Great News from one of the longest established and largest stockists of superb pre-owned Folio Society Books. We are having our Summer Folio Society Book Sale all through June 2024.
The Sale ends on the 30th June 2024 and new items will be added each week so keep looking if you want to find that bargain.
The first book on this month’s list is a beautiful limited edition version of Richard Matheson’s book I am Legend. This book was first published in 1954 and is a post-apocalyptic horror novel. Many of you will have seen its recent cinematic adaptation starring Will Smith however did you realise that the zombies roaming the streets at night are vampires?
The story concerns Robert Neville possibly the last surviving man on earth as he struggles to survive in a world where after a pandemic destroyed the human race turning the remaining survivors into vampires. The story tracks his survival as he battles his own daemons while roaming the streets in the day looking for supplies and answers to the pandemic. At night he locks himself away and prays for dawn when the streets are again free from the swarms of blood thirsty vampires.
This copy comes with signed limited edition artwork by Dave McKean, the book is leather bound, individually numbered and comes in its own unique slipcase. This is truly a wonderful version of this chilling story of survival against all the odds.
The Midnight Folk John Masefield
The Second book we have to share is The Midnight Folk by John Mansfield. This book is a fantasy story about a young boys quest to discover a treasure that stolen from his family.
Young Kay Harker is visited by great grandfather Aston Tirrold Harker who one night steps out of his portrait to tell him about the treasure. He is told the treasure is also saught by a covenant of witches, one of which is his governess Sylvia Daisy Pouncer.
Can Kay Harker find the treasure before the witches? Along the way he is helped by the midnight folk: creatures like Nibbins the cat and Rollicum Bitem Lightfoot the fox, and even his lost toys, who will join him on his dangerous quest.
This fantastic story has all of the ingredience to ignite the imagination of its reader, it includes pirates, witches, lost treasure and talking animals. Although written in 1927 the book has all of the ingredience of a modern Disney story and perfectly captures a child’s perspective, yet there is also plenty of humour that adults will appreciate too.
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
In this astonishing collection, first published in 1979, familiar stories become seductive, enchanting and terrifying. In this collection the author Angela Carter deals with issues of feminism and although each particular narrative deals with a different set of characters, the ‘oppressed female seeking liberation’ is a common theme and concept that is explored throughout the collection
In the title story, Bluebeard is a sado-masochist who lures his inexperienced bride to his castle on the coast of Brittany – but is defeated by a most unexpected adversary. Subversive twists abound: in ‘The Werewolf’, a retelling of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, a girl hacks off a wolf’s paw, only to find it turning into a warty, withered old hand that she recognises as her grandmother’s. Carter’s women are more likely to outwit their attackers than fall prey to them – as the heroine of ‘The Company of Wolves’ puts it, ‘she knew she was nobody’s meat’.
In this particular book the artist Igor Karash won the second House of Illustration/Folio Society Illustration Award for his work.
Gift A Book For Christmas 5 – The Superb Heron Books Collections
Heron Books / Edito-Service were responsible throughout the 1960s, 70s and early 80s for publishing ‘Collectors Editions’ of famous authors (illustrated, with introductions, decorated leatherette covers, silk bookmark, rarely dated, with some leather Special Editions). The books were sold directly through newspaper advertisements on a monthly, something like a book club, basis. The books were sold on a Free Approval basis with never any commitment to buy either the volume sent or any further volumes. Heron Books were phenomenally successful in their time and claimed that they sold approaching 100 million volumes world wide.
As well as substantial Author Specific collections they also produced a variety of sets such as; The Literary Heritage Collection, a collection of 50 books by some of the world’s best authors; Masters of Espionage, a terrific collection of 20 top spy novels; Books That Changed Man’s Thinking, a 29 volume collection of some of the most significant and powerful books ever written; Poets Of The English Language, a 5 volume anthology spanning 600 years; Women Who Made History, a 20 volume collection of women of note; and Men of Destiny, no details for this collection as yet.
And lets not forget the superb 39 Volume Agatha Christie Thriller Collection.
Currently Selling – Several Complete Agatha Christie collections, Joseph Conrad, Hammond Innes, Alistair Maclean, Somerset Maugham etc.
Gift Suggestion – Why not put your own collection together? If you are interested in more than one book as a gift then please email me with your selections and I will confirm availability and give you a Special Price
Gift A Book For Christmas 4 – Brand New Folio Society Books
We always have a fine selection of brand new unopened Folio society books that are still in their original unopened cellphane wraps, you can view them at Brand New Folio Society
Good reasons why books make great Christmas Gifts
Books are better than many other gifts; they don’t make you fat, they don’t wilt, one-size-fits-all, and they are a lot more interesting than socks!
