WAR 1870-1940 by Alastair Horne, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

ALDOUS HUXLEY: BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS QUARTET, Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£100.00

LIVES OF THE ARTISTS by Giorgio Vasari, Six volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£150.00

THE STORY OF ART by E. H. Gombrich, Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

HOLOCAUST by Martin Gilbert, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

THE GREAT SEABORNE EMPIRES (The Portuguese Empire by A. J. R. Russell-Wood, Imperial Spain by J. H. Elliott, The Dutch Seaborne Empire by C. R. Boxer, England’s Sea Empire by David Quinn and A. N. Ryan) Four volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£150.00

THE GOLDEN LEGEND by Jacobus Voragine, Two volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£80.00

LONDON: THE BIOGRAPHY by Peter Ackroyd, Three volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£90.00

C.P. SNOW: STRANGERS AND BROTHERS, Eleven volumes. GUIDE PRICE: GB£275.00

>12 wiredreader:

I got the same survey list as you. My least favorite of the lists so far! Although the Folktales of Britain and London: The Biography look interesting.

I wound up writing in for Little House and Gone With the Wind and then a few things not on any of the lists, including more Rainbow Fairy books, more C.S. Lewis, and The Princess Bride.

I too got the second list. In my response to their question as to which titles I would like to see I added - in addition to The Master and Margarita (I'm waging a war of attrition against FS until it publishes it) - I named the Rabbit series. Others I suggested were Joris-Karl Huysmans - Against Nature (A Rebours)
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita and Pale Fire
James Thurber - The Wonderful O and The Thirteen Clocks.

I am baffled as to why FS has not published The Wonderful O (it sounds a bit like a porn movie title, doesn't it?) and The Thirteen Clocks. They are always looking for something (a) to please the burgeoning American FS market (b) something humorous (c) something to please children and (d) something to please adults - and these titles tick all four boxes. They have published Thurber before but not his children's stories which are outstanding and a true delight to read aloud.

What child could fail to giggle at the Captain's threat to his parrot ("I'll squk your thrug til all you can whupple is geep") in The Wonderful O or not be delighted with the description of the villainous Duke on the opening page of The Thirteen Clocks:

"His hands were as cold as his smile and almost as cold as his heart. He wore gloves when he was asleep, and he wore gloves when he was awake, which made it difficult for him to pick up pins or coins or the kernels of nuts, or to tear the wings from nightingales."

I received a survey for the same list as in #12. I would go for Gone with the Wind and the Little House set though. I live on the prairie and would like a nice set of Little House books for my collection.

I'm never going to be able to explain to my wife why the college fund is gone.

#14, I too am waging a war of attrition against FS until they publish The Master and Margarita so you are not alone!

I got the same list as oldrottenhat. Interesting to see the others, there are more titles I'm interested in on those.

Ohhhhhhhhh noooo....I already see about 20 books or sets that I am definitely going to buy, and worst of all there are several others I have never heard of but based on the titles I know I am going to become interested in....I wonder if I can get a home equity loan or would the bank think I am crazy when I tell them why I need it?

The Lawrence, Twain, and Kafka all look interesting, but I'm very disappointed at the lack of Watership Down and (especially) Lolita, since I recall that both appeared on the list of possible future titles in a survey that the FS sent out some time ago.

Well, the Barbara Pym Quartet would be a dream come true for me....so I'm sure they won't publish that!

I hope they do publish Ford's Parade's End, and I had forgotten all about To the Finland Station in the 40+ years since I read it. I remember being very impressed by it then (when the Cold War was still a very hot issue), but wonder if I would think as well of it now.

I would love to see Folio produce ALL of Olivia Manning's Fortunes of War--The Levant Trilogy as well as The Balkan Trilogy. These would be must-haves in my library.

Despite the contention that the Society is playing up to the US market, this Yankee shudders to think of them spending their assets on the Hollywood Noir book--most of these are trash and are only remembered for the much-better film versions (I'm thinking particularly of Double Indemnity). I also feel the the Legends of the American West is ill-considered: a better choice would be De Voto's Across the Wide Missouri, and its fiction counterpart, Guthrie's The Big Sky, both works unjustly neglected these days.

Re #19: It doesn't matter, natashaslove, what you would be spending it on--banks aren't giving out home equity loans these days unless you have very heavy equity in your property (I know from experience--were it not for their new attitude I'd have the Folio edition of Night Thoughts).

I'll definitely grap THE ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS by Lo Kuan-Chung immediately!

Finally got the same list as wiredreader (#12), which is in my opinion the least appealing—because it lacks Clarendon's memoirs?... This is interesting to note, overthemoon, that grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Re #20 Crox1 I am also disappointed that Watership Down wasn't on the list. I guess we can hope that it's because they've already decided to publish it.

From the second selection I'd take:

Gilbert
Ruskin
Spenser
Mackay
Foxe
Frazer

From the third:

Four Restoration Comedies
Scott
Bullock
Kafka
Lawrence
Vasari
Gilbert (again)

Well, I'm no great fan of Watership Down but I'll hazard a guess that it would never have appeared on these lists because these are all multi-volume sets and WD would fit comfortably enough into a single book.

I too wrote in The Master & Margarita, and a list of other titles the length of my arm - I went back through the thread here about Folio editions we'd like to see to make sure I hadn't missed any that had caught my fancy. I see a couple of my other suggestions in that third list - Musil, Kafka - and there must a few people who are gratified to see The Tale Of Genji and Joseph And His Brothers.

Not to be a downer, but if they publish even three or four from the three lists combined I'll be surprised - the first time the Society asked my opinion was three years ago and I'm not sure that even one of the books on that list has shown up yet although I admit my memory of what was on it is a bit sketchy.

