Comments on Penguin Clothbound Classics - page 1

I wish I had the money to buy all these. I've seen a collection and they look so nice together.

Such a beautiful collection my favorites are:1.)Les Miserables/2.)The Count Of Montecristo/3.)Pride & Prejudice

Love these gorgeous books! Just voting for the ones I have on my shelf. Clothbound books are the best!

I have 5 myself. Dorian Grey, Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Dracula, and Little Women.

These are so beautiful! I want them all!

So beautiful!

I've been wanting these for some time now and I might buy my first next month!

I already have Dracula, The picture of Dorian Gray and Gulliver's travels. I'll try to collect them all, but it will take some years. I collect beautifully designed books. I already have some of these books in different editions, but I might buy the clothbound editions as well. I already have several editions of some other books anyway. Is this crazy or are here some other people who do this too?

Azur wrote: "I already have Dracula, The picture of Dorian Gray and Gulliver's travels. I'll try to collect them all, but it will take some years. I collect beautifully designed books. I already have some of th..."
I have different editions of some of these books too! Still planning on buying these because they are gorgeous.
I have Far From the Madding Crowd, Oliver Twist, Jabberwocky and Treasure Island in clothbound editions ...I'm slowly going to collect them all as well!

I love these books, they are so beautiful! I own several of them; Persuasion, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dracula, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings.

The only problem is the print on the covers comes off sometimes, when you touch them. The heat/humidity/something makes it rub off. Very frustrating. I had to stop reading Persuasion and finish it on my Kindle app.

Okay people please don't add random non Cloth Penguin books.

Can someone please tell me where these are made?

I love collecting beautiful books and right now my collection mostly consists of Barnes & Noble leather bounds.
I't's always bothered me that they are made in china, and if these are made elsewhereI might start collecting them instead.

Damian wrote: "marissa wrote: "Can someone please tell me where these are made?

Picking one off my shelf at random (Robinson Crusoe) it says they're made in St. Ives (UK)"

Thank you!

Does anyone have this copy of "Metamorphoses"? Or "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"? I'm interesting in ordering one or both from Amazon, but there aren't any reviews. Specifically, I'm wondering about issues of full-text or abridged and translation for "M". Thanks!

Amazon are listing Homer's Iliad and Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady clothbounds for release on November 6th. Also I noticed John Steinbeck's the Pearl is missing from this list

I'm pretty sure I spotted a few of these editions of books on Hazel's bookshelf in the Fault in Our Stars movie. Needless to say, I was a bit jealous of a fictional character.

Ashley wrote: "I'm pretty sure I spotted a few of these editions of books on Hazel's bookshelf in the Fault in Our Stars movie. Needless to say, I was a bit jealous of a fictional character."

I know I know!! I got so excited when I saw her cloth-bounds! She is, after all, a very smart girl :)

There is also an edition of Jane Austen's Love and Freindship coming out.

Marco Polo's Travels will be released in January 2015. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and the Iliad in November 2014.

I have already bought Bleak House and Tess of the D"Urbervilles. Will surely buy all the titles very soon. Wish some more titles they include.

I really want to get these! I feel like getting the Bronte Sisters, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens collections from the Barnes and Noble Leatherbound Collection, because they are only £17 each, but everything else from Penguin because they don't manufacture in China.

Does anyone know if the children's books in this collection (like Alice in Wonderland) are illustrated?

Some people are saying that the book's covers rub off very easily (I'm guessing they mean the foil?) Can anyone say if this is true or not?

My copy of Gulliver's Travels rubbed of easily (white on blue fabric). My copies of Dracula (black on grey) and The picture of Dorian Gray (white on black) still look like new. Maybe it depends on the edition or how the book was stored? I bought Gulliver's Travels at a local bookshop and the others elsewhere.

Azur wrote: "My copy of Gulliver's Travels rubbed of easily (white on blue fabric). My copies of Dracula (black on grey) and The picture of Dorian Gray (white on black) still look like new. Maybe it depends on ..."

Thanks for the heads-up. I think I'll only buy one of them at first to see how it fares. I'm not going to take it out of the house though, so it should be fine.

Azur wrote: "My copy of Gulliver's Travels rubbed of easily (white on blue fabric). My copies of Dracula (black on grey) and The picture of Dorian Gray (white on black) still look like new. Maybe it depends on ..."

To make sure you don't rub the pattern off, when you're reading them don't put your fingers over the foil; find a way to splay them out on the cloth parts. Not the best way, but it'll prolong the pattern. I carry mine around in plastic bags, I'm so paranoid about fading!

Madame Bovary and Crime and Punishment are meant to be out of print, but I found about 10 copies of MB in my local Waterstones yesterday. Am I extremely lucky or are either/both of these books back in print? I really hope that they're not because they go for crazy prices on sites like eBay.

Madame Bovary is still in stock on German amazon.

Azur wrote: "Madame Bovary is still in stock on German amazon."

Same with the Waterstones website. Now we're only missing Crime and Punishment :)

Madame Bovary is back in print, I don't think C&P is.

I would love to own this collection. They're all so pretty!

