Faerie Queene

Hi everyone,

I hope this post is allowed.
I have been looking for the Faerie Queene (my most wanted book) for a very long time and haven't been able to find any (that wasn't an exorbitant price).
Would anyone here consider selling this set to me? I would never ever sell it and cherish this book for life (and hopefully the next generations too).

Thank you for reading

Hi and welcome to the group. eBay, abebooks and setting up searches are your best friend. It’s funny with Faerie Queen. It wasn’t a best seller and took years and years to sell out by the society. Some fine the language harder to read but if your well versed in all that then I guess that’s your interest. Didn’t Easton Press also publish a set?

I got the heritage press edition with the Agnes Miller woodcuts. The binding isn't as gorgeous as the FS of course but it's a lovely budget option.

>1 rose2214: Hi Rose,

I know a second hand bookshop in Vancouver, BC, Canada that had a set for approx. $800 CAD. It was back in March, so I don't know if they still have it. I remember it had some spine sagging and the bottom of the text blocks were staining red from the slipcase. I would say it was in good to VG condition overall.

I thought it was a good price for the set, but not something I was going to be reading soon.

I have no connection with the seller (who is a bit of a curmudgeon, frankly) and I don't know about their shipping policy, but if you want to suss it out on your own it is called Macleod's in Vancouver. 455 W. Pender St.

Good luck!

>1 rose2214:
It is a beautiful set (see https://www.librarything.com/topic/318774#), but unfortunately you won't get a set cheaply in fine condition, and a fine edition is the only version that will satisfy you.

>1 rose2214: >5 wcarter: it is a shame, as I remember it being in (at least) one sale, as thats when I bought it (for £385 I think)

it isn't an easy read but it looks, feels and smells fantastic, so I hope you can pick one up!

With or without the oak case

>7 ironjaw: If you were asking me, yes it had a case. It seemed made from wood, lined with red silk maybe? The bottom of the text blocks were lightly stained by it.

Thank you all for the welcome and the recommendations, much appreciated!

>5 wcarter: "and a fine edition is the only version that will satisfy you."
You already seem to know me well :)

After having acquired a beautiful set of the Faerie Queene with the friendly help of one of the members above, I have another question please.
On one volume the textblock 'sags' a bit - on the side the furthest away from the spine the textblock sits ca. 4mm lower than the side of the textblock directly against the spine.
What may have caused this (storage in a certain way?)? Could a bookbinder fix this?
How do I best store my 3 Faerie Queene volumes to avoid this getting worse, in the normal upright way (the books standing up in the case), or is it better (or worse) to store the case lying down with the spines facing upwards?
Thank you in advance

>1 rose2214:

Faerie Queen took so long to sell I had a chance to buy it twice over a period of several years direct from Folio Society (forced to sell it -- twice). Anyone looking to buy should watch out that they buy the right slipcase. The toile vendome (it glows) is far superior to the tsarina crush.

>10 rose2214:
You can glue to the floor of the case a strip of board of the right depth and width to support the volume to its correct height. Some quality publishers will publish their better editions in this way; e.g. Abbeville Press did it for their original honking Grand Medieval Bestiary.

>10 rose2214: Hey Rose,

So glad that it worked out! You might use some thin layers of art card stock and laminate them with pva archival glue until they are the right height. Then cover them with acid free paper. You could slip these under the volumes when not in use to keep the sag at bay. I am considering doing the same for my volume of South Polar Times.

If I remember some red came off on the bottom of the text block as well. You might gently sand it with high grit sandpaper to remove it. 800 or 1000. Then place the books on the shim. Just be careful not to hit the leather.

A nice winter project! Good luck.

>10 rose2214: "How do I best store my 3 Faerie Queene volumes to avoid this getting worse, in the normal upright way (the books standing up in the case), or is it better (or worse) to store the case lying down with the spines facing upwards?"

Whatever you do, never store books with spines facing upwards and towards you, because gravity will tend to pull the textblock away from the spine and loosen it. Go with >12 Jayked:.

Or leave the set as it is, stored vertically as intended. My own - it's in the lesser slipcase, but I don't mind too much, especially given the delightfully low sale price that led to my buying it - has only been with me a few years, but the textblocks are sagging. The cause is gravity, it happens particularly with large and thick books unless their binding architecture is such as to give the block exceptional support: and it hasn't much more to do when the blocks, as in my Faerie Queene, have sagged far enough that the central pages are on the same level as the bases of the boards. When they get there they haven't any further to drop while stored in the ordinary way, and the stress on the binding is relieved.

I haven't tried it, but my expectation is that, once a text block shows enough sag for its centre to be supported by the surface on which the book stands, inserting a strip underneath the centre of the book won't stop the sag returning whenever the strip isn't there. I'd rather expect too that gluing strips inside the slipcase would negatively affect the resale prospects of the set, which may or may not matter to an individual owner.