I have my fingers crossed for Black Lamb and Grey Falcon - I have a paperback copy I've been reading on-and-off for the last year or so in preparation for a trip to Eastern Europe that I'm taking in October, but it's falling to pieces (mostly because my backpack got soaked in a rainstorm on the Isle of Harris last year!). There's heaps of others from those lists I'd love too - particularly Gone With the Wind, A Scots Quair, The American Civil War, Mark Twain, Evelyn Waugh, The Dark Is Rising, Empires of the Steppes, Alan Garner, The History of the Peloponnesian War, Olivia Manning.... I'm feeling a bit dizzy now!

Several people here have been championing The Master and Margarita so strongly for so long that yesterday I bought a copy; when I took it to the till to pay the bookseller spent a good five minutes telling me how wonderful it is! I'm looking forward to reading it on my next evening off :)

Re #27: Oh yes, please, please include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon!

Re #27 - in the unlikely event that you don't like The Master and Margarita you had better look to that bookseller for reimbursement and not us...

The Tale of Genji for me, and little else. Musil, depending on the translation. Rumi would tempt; also Pliny and Froissart... Humboldt, depending on the selection (I assume it wouldn't be complete). I've never seen a complete Golden Bough in the wild, if it came with LOTS OF PICTURES, I'd get it.

#27

I've been reading on-and-off for the last year or so in preparation for a trip to Eastern Europe

Jesus. That's like reading New Grub Street "in preparation" for a trip to London.

Contrary to what some people seem to believe, time never stood still, even in Eastern Europe.

#31: It's often fun to read about a place you're going to visit, even if you don't expect things to be the same as in the book.

I would definitely buy the John Muir set (it would look lovely in my Yosemite collection) and the Laura Ingalls Wilder (I grew up on the Little House books and would love a fine set to replace my old paperbacks).

Missed the Pliny - put that in my basket too!

Think there are some great ideas here, but hope that listing the Hornblower three doesn't indicate that they aren't going to finish the Aubrey-Maturin series: surely they can't stop after the first 5.

Of the first list, I'd definitely go for:
Scramble for Africa
Civilisation and Capitalism
Barbara Pym quartet
A Suitable Boy
A People's Tragedy
Wilderness Travels

Of the second:
The Dark is Rising
First and Second World Wars
Best of Maigret
Europe

Of the third, just
Life of Darwin
London, The Biography

Quite a few others are distinct possibilities on all three lists, but the first list still stands out as the best by quite a long chalk.

I'm another that can't understand why Master and Margarita hasn't appeared yet!

>31 LolaWalser:: I view Black Lamb and Grey Falcon more as "mood reading" than a travel guide - after all it was written about 70 years ago, so it's a given that the places West describes will be hugely different!

>29 appaloosaman:: appaloosaman, I thought it sounded intriguing- I didn't buy it just because you threatened to chain yourself to the railings for its sake :D

I don't know what others think but I rather feel that some of the proposed titles seem to be - shall we say? - a little "generously" typeset. Rather like the waistline of a man of a certain age, these books seem to have spread themselves very comfortably. I am reminded of Mudie's Circulating Library where every title was forced into a 3 volume straight jacket even though many of their titles are always published as single volumes today. Mudie's achieved the magical 3 volumes by using thick paper, larger typefaces and generous white space for the shorter titles.

I note that The Tale of Genji (a must buy for me) is scheduled for 6 volumes at £150. My Penguin edition of Royall Tyler's translation runs about 1170 pages in fairly small typeface with rather mean margins. The book is not particularly unwieldy (it weighs 1.54kg - about 3.5lbs) but I agree it would benefit from being allowed a little breathing room. I think 3 volumes (a la Mudie) would be adequate - the effect of expanding it to 6 volumes will be to make it a lot more expensive.

In the past blockbusters like War and Peace, Les Miserables and The Decameron have appeared in either single volume or two volume FS editions - I think some of these new proposed titles are unnecessarily divided into more volumes than required with the adverse consequence of hiking their prices.

I noticed that too. I take it (erroneously perhaps) as an indication of "completeness" of text. FS books tend to be bulky (thicker paper, wider margins?) But I must say that's one reason why I don't expect I'll rush out to buy more than I absolutely "need", they place unrealistic space requests on my bursting-at-the-seams library.

Yes, definitely more volumes than strictly necessary. I hope by now FS has begun to appreciate that its devotees don't appreciate abridgements, and (in case they're watching us, which I suspect they are) I think it's important in any discussion like this to point out that completeness (including original footnotes!) is the first priority. The paper and bindings being thicker single volumes from FS can be a little unwieldy, so I'm not against multi-volumes - but within reason. Gawain has horribly wide margins and a silly giant font - I hope the many volume formats don't betoken bigger fonts and margins. Aside from that I'm not too concerned.

#39 *meekly raises her hand* erm...I don't mind abridgements as I'm a rather easy reader.

That's okay then - you won't need to splurge £90 on a 4 volume The Journey to the West but can just buy a single volume copy of Monkey. In the introduction to Arthur Waley's translation he explains why he abridged the original - his version certainly made it accessible to a far wider audience than the full version might otherwise have reached. I too don't mind a modest amount of abridgement if things of no interst to a modern reader are cut. I do draw the line at the Reader's Digest "condensed book" though! Again, like others in this group, I think it is good to know whether something has been edited or is presented as it left the author's pen.

I personally don't like abridgments. I prefer the content be as the author originally intended. I do understand why some abridged works can be useful. I'm sure that many would not want all 7 volumes of George Washington's biography by Freeman.

Re #40--42: Nor all 6 volumes of Carl Sandburg's biography of Lincoln--although the 2 volume version I have seen has been put on too severe a diet.

I don't mind abridgements either--but I want to know if the edition has been abridged before I purchase it.

