On reading the Guardian’s 100 best novels written in English

I love lists. Lists are cool. List are relevant, and there is no better way to experience this in reading other peoples’ lists. So when I found Guardian’s Robert McCrum’s 100 best novels written in English (2015) I was quite excited in having a go.

So, drumroll please, my first novel that I’m going to read is going to be The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (1678). This is going to be the Penguin Classics paperback edition published in 2008, with an introduction and notes by Roger Pooley. So do look out for the review soon.

After two years of careful consideration, Robert McCrum has reached a verdict on his selection of the 100 greatest novels written in English. Take a look at his full list

The Guardian, 2015

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Faber & Faber launches Faber Members

Faber & Faber has launched a wonderful collection of Collectors’ Editions available to Faber Members. Price for 12 books delivered every month is £500. That’s around £42 per book and Faber is offering free delivery to UK customers, £8 delivery to European customers. The inaugural first volume is Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant and can be bought separately for £50. No words yet on whether they are illustrated but what’s interesting is that one member from Twitter John Self has described these as: “Here’s lovely. Faber launches Faber Members, offering Folio Society-style beautiful editions of Faber books.”

You can read more below.

Faber and Faber – As the top tier of Faber membership, Faber Collectors receive 12 Collectors’ Editions over the course of a year plus a host of other benefits. In addition, the first 50 Faber Collectors will each receive an unreleased special edition of T. S. Eliot’s The Ariel Poems.

Collectors’ Editions are printed in England on a small, sheet-fed, Heidelberg press. Each volume is sewn and bound by hand, using a quarter-bound case of real cloth, and finished with full colour printed endpapers, head and tail bands and a ribbon marker. Collectors’ Editions are selected and introduced by Faber’s editors.

Your first Collectors’ Edition will be Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant. Subsequent books will include Seamus Heaney’s New Selected Poems 1966-1987, P. D. James’ Cover Her Face, Simon Armitage’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and, to celebrate three decades since its first Faber publication, Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Full benefits include:

• 12 Collectors’ Editions, one delivered each month for a year
• 25% off almost all books at Faber.co.uk; and 25% off Faber Academy courses plus a free 1-day course (subject to availability)
• Invitations to Members-only events

To find out more, call us on 020 7927 3868 or email members@faber.co.uk.

 

Folio Society publishes A New Birth of Freedom: Selected Writings of Abraham Lincoln @foliosociety

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from A New Birth of Freedom: Selected Writings of Abraham Lincoln

The Folio Society has released a press release announcing it’s newest edition of A New Birth of Freedom: Selected Writings of Abraham Lincoln, commemorating the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination.

The Folio Society – “The Folio Society publishes a new selection of Abraham Lincoln’s writings to mark the 150th anniversary of his assassination in April 1865. Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Award finalist Professor Fred Kaplan has gathered together Lincoln’s most celebrated thoughts and words along with many less well-known examples of his oratorical and literary genius. Kaplan also introduces the volume and provides a thoughtful commentary for each chapter.”

To read more, see their Press Release and PDF.

Product information

• Introduced by Fred Kaplan
• Quarter-bound in metallic buckram with printed Modigliani paper sides.
• Set in Dante.
• 552 pages.
• Frontispiece and 33 pages of colour and black & white plates.
• 10˝ x 6¾˝.
• UK £49.95 US $89.95 Can/Aus $99.95

Available now directly from The Folio Society. Members’ launch price: £44.95 (10% discount) available until 10 May 2015.

Copyright: All pictures are copyrighted by The Folio Society and are shown on Books and Typewriters for illustrative purposes only.

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from A New Birth of Freedom: Selected Writings of Abraham Lincoln

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from A New Birth of Freedom: Selected Writings of Abraham Lincoln

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from A New Birth of Freedom: Selected Writings of Abraham Lincoln

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from A New Birth of Freedom: Selected Writings of Abraham Lincoln

Illustration © Folio Society 2015. Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry. Photograph by William Morris Smith, 1863–6. (Library of Congress)

Illustration © Folio Society 2015. Union army recruiting poster, September 1861. (Library of Congress Rare Book & Special Collections Division.

Illustration © Folio Society 2015. The Eagle’s Nest. The Union! It Must and Shall Be Preserved. Coloured lithograph published by E. B. and E. C. Kellog, 1861. (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Divis, Washington, DC)

Illustration © Folio Society 2015. Mary Todd Lincoln. Daguerrotype by Nicholas H. Shepherd, 1846 or 1847. (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, Washington, DC)

Illustration © Folio Society 2015. The Tallest Ruler on the Globe is Inaugurated at Washington… Caricature (detail) by William Newman, April 1865. MS Lincoln 1. (Houghton Library, Harvard University)

 

Folio Society publishes Dune, @foliosociety

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Dune by Frank Herbert

The Folio Society has released a press release announcing it’s newest collector’s edition of DUNE by Frank Herbert.

The Folio Society – “The Folio Society announces the publication of its much-anticipated edition of Frank Herbert’s classic science-fiction novel, Dune, illustrated by US artist Sam Weber. Through a series of acutely detailed illustrations, Weber perfectly captures the intricacies of Herbert’s vision. A limited edition poster of the striking cover image of Paul Atreides will accompany each book purchased from the initial print run.