Books make great gifts because they can be thoughtful, and sometimes also thought-provoking. People can be amused and entertained by humorous, quirky, witty titles. Good books can prompt ideas that change the way we think and can make a difference… helping to make life better and more interesting.
Books are important in various unexpected ways, books allow readers to travel without using their feet, books give wings to our imagination, books are full of knowledge, joy, happiness, wisdom and so much more, books are more than enjoyment, books have the capability to transform your life, books can help you in your hardest time, books can make you realize that you are not alone in this world if you are struggling, books gives a solution and gives you a new way and a new perspective to look at different things and situations.
The right book can be an answer to the motive behind what drives a gift buyer’s choices: to express love; to show sentiment & affection; to convey sympathy; to say sorry; as a little token of appreciation; a special keepsake; to honour a special occasion such as Christmas with a lovely affordable present; a seemingly random act of kindness, to raise a smile; and, sometimes, just to make someone laugh-out-loud.
Books are such fabulous value for money, and can last a lifetime. The recipient of a gift book may treasure it forever; that’s why books make great Christmas Gifts.
We always have a fine selection of brand new unopened Folio society books that are still in their original unopened cellphane wraps, you can view them at Brand New Folio Society
Gift A Book For Christmas 3 – Folio Society Fairy Tales
My Fascination with Fairy Tales
The Folio Society has a long standing tradition of publishing Fairy Tales with the highly collectable Andrew Lang Fairy Books and most of the popular collections superbly illustrated by the finest illustrators. It is probable that Fairy Tales were originally written mainly for adults with some for children and over time these have been diluted to primarily a younger audience although who doesn’t enjoy reading one to the children.
I once read a fascinating article by Allison Parkinson where she wrote “A good story deserves a great introduction and, for me, there can be no better beginning than: ‘Once upon a time…’
It’s magical, it’s exciting – it’s a password that will grant you entry to ancient lands inhabited by heroes and villains, wicked witches, dragons, giants and genies. Extraordinary scenarios will unfold before you as you witness the characters’ experiences and adventures. And all of this is certain because of those four simple words.” Folk and fairy tales are found in all cultures across the globe and they all seem to start and end with very particular phrases. Many introductions refer to an ancient, unspecified time, for example, ‘on an old day, in the old times’, ‘at the beginning of time’ or ‘at a time already long past’. Others refer to distant, dream-like locations such as ‘behind seven lands and seas’ or ‘beyond seven mountains and seven forests.’
Selected Fairy Tales
The Brothers Grimm are among the best-known storytellers of folk tales, and popularized stories such as “Cinderella”, “The Frog Prince”, “The Goose-Girl”, “Hansel and Gretel”, “Rapunzel”, “Rumpelstiltskin”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and “Snow White”. This superb Folio Society edition is beautifully illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
This facsimile of the 1913 edition contains 17 of his most famous tales, including ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘The Snow Queen’ and ‘The Ugly Duckling’. The original illustrations by William Heath Robinson capture all the magic of the text making this the perfect way to enjoy this master storyteller.
A superb collection of fairy tales first published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1910, with additional tales from earlier translations. Contains the stories of Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Puss in Boots and more together with the superb illustrations by Edmund Dulac.
Some familiar favourites, such as Beauty and the Beast, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rumpelstiltskin are believed to date back thousands of years to a time before many modern languages even existed. And different versions of the same root story can be found all over the world.
Albert Einstein was certainly a fan of the fairy tale. He once said: “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there was a moral that needed to be taught, or a child that needed putting to bed, or a traveler who needed to be entertained. As long as humans have existed, we have crafted stories to tell to ourselves and to others; we are perpetually surrounded by them. When we are awake, we read, we watch, we listen. When we are asleep, we dream.
Gift A Book For Christmas – 2 Limited Edition Folio Society Books
All titles chosen to become Folio books are the finest in their genre and all are treated to extremely high production standards, but those selected for their Limited Editions Collections are, quite simply, exceptional. Great works of literature or history become great works of art.
For Limited Editions their production teams have leave to indulge their passion for exquisite materials and fine binding techniques which simply cannot be considered for longer book runs. Exceptional craftsmanship creates these highly collectable books – from and content perfectly married to produce a lasting legacy for generations to come.
During the 1930s, artist sculptor and typographer Eric Gill collaborated with the Golden Cockerel Press on a number of projects. The Folio Society has published in facsimile the three crowning works of this association: Troilus and Creseyde, The Canterbury Tales and The Four Gospels. They are among the most admired books of the 20th century, a sublime marriage of type and illustration.