Django, ouch! You brought back memories of slogging through Sandburg's Lincoln for months on end. It's a great book, but I think it took me longer to read it than it took Sherman to march through the South, burn Atlanta and drive his troops up through the Carolinas.

BLACK LAMB AND GREY FALCON??!!

HELL YES! at laaast, I've been requesting this for so long!

Ooh, I've got a 4 volume set of The War Years (which the touchstone links to a single volume of The War Years together with The Prairie Years! Talk about an abridgment!)

But I haven't started it yet. I keep thinking about it. And thinking. Should I dive in?

Well I finally got around to doing the survey. I received the second list (post #10).

I only had one definite (The Dark is Rising series) and one probable (Movie Murders: Film Noir), with a few more possibles (Forsyte Saga, Viking Trilogy, Maigret, Empires of the Steppe, Foundation Trilogy, Golden Bough, Roman Novels, Art of War in Middle Ages, Thistle & Rose, Faerie Queene). On my wish list were a couple from the other two lists (Little House on the Prairie series, Gone With the Wind) and a few mentioned by other members (Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Master and Margarita, Barbara Pym).

Of course, considering that I’ve got spring sale books on the way, have also ordered from various sources all the FS Wodehouse books I’m missing, and have just received yet another Dracula edition (this one’s annotated with an intro by Neil Gaiman), a book of short stories by Stoker and the latest Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child book, even if FS publishes even one of my choices I probably won’t be able to afford it or even find the time to read it. (Who am I kidding; I'll always find the money to buy just one more book)

Re #46: Dive is the operative word--reading Sandburg's Lincoln is not to be attempted the way I did it back in high school, like I was studying for a history test. Forget about chewing every bite and bolt your way through it, stopping to savor the good parts. There is much very fine, and much very fussy, almost precious, writing here. Don't feel guilty about doing your own abridgement.

To really mix metaphors, read it like Sherman marching through Georgia--not like McCllelan waging his Peninsula Campaign.

All right, Django, it's officially at the top of my "nonfiction to read" list.

I realise I'm coming back to this a little late, but does anyone else have the translation problem? Specifically, I'm a bit picky when it comes to translations and those that the FS publish have a tendency to be ones which are public domain (for obvious reasons). Sometimes they might be brilliant, but often there are new translations which are better (and sometimes in a reasonably objective sense, e.g. they're unexpurgated). I was thrilled to get a beautiful copy of Labyrinths in a fabulous translation, but often it just seems to be the cheapest, rather than the best.

So: The Man Without Qualities, The Tale of Genji, Journey to the West are all ones I would be very tempted by but wouldn't touch if I didn't know what the translation was and know I liked it. Similarly with The Master and Margarita. I would have bought The Brothers Karamazov recently, but I'd really like a copy of the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation and three copies is probably a little excessive. (Also it's not easy to find a sample of Magarshack's text online - I wonder whether the society have thought of having the first page available online or something?)

Rambling on. Anyway. Does anyone else suffer these translation-based issues?!

>50 frithuswith: - I know what you mean, but I don't suffer a great deal; I just e-mail FS and inquire about the translations (if they aren't listed), and if I don't like it, I don't get it. I agree that it would be nice if they used other translations for a lot of them, though; others are very good, though.

This is why book research is so important!

Speaking of The Master and Margarita, anyone know which translation the Everyman's Library edition has? That's the only issue that keeps me from getting it.

> 50 - I'm picky about translations, too. I already have multiple copies of the same novels in different translations into English, French and Finnish. I have even left unread and sold some translations that I hated (None of them Folio publications).

This has led me to limit my Folio purchases mainly to works originally in English.

I like to see the translator given on the web site and prospectus, then I can decide. For example I jumped on the Aylmer and Louise Maude translation of Tolstoy's short stories in the spring sale.

> 37 and others - Have you too noticed that FS books seem to be getting bigger by the year? I can't determine if this is due to a choice of material or more generous type sizes...

Or is is just that my budget in the 80s and 90s was more limited and I only bought small second-hand volumes?

I totally agree about the translator. If I'm interested, I call the Folio Society and ask them. If it's not the translation I want, I usually don't get the book.

Answering a phone costs them money, but maybe they'll eventually realize that (as madA63 says) they should put the translator's name on the Web site or the mailer.

In my worst moods, I think that THEY think that we don't really care about the contents of the book. We just want a pretty bookcase. But it ain't so.

Well, there is something to be said for pretty bookcases...

Actually I'm torn between the scholarly, Cartesian approach of the Pléiades and the more eccentric FS.

Les Pléiades manage to cram an author's life work, textual variants and tons of notes into usually two small volumes. No illustrations, VERY thin paper. All their books are identical except for the colour of the leather binding that gives you the century of original publication. Very useful, serious, subtle and elegant. But a whole shelf of them can look boring.

I love the extraordinary variety that FS gives to their publications, especially the period feel they sometimes very successfully convey. For example their Stones of Venice is the size of a cinder block - Ruskin's text is actually not that long, you could fit it into a pocket edition - but reading the FS tome with it's illustrations, wide spine, big text and extra-wide margins gives me more pleasure than I care to admit. Same thing with the FS editions of Richard Burton's books. I feel like a child again when I turn the thick pages...

Perhaps Kipling was talking about east and west of the channel...

Re #54:
madA63, you forgot to touch upon one important point regarding the Pléidades - ... it's in FRENCH. :P

Re #47,
Haniwich, could you give a link to the annotated-Dracula-cum-Gaiman-introduction book? I'm very interested.

>55 BorisG: - Yes, Les Pléiades are in French, which only compounds my dilemma:

I cannot bring myself to buy FS volumes which have been translated from French (even though the bindings and illustrations tempt me), just as I would not buy English literature translated into French.

