Age has indeed withered them

I am facing up to the sad fact that a significant number of my most cherished books from my teens are now falling apart and in no condition to be read.  I don't feel responsible; I am a careful reader and loathe cracking spines, it is simply the fact that the Penguin classic paperbacks I read twenty odd years ago were not really designed to last this long.  Their pages have yellowed, the glue has given up the ghost so that pages fall out when the books are opened.  Age has indeed withered them.  The books affected are ones I simply cannot be without (all of Austen, Dickens and the Brontes, War and Peace, Anna Karenina), or envisage re-reading (Conrad, under the influence of Exit Ghost which I have just started, for example) or books I simply want to keep (Hardy, Trollope, Gaskell). 

So I have been pondering the question of what to do about replacing these old paperbacks.  Shiny new ones that will do the same magic disappearing trick?  New hardbacks?  Second-hand hardbacks?  Much rumination has occurred and I've been looking especially closely at the writers' rooms in the Guardian Review (as if I needed any other excuse than my innate curiosity!)  to glean clues to how they deal with the problem.  It isn't always easy to see, but I'm coming to the conclusion that hardbacks predominate.

But, then, the practical issue arises: when did you last see a hardback copy of Pride and Prejudice in Waterstones?  On the high street, only newly published contemporary works exist in hardback and then only for a limited time.  I like the Everyman hardbacks but balk somewhat at the price (around £13 a volume).  In the box of pocket classics I bought last week, there is a Collins Classic edition of Pride and Prejudice published in 1967 whose pages are still tight in their binding, nicely white and which looks smart enough not to be a disgrace on the shelf.  It doesn't look as glitzy as a new paperback, and has no notes and only a short introduction, but I think its durability (and price!) win the day.  So I have now convinced myself that I need to haunt second-hand book shops in search of serviceable hardback classics and conduct a thorough research project on which series to collect.  As an additional bonus, the hardback Pride and Prejudice is actually thinner than my old paperback and so if I do manage to make headway with my replacement plan then it should mean that I have room for even more books.  Excellent!

Comments

[Sylvia]

I went through this myself (click my name to see the post) and concluded that the Modern Library was the best, but I don't know if you can get them on your side of the pond. Hardcovers are definitely worth the money since they will last a lifetime. It's the Penguins that are overpriced considering how cheaply they are made.

[Jill]

I'm with Sylvia. I purchase either the Everyman hardcovers or the Modern Library when I am looking at purchasing a classic.

The Penguins are largely intended these days for student use which is why they go for the cheaper paper (keeps costs down).