Day 22 – Favourite book you ownHaving said that I don't collect antiquated books, my favourite books are actually antique. Strictly speaking they're not mine, they're my husband's but they are living under my roof and therefore I count it as the same.
Alan is a massive Dickens fan and over the years he's collected some gorgeous editions. Probably my favourite is a beautiful red cloth copy of David Copperfield which is just lovely with gold embossing and beautiful pictures interleaved with tissue. In the pic I've put a normal size Penguin book next to it to show how large it is (it can give you serious wristache when you pick it up.) Another one that I love is a two volume proof edition of the 'Pickwick Papers'. It's got beautiful hand cut paper and the drawings, which are by Phiz, are engraved (you can feel it if you run your hands across them.) They're an absolute pleasure to look through and breathe in.Another favourite which I've only just acquired this year is my signed copy of Jasper Fforde's 'One of Our Thursday's is Missing', just to have the book signed was wonderful but it's also a great reminder of a lovely evening and a lovely birthday surprise.
Dear Poppyshake
ReplyDeleteI came to this page because I was searching for Pickwick Papers enthusiasts. I remember coming across the two-volume edition of Pickwick you mention in The British Library. Another two-volume edition of Pickwick you should examine is The Victoria edition: the great thing about this edition is that it includes all sorts of visual explanatory material, such as pictures of places the Pickwick Club visited. (You’ll find a copy freely available on www.archive.org, so you can see what I mean, though of course it is much better to hold the real book in one’s hands.)
Now you are probably wondering: why is this man searching for Pickwick enthusiasts? Well, the reason is that I have a piece of Pickwick-news. You see, I have written a novel about the origins and afterlife of The Pickwick Papers. It’s called Death and Mr Pickwick, and it will be published by Jonathan Cape, of the Random House Group, in May. I do hope you will take a look at it, if you get an opportunity. The novel explores all aspects of the Pickwick phenomenon – including the “bookshelf” aspects - one character, based upon a real person, is a man who has spent fifty years searching for a perfect first edition of Pickwick. You can find out more about the novel at:
www.deathandmrpickwick.com
Anyway, I hope you don’t mind my leaving this little message here, but I want to tell people about my novel, and I honestly believe that it will give readers a whole new perspective on Dickens.
Best wishes
Stephen Jarvis