The exception being of course Baudelaire's translation of Poe's poetry which I find works better than the original.

If only FS would publish bilingual editions...

Personally, I would succumb to the Barbara Pym as well as the Sir Walter Scott.

#55 - I think it is this one
http://www.librarything.com/work/216209

#55 BorisG

Is it Dracula, Gaiman or the annotations that interest you? I’ve lost track of how many different editions (illustrated, annotated, etc.) of the book I have now (including the FS one and the Gaiman-intro one). Here’s the link to Amazon’s page:

http://www.amazon.com/New-Annotated-Dracula-Bram-Stoker/dp/0393064506/ref=sr_1_1...

As you can see from their “search inside” feature the book is extensively annotated (and that’s a mild description for it). Yes, in the First Pages excerpt on Amazon only the left-hand column on the first page is actually Stoker’s book, the balance of the pages are indeed all notes on that one small column. I haven’t had a chance to do much other than glance at the book since it came (first priority was to find a place on the shelf where it wouldn’t be noticeable as a new purchase). Maybe this weekend I’ll be able to at least read the Gaiman introduction (the whole book would be a long-term project).

I generally go for the cheapest good editions I can find, i.e. Library of America or Everyman's Library. Folio Society is expensive, so I try not to buy there if I can get a good edition elsewhere.

I suppose I should also mention that I don't buy their books for the illustrations (though it makes it more tempting at times). It does, however, make me sad when the illustrations for a book I like aren't quite what I'd hoped for... That is more discouraging than if it had no illustrations at all.

I can't read any languages besides English, so I'm stuck in translation. Oh, well...

Ah yes, Everyman... They have been my guide since childhood. Their pocket editions are great for reading on the train and taking with you on travels. I used to buy them second hand for cheaper than paperbacks. Especially their omnibus editions are good value for money (That reminds me - I'll have to add a tag for my little Everyman books, and other pocket hardcover editions).

As soon as I had money coming in, I started buying better hardcover copies to replace the tattered paperbacks of my student days.

As an artist and all-round aesthete I love illustrated editions. I too have had my share of disappointments with FS, but these are inevitable. Illustrations are like movie adaptations - sometimes you have seen the characters of a favourite book in your mind so vividly that seeing someone else's vision of them seems a betrayal. For example: I, Claudius has been one of my favourite books since I first read it as a teenager, and of course I have watched the TV adaptation numerous times. I have the FS edition, and I cannot bring myself to like Neil Packer's illustrations. As an artist I can appreciate what he is doing, but they simply are not what I see in my mind when I read the text.

Prejudices can be even stranger. Another FS edition one of my favourite books, The Horse's Mouth is almost physically displeasing to me as the layout reminds me of a 70s social studies textbook I had in school.

But I love FS exactly because they do take risks.

About translations - don't feel bad, there are so many languages in the world that all of us have to rely on translations for most of them. A good translation can give you not only the substance but also the feel of the original text.

>61 madA63: - Yes, Everyman's Library is wonderful, especially considering the prices. However, precisely because I like the books so much, I could never bring them to school with me unless they were constantly under my watch. Paperbacks will be my sole companions.

Illustrated is a nice touch, generally, except when the illustrations look like chicken scratch to me, perhaps not to all. (An issue I have with one Folio Society book that prevents me from taking the plunge and buying it... On a completely unrelated note, anyone know what translation is used for the 1979 FS edition of Le Grand Meaulnes? Really, it's unrelated. I swear.) I only have issues with two of the Folio Society books I've seen thus far, though. If the artwork doesn't take away from the work, I'm fine with it, but when it does... I become very sad.

Indeed, prejudice is strange. I believe I have a good example of that somewhere in the back of my mind, but alas, I cannot recall.

I don't love their risk-taking at all when it comes to illustrations. I prefer art with a classical style for the most part, with exceptions, like the style used in The New York Trilogy. I don't care for the illustrations in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, either; I think (or hope) that this has given some sense of my taste. Or lack thereof. I have yet to decide.

I also do not mind the style used in Daphne du Maurier's Cornish Novels, though it is not my favorite. It takes nothing away from the books, as far as I'm concerned. The same goes for The Alexandria Quartet.

I used to feel quite badly for knowing no other languages (typical American, I am), but it no longer bothers me much. I can't say why, specifically, but all the same, I no longer mind. This makes it seem somewhat funny that I do so much research into translations before buying (except when there is only one translation. Then, why bother?), though...

The 1979 FS Le Grand Meaulnes was translated by Katharine Vivian.

I thought of another classic novel that surely deserves a FS edition one day - Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls. I really enjoy a good picaresque novel and they don't come much better than Dead Souls.

#63

I second Dead Souls! Something FS should definitely consider, now that they're publishing his short stories.

I add my vote for "Dead Souls" as well!!

I filled out another survey a few months ago that doesn't seem to be represented on here. It had Dodie Smith's "101 Dalmatians" on it. Anyone have this list to add?

My votes

American Civil War Foote
First and second world wars Gilbert
Europe Davies

I add my vote for Dead Souls, as well. I read it for the first time, last summer, and loved it! It just rots that it is so unfinished! Still, I would buy it in a heartbeat!

Re Dead Souls: A wonderful book (Book One, at least), and for the benefit of LizT and others to whom translation is an important factor, what is the consensus on the best translation of this work? I like my Heritage Press version by Bernard Guerney very much (as did, apparently, Nabokov who called it a "fine piece of work"--and he should know!), but is there a more recent version that has been praised?