My favourite Limited Editions include Spenser’s Faerie Queene; Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury; and Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
Gift A Book For Christmas – 1 – The Beauty of Folio Society Books
These titles and many more beautiful Folio Society books for Christmas are currently available at Folio Society Books
‘Would you like a book for Christmas?’ one of P. G. Wodehouse’s plump, tilt-nosed, sporty heroines asks her boyfriend from the Drones Club, to which he replies: ‘No thanks, I’ve got a book.’ A life with one book is unthinkable, and while Folio Society books are not the only ones, nor should they be, they will, with luck, have a role to play in enriching the lives of book-lovers for years to come.
Folio Society books come in many different formats, whether it’s an early individual book with a dust jacket or one of the later ones in slipcases
The Folio Society has also published numerous superb Boxed Sets, here’s the superb Swallows and Amazons collection published for Jonathan Cape
Arthur Ransome’s classic children’s series Click To View
And some of the finest Author Collections
Anthony Trollope Collection 48 Volumes Series Bound Folio Society 1989-99 Click To View
Folio Society books are set above the rest in almost every aspect – exceptional typography, illustration, paper, printing, and binding.
These titles and many more beautiful Folio Society books for Christmas are currently available at Folio Society Books
The Great Novels Of George Eliot Folio Society 1999
Journal of the Plague Year Daniel Defoe Folio Society 1992
The Eagle Of The Ninth Rosemary Sutcliff Folio Society 2005
The Stones of Venice John Ruskin Folio Society 2002
The Woman In White Wilkie Collins Folio Society 2005
The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri Folio Society 1979
The Greek Myths Robert Graves Single Volume Folio Society 1996
British Myths & Legends Single Volume Edition Folio Society 2000
Legends of the Ring Edited by Elizabeth Magee Folio Society 2004
Empires of the Ancient Near East Folio Society 2000
Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas Folio Society 1999
Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas Folio Society 1979
The Arabian Nights Illustrated by Detmold Folio Society 2001
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada Mattingly Folio Society 2002
Crusader Castles T E Lawrence Folio Society 2010
History of Western Science John Gribbin Folio Society 2006
Byzantium John Julius Norwich Folio Society 2003
The Celts Nora Chadwick Folio Society 2002
The Vikings Gwyn Jones Folio Society 2001
The Normans David C Douglas Folio Society 2002
Lost Cities of the Ancient World Folio Society 2005
If you are interested in any of the above and can’t find them, please email me.
email: sales@hcbooksonline.com
These titles and many more superb Folio Society books are available at Folio Society Books
Here is a list of my April 2021 acquisitions some of which have already been listed and some sold, please email me at sales@hcbooksonline.com if you can’t find what you are looking for on my website.
If you would like early notice of my monthly acquisitions please email me and I will add you to my mailing list.
Great Philosophers of the Ancient World 300.00
The Icelandic Sagas 2 vols 300.00
The Silmarillion 2003 Ltd Edition 250.00
The Hobbit 2002 Ltd Edition 250.00
The Arabian Nights 6 vols 185.00
Myths and Legends Of Ancient Rome 175.00
The Pink Fairy Book 175.00
The Barbarian Invasions of the Roman Empire 150.00
Dark Histories Series 7 vols 150.00
The Gormenghast Trilogy 140.00
The Odyssey and The Iliad 130.00
The History Of The English Speaking Peoples 7 vols 125.00
The History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire 8v 125.00
An Eyewitness History of the Crusades 120.00
Lives Of The Mongol Warlords 3 vols 120.00
Great Russian Novels 120.00
The Eagle of The Ninth Trilogy 120.00
Classics of Science Fiction H G Wells 120.00
The Anatomy of Melancholy 120.00
Montaigne’s Essays 120.00
The Making of the Modern World 4 vols 110.00
Shakespeare The Complete Works 8 vols 115.00
Jane Austen 7 vols 89.99
Rulers Of The Ancient World 79.99
The March of History 4 vols 79.99
Empires of The Nile 79.99
Empires of The Ancient Near East 4 vols 79.99
The Phoenicians 79.99
The Minoans 79.99
The Mycenaeans 79.99
The Green Fairy Book 79.99
Dante Inferno 79.99
Byzantium 3 vols 79.99
Domesday Book 69.99
Myths and Legends of the Ancient Near East 69.99
W Somerset Maugham Collected Short Stories 59.99
East of the Sun West of the Moon 59.99
Don Quixote 59.99
