Customer Reviews

The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection: More than 1000 of the Greatest Classics

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Apparently no reviewer so far has actually bought the complete Penguin Classics Collection. So here's a review from someone who has.

This is an orgy for a book-lover. I have had a wonderful time from the moment I placed the order. They arrived in 25 boxes shrink-wrapped on a wooden pallet, over 750 lbs. of books. It took about twelve hours to unpack them, check them off the packing list (one for each box), and then check them off the list we downloaded from Amazon.com. They take up about 77 linear feet.

I have always loved Penguin books. They are a special publisher, and I would not have considered this sort of purchase from most other publishers. Since I have already read perhaps a quarter of these titles in my life, you can see that I have an affinity for their selections. Penguin books don't just contain the text of the book. They generally include editorial material with biographical, historical, and bibliographical information that is scholarly, well-written, informative, and very useful in adding to the enjoyment and understanding of the book.

Why buy a collection rather than picking the books I want? This is like having books recommended by a good friend who knows what you like to read. Yes, this collection contains books I wouldn't have necessarily thought about picking up and reading. That is one of the real pleasures.

Why buy paperbacks when hardbounds will last longer? Have you have tried to put together a hardbound collection of over 1000 titles like this? It would cost a lot more, for starters. Not all are in print, even classics. If you don't like good quality paperbacks like these, will you settle for a foxed used hardbound copy? I will concede that the print is small. You can get a pair of magnifying reading glasses at any pharmacy for a minor cost. Surely no one is arguing that a classic can only be read in large print versions? I also like books I can carry with me, like these. Well, except for the complete Shakespeare (hardbound), or the Domesday book, or Clarissa, or a few other pretty big volumes.

Lastly, this collection has a particular appeal to me as a former cataloging librarian, which it undoubtedly will not for many people. I love handling books, reading books, and also organizing books. Just the process of taking these out of boxes and putting them randomly on shelves has given me hours of pleasure. Deciding how to organize them will provide more pleasure. Yes, I'm going to catalog my collection. Being able to pluck a book at random from that collection and know that it is almost certain to be worth my time to read is the best treat of all.

First, I have a confession to make. I have not read every page of every text of this collection.

There. I said it. I admit it. I'm reviewing something I've not read completely.

That said, I think that few people will be able to honestly admit to having read through all of the 1000+ vlums of the Penguin Classics Library. This is one of those series, like the Britannica's Great Books series, that collections in one format all of the greatest works of literature. I had the Britannica series, and gave it as a gift to a local library; this same library had been given the gift of this Penguin Classics collection, so I was able to thumb through it.

I grew up on Penguin Classic editions. I still have several dozen on my shelves, from classics of English literature (Beowulf, Piers Ploughman, Shakespeare plays, Silas Marner, Tristram Shandy, James Joyce, etc.) to classics of literature from other languages in translation (ancient Greek and Roman texts through to more modern authors in Spanish, French, German, Russian and other language traditions). My first edition of Tacitus was a Penguin Classic; my first version of Plato's Republic was a Penguin Classic. These are wonderful editions.

The one drawback vis-a-vis a series like the Britannica Great Books is that there is no over-arching thematic structure, no reader's guide such as Britannica provides. It is just you with more than thousand titles. On the other hand, the breadth of this collection is incredible, over ten times the titles and material of the Britannica collection. The Penguin Classics Library could provide almost anyone with an entire lifetime of reading.

This brings up another drawback - all of these texts are in paperback; while my Penguin Classics editions are still servicable after 20 to 25 years of use and being on my shelves, they still do age rather more quickly, and are more fragile than hardbacks. These are paperbacks not done as 'pulp fiction' mass markets for the most part, but they aren't the high-quality, acid-free paper variety, either. So, buyer beware.

Still, for those who care enough about books to purchase this collection, they probably know well enough how to treat books kindly and with respect for decades of service. Paperbacks can indeed be lasting, and this collection is one of the most impressive of its kind available.

I find the concept intriguing, though I wish Penguin had chosen to use acid free paper. Browsing through the list of titles though raises some questions however.