I think on the original Folio website's Member's Page--now just a fond memory-- I stated that my preference for Folio is to stick with works originally published in English. Of course one hates to miss out on the great literature written in other languages, but unless Folio uses the best available translation, or commissions on of its own, I don't really care to buy an expensive illustrated edition of a public domain translation of Don Quixote, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Montaigne's Essays, etc. Folio did it right with Homer, using Fagles' translation--the best available, in my opinion, and I treasure their editions of these works. But I wouldn't think of paying almost $600 US for Arthur Golding's 16th century translation of Ovid.

>63 appaloosaman: - Thank you. I'll have to look into that translation, though I won't think it's the one I'd want. (Edit: I take that back. I might buy it after all.)

Dead Souls would be nice, especially with the Guerney translation. I'd snap that up. Any other translation, and probably no...

>69 Django6924: - I share your concern about public domain translations. As we all know, translations are subject to a special case of relativity: They always seem to age faster than the original text. This gives even 50 year old translations a retro or antiquarian feel that does not reflect the original.

As an aside, I finally got around to reading the Anthony Briggs translation of War and Peace. After the initial shock at seeing the first paragraph (in French in the original) also in English, I'm starting to prefer it to Rosemary Edmonds's version.

I tried reading Dead Souls last month, and gave up halfway through. Russian novelists seem to be known for their characterizations, and ability to write about the human condition and psychology. I'd admit Dostoevsky is impressive, at least in the couple of short stories I've managed to read, but Dead Souls' characters seemed very cliched. Even the introduction written by Gogol supported that - trite false humility about his characters' psychology being as close to the real world counterpart as Gogol can get to, and the 'imploring' of Gogol to his readers to examine the people in the story and give him feedback on his lack of understanding re-reads in a different light - there is no depth to the characters, especially Nozdrev.
Maybe it's just that introduction that rubs me the wrong way - I might view the novel in a different light if I hadn't read that first.

Now, I'm not expert on this stuff, but DS would not be high on my list of FS purchases I'm afraid.
A good translation of The Theban Plays, or let's face it ANY Sophocles/Aeschylus/Euripides play, would certainly make me first in line :)

>72 AndrewL: - I just recently bought the tragedies of Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides in translations I approve of, so I did not feel so pleased seeing it in the survey... I felt rather stupid, actually.

I most likely would not buy it, however. Unless it was, perchance, a superior translation.

From the three lists taken together, I'd probably fork out for:
Albert Camus
Guy de Maupassant
John Steinbeck
Franz Kafka
Georgio Vasari - Lives of the Artists

I am curious Irieisa as to how you would decide whether something was a "superior translation"? One that appeals to you is not necessarily an accurate one. An extremely accurate translation may not read well in English - and, conversely, something that reads well in English may not be an accurate translation. Perhaps the best known illustration of this is the King James version of the New Testament - a really great version that reads well but is not particularly accurate. Indeed, since many people only know the New Testament through the King James version and love the sonority of its language, they would be very surprised to learn just how plain and simple is the language of the original Greek. There used to be (and probably still is) a version used by theology students who had little or no Greek that allowed them to see for themselves - it had the Greek text double spaced interleaved with an extremely accurate word by word literal translation that reproduced the word order of the original text (not that much different from English) and then the King James Version. It allowed Greek-less theologians to get a proper feel for the words of the original and not get swept up by the King James version.

It is interesting to note that Tony Harrison - an excellent English poet who has a degree in Classics and is a former President of the Classical Association - chose to translate Euripides' Hecuba into prose. As befits a poet and Greek scholar, his translation is powerful and accurate but even he felt he could not render it into verse and retain the accuracy.

>75 appaloosaman: - I generally prefer accuracy, thus making the accurate superior, if that's what you mean. I'm willing to stare at sentences for a bit if they are worded in a complex manner, which doesn't seem to occur too often. As long as accurate doesn't mean unintelligible, I'd probably go for it. Of course, as I do not know the languages myself, I'm not a wonderful judge. One could say I essentially choose based on hearsay. I admit I could easily be wrong about these things.

I have yet to read the New Testament in any form. I suppose I should in order to understand the many allusions made to it (in addition to the Old Testament).

Personally, I don't mind whether something is translated as verse or prose. I understand it must be difficult to translate into verse whilst retaining the accuracy; therefore, I do not generally expect as much.

With translations I prefer when available one that has taken off as a work in its own right - such translations are by their nature often "inaccurate" or mannered, but since compromise of the source work is inevitable I opt for the influential, idiosyncratic, "original" translations (if that isn't an oxymoron). So King James is preferred, and Golding's Ovid, and Florio's Montaigne, and North's translation of Amyot's translation of Plutarch! I guess it's also the sense of "two for the price of one" with classic translations.

Translations of the original can give readers who only know the work in translation a very strange idea of what the original work "feels" like. A good example of this is any translation you care to name of any work by Joris-Karl Huysmans. These give not the slightest hint of what the original French prose reads like. The English reader without good French can only begin to guess at this if they know that Léon Bloy accused Huysmans of "dragging Mother Image by the hair or the feet down the worm-eaten staircase of Syntax".

When I first read Là-Bas at age 16, I would never have guessed that French had so many words for dirt - my dictionary at the time was quite inadequate for the task. But Huysmans' language and syntax is part of what I like about his novels. I wonder if people who translate English works like Ulysses into French attempt to capture the playfulness with language possessed by the original? It's a formidable task.

>77 leonb: - I would probably be okay with that so long as they contained heavy footnotes or endnotes. Otherwise, I would be hesitant, but not altogether unwilling.

>78 appaloosaman: - I've found that most of any work can be seen or felt in any number of ways. In my mind, it is similar to colour filters, with many shades of every colour. Put one work through them all, and an incredible number of results come out, looking and feeling distinctly unique while maintaining a sort of connection with one another. And even within a shade of a colour, it can be distilled further... But anyway, that makes it harder for me to worry as much about how the original work feels. As long as the translation is half decent, I should think it would be good enough, though of course significantly different.

