The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection: More than 1000 of the Greatest Classics Paperback – March 25, 2005

I bought The Penguin Classics Library collection late last year and was as excited as a schoolboy when the pallet arrived at my doorstep. You can imagine my disappointment therefore when, after I had laid the books end to end, the length of all the titles combined nary reached 51 miles, and I found out I had ended up in a rather poor neighborhood with many, many ugly (and I assume illiterate) people. Also, when I attempted to repack to books and return the item to Amazon, I found most of them had been stolen along the route, and a dog had defecated on Tale of Two Cities near the McDonalds near Arrigo Park.

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.

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%. :)