Does the collection really need two different copies of the Oresteia, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Song of Roland, Capital, The Divine Comedy (2 copies each of all 3 volumes), Medea, Siddhartha, Faust, The Odyssey, Swann's Way The Way We Live Now, Troilus and Criseyde, and Twenty Loves Poems and a Song of Despair? Not to mention three copies of the Aeneid and Beowulf and four of the Illiad.

For the most part these are variations of translation, but their also two copies each of Oroonoko and Don Juan, which were written in English. The worst offender is Shakespeare, where the collection includes the complete works as a volume, two editions of the sonnets, four omnibus volumes, plus 39 individual plays, which means you get four copies each of A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, King Lear, and the sonnets, plus two or three copies each of thirty some-odd other plays.

It seems if they could have limited themselves to only 1 translation or 1 copy of each work, there are 50 more works that could be included. Besides, if you take out the duplicates, my reading of 4% of the list jumps to 5%. :)

I've long been admirers of Penguin classics' editions. They are one of the very few publishers who tend to publish neglected classics and introduce them to the modern readers. Their book printing and editorial procedures are second to none, and their introductions often enlightening. Therefore, it seems like a no-brainer that I recommend this suite of Penguin Classics Complete Collection.

Well, no...if only for one reason. 1000 books would take you like, 15 to 20 years to read right? Unfortunately by the time you get to the one-quarter of your survey, these poorly produced books would have disintegrated. You heard it, these paperbacks won't last. You would have spent your money for nought.

Paper quality has always been Penguin Classics' Achilles heel. I've often asked them via email why they would not produced their books on acid-free paper for a pound more, which I'm sure bibliophiles would be more than willing to pay (their paperbacks are never cheap in the first place). Their response has always been an eerie silence. My edition of Moby Dick, published by the Penguins, is 6-year-old. To the untrained eye, this book looks like it is pre-owned by Melville. The book has browned so badly that there are times I cannot make out the words, and certain pages are so brittle that I tremble to flip the pages over. Moreover, a disgusting odor taints the air each time I try to read it, making me quite ill. I will have no choice but to dump it despite my love of Melville's classic. The chances of this book making past 20 years is NIL. I would have been happy to have this on acid-free paper that would last for decades, for a couple of pounds more or so. Unfortunately, for all their editorial and academic expertise, Penguin has ardently refused to listen to consumer feedback. Their new line of paperbacks are printed on pulp paper every bit as poor as those printed years ago.

It's sad that one has to compromise. But buying 1000 classics and expecting them to last, I'll reckon 60% of them would be unreadable by the time you come to them. So don't be so foolish to buy Penguin paperbacks if you intend to keep a book. If you don't believe me, go over your old Penguins, or visit a library at look at their Penguin catalogue. Until Penguin or any British paperback publisher has come to their senses, I urge you to spend your hard-earned pennies on American-produced classics. Properly bound (not just glued) and using much more expensive acid-free paper, they are guaranteed to last.

First of all a little praise. It's a great thing that Penguin wants to get out there and publish little-read works. Often the cover art is very well done, and kudos to the art department generally for the design work. Also, the introductions are usually very good and insightful.

HOWEVER

Do not buy this collection, it would be a monumental waste of money. Penguin has serious problems with binding quality. First off, the books are printed on acid-pulp. The stuff is of such low quality that if you get three years use out of a book you should count yourself lucky. I have a three-year-old Penguin copy of _Moby Dick_ that is just about unreadable. If you consider that it will probably take you 25 years to get through this collection, you might as well just be flushing away your money. Second, the spine binding is nothing but glue--and low quality glue at that. After the paper gives way in 5 years, the glue is not far behind. Finally, a great many of these books (perhaps all) are in the public domain and should cost substantially less than Penguin is charging, especially for such cheaply made books.

Penguin editions are for college students to read in one semester and then throw away. Buying this collection, at this price, would be crazy. Great quality books can be found a thrift shops or if you want Top-Flight quality, the Everyman collection is superb for only a few dollars more than Penguin. Do not buy this collection.

I've read about 125 or so of these -- maybe 1 in 9. I'd think that's about as good as most non-academics are going to get, so take this review for what it's worth on that basis.