I believe I shall have more difficulty than some in learning another language, in that I never really learned English grammar. If I had, it would be possible to draw parallels, mark differences, etc. between languages. It won't be impossible, but it may be a bit harder. Therefore, the full difficulty of the task facing translators is something I may not be capable of grasping in full. All I can say is that it must be very difficult to do well; a shoddy job, not so much.

>69 Django6924: - I had until now succeeded in resisting the urge to buy the new FS editions of Homer. But after reading your post I looked at my ragged university copies in Lattimore's translation and they looked very sad indeed.

I caved in and ordered both The Illiad and The Odyssey. - I may go bankrupt this summer. I'll be poor but happy.

(Touchstone doesn't know Homer?)

There are new FS editions of Homer (since the Grahame Baker illustrated ones)?

#79 & #80: Very perceptive comment, Irieisa, the analogy between translations and color filters. In fact, it's very interesting to look at a number of different translations of Homer to see how each translation says as much about the translator, and the times in which he lived, and the styles then prevalent, as it does about the original work.

I have read over a dozen translations of The Odyssey over the years, and it is remarkable that what was "the best available translation" over the past 400 years, may not meet with approval today. George Chapman's Elizabethan version, which so excited Keats, is almost unread these days. Here is the opening:

THE man, O Muse, inform, that many a way
Wound with his wisdom to his wished stay;
That wandered wondrous far, when he the town
Of sacred Troy had sack'd and shivered down;
The cities of a world of nations,
With all their manners, minds, and fashions,
He saw and knew; at sea felt many woes,
Much care sustained, to save from overthrows
Himself and friends in their retreat for home....

Some fine lines--"the town of sacred Troy had sacked and shivered down"--and some awkward constructs to make the couplets rhyme--"much care sustained, to save from overthrows himself and friends." Keats was particularly excited by Chapman's "loud and bold" voice, in comparison to the accepted best Homer of Keats' day--Pope's translation. Again, the opening:

The man for wisdom's various arts renown'd,
Long exercised in woes, O Muse! resound;
Who, when his arms had wrought the destined fall
Of sacred Troy, and razed her heaven-built wall,
Wandering from clime to clime, observant stray'd,
Their manners noted, and their states survey'd,
On stormy seas unnumber'd toils he bore,
Safe with his friends to gain his natal shore:

It's easy to see why Keats preferred Chapman, but Pope's lines have their own felicities--the lines are swift (which is a characteristic much desired in Homer) and the syntax isn't tortured to make the rhymes work. But rhyme itself--at least the rhyming couplet with its dead stop at the end of every two lines, seems really wrong for a poet whose verse was likened to "fire, sweeping all before it." As a result, no one really attempted a rhymed translation after Pope, and the next most influential translation, Cowper's, used the metric scheme that is the glory of English literature--blank verse:

Muse make the man thy theme, for shrewdness famed
And genius versatile, who far and wide
A Wand’rer, after Ilium overthrown,
Discover’d various cities, and the mind
And manners learn’d of men, in lands remote.
He num’rous woes on Ocean toss’d, endured,
Anxious to save himself, and to conduct
His followers to their home...

The invocation is still stilted and lacks force--"Muse make the man thy theme" sounds like an English teacher assigning an essay test--but there is some nice drive and clarity to "discover'd various cities, and the mind and manners learned of men." For the rest of the 19th century, the most widely admired translations were in prose, by Butcher and Lang (which I remember being somewhat stilted with "poetic" archaisms) and by Samuel Butler. This is the opening as rendered by Butler:

Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home...

Clarity has triumphed, at the expense of music, and there are concessions to the grammarians that grate on my ears--"with whose manners and customs he was acquainted," is one of those cases where a dangling preposition is less a sin than this overly formal construction, and . The simplicity of the language in general, however, is a marked contrast to previous versions, which tended to be high-flown, and probably is a clue to Butler's belief that the author of The Odyssey was a woman. There is a quality to Butler's translation that could be (without giving offense, I hope), be termed "feminine," and this had an impact on subsequent translations.

The once highly-regarded Palmer translation has also this softer quality, and, despite the fact that it is generally dismissed by critics these days as too plain, it has a clarity and sweep that make it still a good choice for a general reader:

Speak to me, Muse, of the adventurous man who wandered long after he sacked the sacred citadel of Troy. Many the men whose towns he saw, whose ways he proved; and many a pang he bore in his own breast at sea while struggling for his life and his men's safe return...

While acknowledging Palmer's translation as the then-best translation, T.E. Lawrence, who felt that the original contained a "queer, archaic, dignity" totally lacking in previous translations, as well as a highly self-conscious artistry that was writing about events far-removed in time, and deliberately using archaisms in a modern language that reflected the poet's (or poetess', as Butler's arguments were still very persuasive) own time: "he or she was not telling a contemporary story, any more than I am." Thus, Lawrence's version attempted to not simply tell a story, but reflect the poetic conscious of the original author:

O DIVINE POESY
GODDESS-DAUGHTER OF ZEUS
SUSTAIN FOR ME
THIS SONG OF THE VARIOUS-MINDED MAN
WHO AFTER HE HAD PLUNDERED
THE INNERMOST CITADEL OF HALLOWED TROY
WAS MADE TO STRAY GRIEVOUSLY
ABOUT THE COASTS OF MEN
THE SPORT OF THEIR CUSTOMS GOOD OR BAD
WHILE HIS HEART
THROUGH ALL THE SEA-FARING
ACHED IN AN AGONY TO REDEEM HIMSELF
AND BRING HIS COMPANY SAFE HOME....

