You know I like to share it with you when I’ve been shopping. Over the past few months I’ve been gradually replacing my very tatty 1980s Woolf paperbacks, all beiges and browns and yellowy pages falling out, with beautiful new Oxford World’s Classics editions. True, these don’t have page references for passages about clothing, the legacy of my undergraduate thesis on Woolf in those old paperbacks, but these are proper scholarly editions better befitting a student. And they have pretty covers.
So here they are. I must confess the Night and Day cover is frankly terrifying, and it’s still the only Woolf novel I haven’t read – nice to save up something. The same reason I still haven’t read Sanditon or The Watsons by Jane Austen – it would be very sad to think I’d reached the end of the available texts.
And, because it was buy-one-get-one-free, I also bought the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Evelina by Fanny Burney today. Although she’s on my 50 Books… list, I didn’t actually own a copy – it seemed like a good opportunity.
My only fear is that these Woolf editions will date, and I’ll want pretty new ones next… but I shall be strong.
In case you can’t tell from the pictures, in these editions I have:
Between The Acts
To The Lighthouse
The Waves
Mrs. Dalloway
Jacob’s Room
Orlando
Night and Day
A Room of One’s Own / Three Guineas
The Voyage Out
Those are beautiful. I especially love the cover on To the Lighthouse.
The ‘Night and Day’ cover is actually my favourite – I think it’s really beautiful…but then, maybe that just shows my perversity.
Button
I am the complete opposite as you, I want to read first edition hogarth press books with Vanessa Bell Dust Jackets when I read Woolf, I just don’t have the small fortune needed to fund that desire!
Very pretty; I especially like To the Lighthouse and The Waves.
I would love to have a matching set of Woolfs. The majority of mine are the silver Penguin Modern Classics, but not all.
Ah, Flo, those are definitely the ones I’d choose too, if I had the money! I’m settling for the second best…
Wonderful covers, I am ashammed to admit I havent read a single Woolf book which I need to rectify. I would love to do with with all my Du Mauriers only some of them have never been reprinted!
I have the honor of owning a few Woof books with the original V. Bell covers. They thrill me to pick them up! In case anyone is serious about collecting, Australia is a treasure trove of Bloomsbury books. Not cheap but priced fairly. Also the early Harcourt, Brace and Company issues have the V. Bell covers. I really enjoy this blog all the way from California. My favorite V. Woof book is The Waves. What is yours?
My favourite keeps changing! I think it’s Mrs. Dalloway, but it might also be Jacob’s Room or The Waves or To The Lighthouse or Between The Acts…