Without a single exception, every one of those 125 books I'd read is a book I would recommend. Some of those recommendations would be with caveats: for example Thucydides "History of the Peloponnesian War" is not for those uninterested in history in the first place, and it's best if you have an interest in historiography. But there are no duds at all in the list.

I was surprised at some of the choices, and some of the omissions. I know that a good many books are omitted for copyright reasons -- Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and others. Others are due to be added to the series soon: the Christian Bible, for example. But the choices, while debatable, are uniformly excellent.

I'd give this five stars, but it's unrealistic to expect anyone to actually buy this. Instead, I recommend you use this as a checklist: pick a couple of the authors you've never heard of on here and try them out -- or try a book you don't know by an author you do know. If you've read Steinbeck's "The Red Pony", try "Of Mice and Men", or the incredible "Grapes of Wrath"; if you liked Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest", try "The Picture of Dorian Gray". The authors represented by only a single work are also worth a shot--Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat" is supremely funny, and there are more -- Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", for example.

Enough lists: the whole thing is just a list. Use it to refer to for your own reading and you won't be sorry -- and buy it if you really do have the shelf space, the money, and the time.

A wonderfully selected and wondefully nurtured publishing program, but there's a catch.

Given the vast number of pages, and the speed at which most mortal readers can read, it needs to be noted that the acid content in these books means that the pages will yellow, become brittle, and begin to break down well before an individual or small household could have time to get through more than a fraction of them.

Climate control helps, but there is no escaping the fact that sheet of paper containing ground wood and acid means that the book will self destruct.

Please don't see inexpensive paper as a purely negative thing. The relatively low-quality sheet is part of what makes this series function so well. Low cost supports Penguin's ability to make the books so generally available--and low cost is part of the informality of packaging that means that Plato ends up in blue jeans pockets.

The Penguin Classics are masterful publishing. It's simply not appropriate, however, to sell them as a grand set, something that people will look at on the shelf for years.

Buy and enjoy them as you go -- reading pleasure, not material, is what this series has to offer.

It s a mater economy of scale; these books are going for about two years worth of gasoline. If you read a book a day this offer will keep you going for nearly three years. If it is a book a week, then we are looking at 20 years, not taking in account any re-reading.

Many people spend this amount of money and time over and over again on their library. One would not think a second time about buying a subscription to a magazine to save on individual issues; these are just books instead of magazines.

In this day and age one has to think about their ROI (return on investment), and if you calculate the time that you can take to enjoy these books if is a fraction of what most entertainment costs today.

I my self have quite a few Penguin Classics from back when they had the monochrome orange and white covers. I figured they may be valuable one day. Now I see the true value is in their being read.

A small caution is that they do have not really duplicates but different versions or translations of some works as "The Iliad" by Homer has four different books:
ISBN: 0140445927
ISBN: 0140275363
ISBN: 0140444440
ISBN: 0140447946

Faulkner isn't in the collection because his works are still copyrighted and Penguin doesn't have access.

The Bible will be printed next year by Penguin Classics.

And no I don't work for Penguin, I just listen to NPR where the spokesperson obviously read some of your complaints in these reviews. ;)

I thought it was a pretty average idea at first (been done over and over since the 19th century), but I wanted to take a look. Then i realized they are paperbacks! Unless you run a waiting room, or received a small check with which to create a local lending library, I see no reason to spend $8000 on cheap paperbacks. They have no resale value, and will fall apart/decay pretty quickly; think back on your paperbacks from the 80's, where after 12 years the paper is so brittle it breaks, and the binding glue dries up so that the book falls apart.

Most of these titles (if not all) are past their public domain date, and so are already free to the public AND the publisher. In other words, they pay no fee to any writers to print these--and did not print anything they would have had to pay for, from what I can see. As a result, the list of classics does not include many modern/contemporary 'classics.'

Almost all of these titles are available for free at the "Online Books Page" (for personal use only of course). This is an amazing collaborative effort on the part of several universities to make public domain books available to the public. They've already made available over 25,000 books. Check it out. It's truly a public service.