(upper case type per Lawrence's instructions)

This was too archaic for many readers, and subsequent prose (and some poetic translations, tried to keep the language less artificial and more accessible. Poetry was tried again as many felt that consigning the work to prose tried to make it into a sort of proto-novel, despite the fact it was written in verse, and despite that for centuries the verse had been held up as the standard of excellence in narrative poetry. In the late 20s, H. E. Bates, attempting to find a metrical equivalent for the speed and lightness of line in The Odyssey, did a version in iambic tetrameter that was used in schools for decades afterwards. (This was the my introduction to the poem, and I still admire Bates' achievement:

TELL ME THE TALE, MUSE, OF THAT MAN
OF MANY CHANGES, HE WHO WENT
WANDERING SO FAR WHEN HE HAD PLUNDERED
Troy’s sacred citadel. And many
The men whose cities he beheld,
Whose minds he learned to know, and many
The sorrows that his soul endured
Upon the deep the while he strove
To save himself from death and bring
His comrades home...

Poetic translations of The Odyssey have regained ascendency in the latter half of the 20th century, with translations by Lattimore, Fitzgerald, and Fagles all having their champions.

Fitzgerald:

Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
of that man skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end,
after he plundered the stronghold
on the proud height of Troy.

He saw the townlands
and learned the minds of many distant men,
and weathered many bitter nights and days
in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only
to save his life, to bring his shipmates home....

Lattimore:

Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways,
who was driven
far journeys, after he had sacked Troy's
sacred citadel.
Many were they whose cities he saw, whose
minds he learned of,
many the pains he suffered in his spirit on
the wide sea,
struggling for his own life and the
homecoming of his companions.

Fagles:

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home....

Which is the most accurate? Well, who is to say? Here is an interlinear Greek /English transliteration:

OD.1.1 ἄνδρα 1μοι 2ἔννεπε, μοῦσα,12 πολύτροπον, 3ὃς μάλα πολλὰ3
OD.1.1 Tell me, Muse, about the wily man who wandered
OD.1.2 πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ 4Τροίης 5ἱερὸν4 πτολίεθρον5 ἔπερσε:
OD.1.2 long and far after he sacked the sacred citadel of Troy.

OD.1.3 πολλῶν δ' ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω,
OD.1.3 He saw the cities and knew the minds of many men,

OD.1.4 6πολλὰ 7δ' 8ὅ γ'6 9ἐν7 πόντῳ8 1011πάθεν ἄλγεα911 ὃν κατὰ θυμόν,10
OD.1.4 but suffered at sea many sorrows in his heart,

OD.1.5 ἀρνύμενος ἥν τε ψυχὴν καὶ 12νόστον ἑταίρων.12
OD.1.5 struggling for his life and comrades' return home.

It's obvious that virtually all of these translations got the sense right, despite their ery different idioms and what is fascinating, in each case, is that Homer's own distinctive voice comes through.

This may have gone on far too long to be interesting to most, but to readers like Irieisa, I'd like to say that translating is a difficult task, but it's a mistake to worry too much about the translation in terms of, is it the most accurate or even, is it the best? My suggestion is to read a few different versions, and pick the one that reads best for you.

>81 wiredreader: - New is a relative term in this case (1998). FS has published several editions of Homer in the past. The "old one" in my mind being the Elizabeth Frink illustrated edition from the 70s.

It was exactly the Baker Illustrated Robert Fagles translations I was coveting.

I know, I know...

You know you must be getting old when you're shocked to hear 'The Young People' talking about the 90s as if it were ancient history. Or worse: How they are 'rediscovering' 90s pop music.

I have tagged my library by centuries, but I still don't have a tag for 21st Century Authors. There just doesn't seem to be a clear break in style or theme. Any ideas for good candidates?

>82 Django6924: - Thank you very much for such a detailed post, Django6924! It's very interesting to compare the translations. Now I know with certainty that I do not like Fagles, and prefer Lattimore or Fitzgerald, although I suspected as much to begin with. Chapman's is good, especially for one who has read another translation beforehand. I think my favorite is T.E. Lawrence's translation; I'll have to track a copy down. Shame that it doesn't seem he translated The Iliad, though.

The only translation I currently own is Butler's, and I think it a good one to start with because of its clarity.

I agree that worrying too much about translation may not be good, but there are some translations that exercise utter inaccuracy, and those I worry about. Research is important for that purpose, among others.

>82 Django6924: - As Iriesa say, thank you very much for such a detailed post, Django6924.
I will say that from reading the openings of the various translations, I prefer the Fagles. Having read the Shewring translation from OUP many years ago, I will now look for the Fagles translation.
At present I am envious of my daughter, who is learning Ancient Greek and who was translating the Daedalus and Icarus story for homework the other day. I no longer have the time/patience to learn another language.
Regarding discussion of the problems of translations, I enjoyed The Translator's Art: Essays in Honour of Betty Radice some years ago.

I finally went through the three lists. Below are the ones I will be most tempted to buy. This list will change when descriptions and details are available. The total price for them means probably not all in one year. The last 2, each in 12 volumes and over $500 (US), are pretty unlikely. I'll be tempted, but cost and bulk will probably outweigh my temptation.

Os.

The ones with '*' are the most likely.

*NOVELS OF ALBERT CAMUS
*USA TRILOGY by John Dos Passos
*SCOTS QUAIR by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
*FRANZ KAFKA: THE COMPLETE NOVELS & STORIES
*FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE: 500 YEARS OF WESTERN CULTURAL LIFE by Jacques Barzun
*AMERICAN LANGUAGE by H L Mencken
GUY DE MAUPASSANT, THE COMPLETE STORIES
MODERN IRELAND: A HISTORY by Roy Foster
PARADE’S END by Ford Maddox Ford, Four volumes
SIR WALTER SCOTT: THE GREAT NOVELS
*FORSYTE SAGA by John Galsworthy
GOLDEN BOUGH by James George Frazer
STUDY OF HISTORY by Arnold Toynbee

BTW, I've posted the combined lists in MSExel, with columns for titles/authors, notes, number of volumes, and Guide Price (GBP and US$). This makes it easier to search for things, and to sort by price, number of volumes, or titles.