To read more, see their Press Release and PDF. Product information

• Illustrated by Sam Weber
• Introduced by Michael Dirda
• Afterword by Brian Herbert
• Bound in metallic buckram, printed and blocked with a design by Sam Weber.
• Set in Dante with Helvetica Neue and Black Tulip display.
• Frontispiece and 11 colour illustrations including 3 double-page spreads plus a number of black & white chapter head illustrations.
• Printed map endpapers by Martin Sanders.
• Metallic printed slipcase.
• 10″ x 6¾”.
• 576 pages
• £75. US $125.00 Can/Aus $150.00

Publication date 2 April 2015. You can’t order it online yet. They are anticipating a high demand, so are currently taking telephone pre-orders for this title: UK / EUR +44 (0)207 400 4200 | US +1 866 255 8280 (toll-free) | CAN +1 866 255 7314 (toll-free) or contact The Folio Society directly.

Copyright: All pictures are copyrighted by The Folio Society and are shown on Books and Typewriters for illustrative purposes only. Design by Sam Weber, via Folio Society.

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Dune by Frank Herbert

Slipcase © Folio Society 2015 from Dune by Frank Herbert

Slipcase © Folio Society 2015 from Dune by Frank Herbert

Flat book © Folio Society 2015 from Dune by Frank Herbert

Open book with spine © Folio Society 2015 from Dune by Frank Herbert

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Dune by Frank Herbert

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Dune by Frank Herbert

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Dune by Frank Herbert

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Dune by Frank Herbert

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Dune by Frank Herbert

Folio Society publishes Rupert Brooke’s Selected Poems Limited Edition, @foliosociety

Illustration © Ed Kluz 2015 from Rupert Brooke – Selected Poems.

A couple of weeks ago The Folio Society released a press release announcing it’s newest Limited Edition: Rupert Brooke’s Selected Poems.

The Folio Society – “To commemorate his centenary: a selection of Rupert Brooke’s poetry with new lithographs by Ed Kluz.

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Rupert Brooke – Selected Poems.

These memorable lines were written by Rupert Brooke, the first of the great poets to die in World War I. To commemorate the tragic death of this talented and charismatic young writer The Folio Society is to publish a selection of his most famous poems in a special limited edition. The book has been designed to reflect the values of the fine press movement of the early 20th century; the text is printed letterpress, illustrated with original lithographs and bound in leather with handmade paste-paper sides.” To read more, see their Press Release and PDF. To purchase this limited edition from their website click here. Product information

• Edition limited to 1,750 copies.
• Introduced by Jon Stallworthy.
• Illustrated by Ed Kluz.
• 118 pages. 9¾” x 7″.
• 9 original lithographs and 6 letterpress vignettes by Ed Kluz, printed by Curwen Studios.
• Typeset in Monotype Walbaum by Stan Lane at Gloucester Typesetting Services and printed letterpress at The Stonehouse Fine Press.
• Printed on Zerkall mould-made smooth paper with Freelife Merida endpapers.
• Bound in Vicenza by LEGO, with paste-paper sides by Victoria Hall.
• Slipcase covered in Freelife Merida, blocked on one side, with a lithograph label.
• £195 (including VAT).
• Members’ launch price: £175.00.

Available to order from 10th March Delivery will commence April 2015.

Copyright: All pictures are copyrighted by The Folio Society and are shown on Books and Typewriters for illustrative purposes only.

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Rupert Brooke – Selected Poems.

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Rupert Brooke – Selected Poems.

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Rupert Brooke – Selected Poems.

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Rupert Brooke – Selected Poems.

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Rupert Brooke – Selected Poems.

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Rupert Brooke – Selected Poems.

Illustration © Folio Society 2015 from Rupert Brooke – Selected Poems.

Founder and General Editor – The Murty Classical Library of India | Q&A

A Gentleman’s Library: Thomas Jefferson (1771)

A Virginia Gentleman’s Library: As Proposed by Thomas Jefferson to Robert Skipwith in 1771 and Now Assembled in the Brush-Everard House, Williamsburg, Virginia.

On 17 July 1771 Robert Skipwith, Thomas Jefferson’s future brother-in-law, wrote to the then 28 year-old Jefferson, asking for advice on acquiring books for his personal library “suited to the capacity of a common reader who understands but little of the classicks and who has not leisure for any intricate or tedious study.”

Jefferson wrote back of course and recommended a list of books for the amount of £107.10 – a hefty amount in 1771, (equivalent to £13,314.17 in 2014).

Published by Colonial Williamsburg, I was pleasantly surprised that this was printed letterpress; the deep red imprint of the “Library” is striking on the frontcover. I thoroughly enjoyed the well-written introduction by Arthur Pierce Middleton, dated 1952 and though the pamphlet itself is only 15 pages, it is a wonderful short read indeed.

Availability: I purchased this small staple-bound pamphlet from Oak Knoll for $7 mainly due to Jefferson’s name and the catch phrase “A Gentleman’s Library”. Yes I’m a sucker for anything Gentleman. Oak Knoll still lists a copy though I believe these are mass produced and maybe still available.

Review #7 – De Officiis (Loeb Classical Library No. 30) by Marcus Tullius Cicero (1938)

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Review #3 – Who Goes There? Seven Tales of Science-Fiction (1948) by John W. Campbell, Jr.

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Review #2 – The Diary kept by T.E. Lawrence while travelling in Arabia during 1911 (1993) by T.E. Lawrence

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