Has anyone else had an issue with these books getting wavy pages? I just ordered 5 online, and as soon as I received them, I noticed all of them had wavy pages (e.g. as though it was dropped in water, but hasn't been), it is more obvious in the slimmer volumes than in the 800 page ones. Not sure if this is something that the paper used in these editions is prone to perhaps, or maybe I just got bad luck with the mail courier leaving it in a high humidity environment? Anyway, it is a bit too bad as I wanted to collect them after readings others' good reviews, but my initial thought is that they aren't of the best quality.....

Marmot wrote: "Has anyone else had an issue with these books getting wavy pages? I just ordered 5 online, and as soon as I received them, I noticed all of them had wavy pages (e.g. as though it was dropped in wa..."

Mine were like this when they arrived. To fix the problem, I put a large stack of hardbacks/heavy books on top of the book with wavy pages. If you leave it for a week or so, the problem will be mostly fixed. Using a dehumidifier in the same room should speed up the process.

As for the quality of Penguin Clothbound Classics, they're not the most durable. They are pretty to look at but the wavy pages and cover designs that rub off put me off buying any more than I already have. If you do want a good hardback classics collection I would recommend Everyman Library Classics. They're about £8 each so they're a bit cheaper than the Penguin classics and much more durable. Some modern titles like the His Dark Materials trilogy are in the Everyman Library collection too :D

Penguin classics website has listed a gorgeous looking Clothbound edition on Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand League under the Sea for publication on 1/10/15
http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/book...

Graham wrote: "Penguin classics website has listed a gorgeous looking Clothbound edition on Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand League under the Sea for publication on 1/10/15
http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/book......"



I have added it to the list :)

Absolutely love this collection. I currently have Madame Bovary, The Count of Monte Christo, Les Misérables, Frankenstein, Hound of the Baskervilles, Tales from 1,001 Nights & Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange.
These editions are both beautiful and tactile, and whilst they're pricey I think they're worth it for special editions of favourite books.
Foil rubbing off seems to affect some books more than others, so I'd recommend buying them from a physical store, so you can give the copy you're buying a quick inspection before purchase.
The Penguin English library editions are a cheaper alternative, featuring a wider selection, the book jackets carry the same illustrations as the clothbounds but in paperback.

Edit: recently got the Dickens box set during the amazon sales, so glad I managed to get 'A Christmas Carol', its so beautiful.

First one I bought was Anna Karenina, than I bought Love and Friendship and recently I bought
Gulliver's Travels. Right now I'm saving money to buy more soon.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has just been listed for publication as a Clothbound Classic in January 2016!

PS: Lots of non-Clothbound Classics seem to have found their way into this list...

I have a few of these and am completely obsessed with collecting them as they are so beautiful. Has anyone found a definitive list with all the titles?

Hera wrote: "I have a few of these and am completely obsessed with collecting them as they are so beautiful. Has anyone found a definitive list with all the titles?"
As far as I can tell this is the most comprehensive list. They publish new books every few months.

Elena wrote: "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has just been listed for publication as a Clothbound Classic in January 2016!

PS: Lots of non-Clothbound Classics seem to have found their way into this list..."

I have go in and removed any non-clothbound ones as this is what the list is to be about. Not nice hardcover, but specifically the clothbound ones.

Azur wrote: "Hera wrote: "I have a few of these and am completely obsessed with collecting them as they are so beautiful. Has anyone found a definitive list with all the titles?"
As far as I can tell this is th..."


Why thank you for saying this list is pretty much the end all. I have just gone in and edited out the ones that do not fit the criteria. :)

A lovely and very comprehensive list of the Clothbounds. I cannot wait for Penguin to release "Twenty Thousand Leagues" and "Tenant Hall." Hopefully, Coralie will soon return to Penguin to design more titles, now that her own book is finally out.

It's nice to see that even the more obscure titles, like "The Pearl" and the Qur'an, were included here. It's very helpful when hunting them down, especially in the US where not all of the titles were released. May I ask why the Penguin Clothbound Pocket Classics, like "Meditations" and "The Prince" weren't included? I've always considered them part of the overall clothbound series, just tinier.

I tried to look for the clothbound editions of the titles you mentioned. While I can find covers that are hardcover and appear to have the same style, I cannot find ones that say clothbound. You may go ahead and search if you'd like and see if there is and add them to the list.

Villette will apparently be published as a Clothbound Classic in February 2016 in the UK.

Im collecting these and have 40 so far. I love them and have read almost half of what I have and am powering through the rest. If you are looking to buy them and want to save some money look on ebay. There are a lot of book sellers that sell them for 10-14 each and pretty cheap shipping. Also look for coupon codes at books a million. Anyways I hope that helps!!

I was looking into getting some of the Barnes & Noble Leatherbound books, but according to several Amazon reviews they are often abridged, poorly translated, and/or Americanised. Are the Penguin Clothbounds closer to the original texts?

Yes all that I've read so far are really close to the original version and even goes so far as spelling things the way the original authors did. In the beging and back of each book the give you so many details as far as original translations what was changed and when. They are amazingly well done. Pick up one go to the back and you will see what I'm talking about!!!

Tolstoy's War and Peace is listed for release on amazon for 14th January 2016 in the UK

Thanks I'm gonna look for it!

The Ramayana is the same size as the penguin cloth bound classics not one of the bigger ones like love poems or the others.