Epics of the Middle Ages 59.99
Celtic Myths and Legends 59.99
Myths and Legends of Russia 59.99
Herodotus The Histories 59.99
Thucydides The Peloponnesian War 59.99
Caesar The Gallic and Civil Wars 59.99
Livy The Early History Of Rome 59.99
A History Of Rome 59.99
The Nile 2 vols 59.99
Notable Historical Trials 4 vols 59.99
Citizens 2 vols 59.99
The Mediterranean World 3 vols 59.99
Legends Of The Grail 59.99
Legends Of King Arthur 3 vols 59.99
British Myths and Legends 59.99
Legends of The Ring 59.99
The Greek Myths 2 vols 59.99
The Oxford Classical Dictionary 59.99
Italian Cities – Rome Florence Venice 59.99
The Name of The Rose 59.99
Masterpieces of the Macabre 49.99
The French Revolution 3 vols 49.99
The Forsyte Saga 3 vols 49.99
A History of The Chinese Civilisation 2 vols 49.99
A History of the Crusades 49.99
Story of The Middle Ages 5 Vols 49.99
Frankenstein 39.99
On The Origin Of Species 39.99
The Voyage of HMS Beagle 39.99
The Descent of Man 39.99
The Hunchback of Notre Dame 39.99
The Great Game 39.99
Democracy In America 39.99
Pathfinders of The American West 39.99
Tales Of Mystery and Imagination 39.99
A History of Venice 39.99
The Age Of Illumination 3 vols 39.99
Culpeper’s Herbal 39.99
The Ottoman Empire 39.99
Perraults Fairy Tales 39.99
Into The Dark Continent 39.99
A Secret Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina 39.99
The Rise and Fall of the British Empire 39.99
Captain Cook’s Voyages 1768-1779 39.99
The Quest For The North West Passage 39.99
The Seven Pillars Of Wisdom 39.99
The Fatal Shore 34.99
Victorian Trilogy 3 vols 34.99
The Aztecs 34.99
The Incas 34.99
Tanglewood Tales 34.99
The Maya 29.99
A History of The Indians of The United States 29.99
The Greek Myths 2 vols 29.99
The Adventures Of Robin Hood 29.99
Doctor Faustus Marlowe 29.99
The Source of the Nile 29.99
Madame Bovary 27.99
The Boer War 24.99
Blakes Songs Of Innocence & Experience 17.99
French Short Stories 14.99
These titles and many more superb Folio Society books are available at Folio Society Books
The Surinam Album Maria Sibylla Merian Folio Society 2006 £650
Feudal Society Marc Bloch Folio Society 2012 £49.99
The Long Weekend Graves and Hodge Folio Society 2009 £19.99
Jane Austen The Complete Novels 7 Volume Boxed Set Folio Society 1988 £69.99
Life On The Mississippi Mark Twain Folio Society 2008 £19.99
The Body Snatcher & The Isle Of Voices R L Stevenson Folio Society 2007 £49.99
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Sterne Folio Society 2005 £29.99
Memoirs Of An Infantry Officer Siegfried Sassoon Folio Society 1974 £15.99
The Diary of a Country Parson Rev James Woodforde Folio Society 1994 £14.99
Thomas Wolsey Late Cardinal His Life and Death Cavendish Folio Society 1962 £14.99
The Twelve Caesars and Lives of The Later Caesars Folio Society 1964 2005 £49.99
Pather Panchali Song of the Road Banerji Folio Society 1971 £12.99
Domestic Manners of the Americans Frances Trollope Folio Society 1974 £12.99
Principia Mathematica Isaac Newton Folio Society 2008 £300
Aucassin & Nicolette Tr. F W Bourdillon Folio Society 1947 £29.99
David Copperfield Charles Dickens Franklin Library 1976 £34.99
The Black Death Philip Ziegler Folio Society 1999 £19.99
Robert Frost Selected Poems Folio Society 2010 £27.99
Daily Life In Ancient Rome Jerome Carcopino Folio Society 2004 £19.99
The Railway Children E Nesbit Folio Society 2014 £19.99
The Life of Beethoven Alexander Thayer Folio Society 2001 £15.99
Voice From The Ranks Sergeant Gowing Folio Society 1954 £19.99
Bleak House Charles Dickens Folio Society 2004 £39.99
Agatha Christie The Complete Miss Marple Short Stories Folio Society 2010 £19.99
The Folio Golden Treasury Folio Society 1997 £24.99
Fanny Burney’s Diary Folio Society 1961 £10.99
The Folio Art Series 10 Presentation Volumes Folio Society 1957-1971 £59.99
Middlemarch George Eliot Folio Society 1972 £19.99
Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas Folio Society 1997 £19.99
Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas Folio Society 1972 £19.99
Regency England Great Age Of The Colour Print Folio Society 1964 £14.99
The Pilgrim’s Progress John Bunyan Folio Society 2001 £19.99
The Story of the Renaissance Folio Society 2009 £59.99
The Middle Sea John Julius Norwich Folio Society 2010 £59.99
Chronicles of the Dark Ages 3 Volume Collection Folio Society 2008 £59.99
If you are interested in any of the above and can’t find them, please email me.
email: sales@hcbooksonline.com
These titles and many more superb Folio Society books are available at Folio Society Books
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