It's here in case you want to capture it for your own use. I make no warranty about accuracy, but the text was a cut-and-paste from the postings on this thread, and cost and (most) volume numbers were converted using search-and-replace. Some of the volume numbers were hand typed, so typos are possible. And, of course, US$ prices are just a straight conversion from today's internet posted conversion rates. Don't know what FolioSociety will do when these actually come out.

Os.

#76:
Following the above discussion, I would like to recommend Richmond Lattimore's translation of the New Testament. His stated goal is to render the individual voice of the gospel "writer/s" and, to my mind, he succeeds.

Also, his translation has the advantage of literary aims, rather than sectarian, so is not caught up in promoting a particular religious view.

>89 pm11: - I think I shall have to look into that. Thank you very much, pm11!

Always glad to pass on recommendations for books I enjoyed.

A definite future title is the Folio Poetry Anthology due to be published later this year.

VERY excited about this! With the BBC Poetry Season going on I've been in a bit of poetry frenzy recently so this news comes at just the perfect time!

*Edited for typo

#60,61 etc

I have no doubt that FS books are quality.

I do however go faint at the thought of paying the price for such books.

I am a big fan of Everyman's Library and their hardcover editions which are excellent value for money and lovely quality.

I would be tempted to buy an FS book but the idea of having to join and be compelled to buy a range of books for a period of time, puts me off.

93: To say that FS members are compelled to buy a range of books over a period of time is putting it differently than I'd put it. You have X amount of time to buy 4 books.

That's it. You never have to buy anything again, and they only send books that you explicitly order.

If you can't find four books that you want, then you definitely shouldn't join.

As far as paying for the quality, that's a common issue. Should I pay a little more for a better X (computer, car, shirt, desk), or is what I have good enough?

I like the Everyman's books, too. Right now I'm looking at my Everyman's A Passage to India. It has a ribbon, a cloth binding, and feels nice in my hand.

For me, that's enough a lot of the time, but not all the time. Folio Society books are bound in all kinds of interesting ways, they're almost always illustrated (which I happen to like), and the paper they use is often extremely thick or otherwise nice to the touch.

It's a matter of taste and priorities, like most things.

>93 LesMiserables: - I agree with gistak; not only that, but if you figure out how much it costs per book with their special offers, it's cheaper than you might think. Unless, of course, you're buying one very expensive book, or something like that. Typically the cheaper ones are bought for joining and renewal offers, though... I think.

>94 gistak: - "I like the Everyman's books, too. Right now I'm looking at my Everyman's A Passage to India. It has a ribbon, a cloth binding, and feels nice in my hand."

The Everyman's books are also bound in sewn signatures, to me the sine qua non of a well-made book and one reason they open nicely to the hand. With care, they will last more or less forever.

I am a big fan of Everyman's Library. They are great versions of great books, with a special emphasis on translated works. Obviously, the illustrations and book designs give FS an extra value, but EL are great values and play an important and high-value role in my library.

I became a fan of Everyman's Library, jut on principle, when they distributed 250 volumes of their Millenium Edition to 4500 state schools throughout the UK.

Os.

my most wanted of those lists:

LAURA INGALLS WILDER: THE COMPLETE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE (are these as huge in England? every American woman has read all 8 books when they were a child)
GONE WITH THE WIND (will sell out quickly. right in the FS's wheelhouse)
THE RABBIT NOVELS
AGATHA CHRISTIE: THE MISS MARPLE MYSTERIES
BLACK LAMB AND GREY FALCON
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
THE COMPLETE STORIES OF MARK TWAIN
THE DARK IS RISING (sleeper hit. will draw fans looking for another series)
THE BEST OF MAIGRET (please give me his romans dur, esp The Strangers in the House)
MOVIE MURDERS: FILM NOIR (Why not just a Highsmith Ripley colleciton?)
THE FOLKTALES OF BRITAIN
DOROTHY L SAYERS: FOUR MYSTERIES
THE STORY OF ART
LONDON: THE BIOGRAPHY

> 99. "LAURA INGALLS WILDER: THE COMPLETE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE (are these as huge in England? every American woman has read all 8 books when they were a child)".

No, but most British women 'of a certain age' will be very familiar with them from the television series.

Gosh, am I 'of a certain age' now? ;-) I was certainly brought up on the Little House books before the TV series - 'on The Prairie' was the first proper paperback I owned so I'd love to see these in Folio.

>99 petertemplar: - I've never read anything by Laura Ingalls Wilder, myself, and I'm an American female. ;-)

> 101. Only you can say ;-)

The mobile library that I used as a child didn't have much beyond the Famous Five; Willard Price's 'Adventure' books; Swallows and Amazons; and, Biggles. Mind you the adults had to make do with Mills and Boon for the ladies and large print westerns for the gents.

I am in the middle of rereading The Little House series. I would love these in a Folio set, but only if we get the original drawings and in colour. If not, my glossy paperbacks are a treasure to me. I watched the series, but actually never read the books until a few years ago...and I am almost 47 years old! Very appealing to all audiences.

I, too, would love a Folio set of the Little House books, but only with the original illustrations. I don't think I could accept the stories with different illustrations. :) I started out having the books read to me, then read them myself many, many times. When I have a bad cold, I turn to childhood favorites to while away the time and the LH books are always comforting.

My mother loves to tell the story about the time I was sick and didn't want to eat anything, until I read Farmer Boy, which has such wonderful descriptions of all the foods Almanzo eats. Books truly do have the power to heal ...