I have numerous large and heavy books, some of them well over a century old, and even among those some are provided with such robust bindings that a text block of a thousand or more pages shows very little sag. In the sixty volume Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, on the other hand, which I've had out on the shelves for less than three years from new, the centre of every text block is already resting on the shelf. I don't mind, it's not a disfigurement, and as soon as the block starts to gain a little support from the shelf the stress on the binding begins to be reduced. Probably after ten years a little more of each block will be resting on the shelf, but the centres won't be any lower than they are now, because they've no further to fall.

>15 terebinth: Yes. I agree. I should clarify that if you make the shims have them free floating under the books, not glued to the slipcase!

Of course this won’t fix the sag that already happened, but keep the pages from rubbing off the red of the slipcase liner.

It is best to do this before any sag has started and spread out the weight of the text block.

>16 PartTimeBookAddict: "if you make the shims have them free floating under the books, not glued to the slipcase"

I meant to make this same recommendation. Years ago, I glued my first shim into the bottom of a slipcase. It worked really well and a month later I decided to protect another heavy book from sagging when it dawned on me that there was no good reason to actually glue in the shim, just let it float. It's easier and works just as well. I've done it to a number of books since. I use the same acid free Davey board that I use for making slipcases.

Thank you all for your very knowledgeable advice - much appreciated. I will attempt to make the cardboard shims as you have advised.

I noticed that 'PartTimeBookAddict' and 'kdweber' you both advised 'acid free' paper. Excuse my ignorance on this - why is this required?
Would a piece of normal cardboard box (e.g. the standard box from Folio), assuming this is not acid-free, make stains?

Thank you

PS: And I have turned all my Folios that were lying with their spine facing the ceiling the right way up!
Thank you 'boldface'

>18 rose2214: Have you seen mass market paperbacks from the 70s or even the 90s? Brittle, yellow pages - and if you put them next to something else without their covers, the chemicals that break up the paper move to whatever is next if you leave it long enough. Or newspapers from a yesteryear. Or a common variety cardboard.

That's the last thing you want next to a properly printed book, let alone this one. And yes - unless the paper you use is acid free, that will become a problem sooner or later.

Thank you for your reply.
Oh crikey, I didn't realise that that yellowing can spread! That's my old paperbacks off the nice shelves!

>20 rose2214: As long as they have covers, they should be fine-ish. It's not like bad critters :) But you do not want to leave a non-acid free bookmark inside of a book for long - or it will leak into the pages it touches :)

Thank you. I'm learning a lot from this forum!

Most art shops will be able to direct you to archival glue and acid free paper. You might also grab a bone folder for smoothing out wrinkles.

I learned a lot from this video series:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWnUQqFyKg

I apologize for going off topic but is leather glue safe for repairing small nicks in the leather binding of a book?

>24 Atheistic: I don’t know anything about book leather except it can be fickle. You might ask a book binding shop what they recommend?

Thank you for your reply!!!

>24 Atheistic:

Firstly a disclaimer: I've had no training in archival techniques and standards, I'm just offering methods I'm happy with as a booklover many of whose loved books wouldn't be of much interest or value to anyone else.

I haven't met any damaged Folio leather bindings yet, aside from secondary market copies of the old small poetry series whose bindings don't last very well - my leather-bound LEs look as new whether bought new or from dealers. I do, though, have a good number of older books in leather bindings, mostly 100-200 years old. They've mostly cost me say £10 - £50 per volume. When one arrives I look it over for any tiny flaps, tears etc., and glue them down with a common PVA craft glue. Sometimes the job is just about invisible, sometimes it's not, but for the foreseeable future it beats leaving the tiny flap of surface leather to be either pulled off or to become a larger and larger flap of torn leather. The book then gets a light treatment with Renapur leather balsam, not so light around its hinges, and looks the better for it. Those I treated that way 20 years ago still look the better for it, and may even get a second such treatment one day, a few already have.

Thank you terebinth!! That is exactly what I am trying to avoid ie tiny flaps becoming bigger. Your post is a great help!

>28 Atheistic:

Delighted it's of assistance. I use a small jeweller's screwdriver as applicator for the glue, dipping it in to get a tiny amount on the end. Anything of similar dimensions would serve instead, and even if I enjoy a very long life I don't expect to make much of an impression on the contents of the bottle unless through other uses. Apply either to the book itself or to the flap of leather, press them together firmly, and I swab off any slight excess that may appear at the edges with a scrap of kitchen roll.

I will be making the attempt soon. My 8 month old kitten got a scratch in before I could avoid it. Very tiny but want to prevent any further damage
Much obliged for your response

My congratulations to those on this forum that have secured fine editions of Spenser's _The Faerie Queene_. It is certainly one of the great poems of the English language. It's not an easy read, to be sure, but its archaism will not impede most readers after a canto or two, and the moral/psychological allegory is complicated but not indecipherable, at least up to a point.

I have a question that perhaps could be answered by people on this thread. Easton Press also published an edition of the FQ, with illustrations by Walter Crane from the 1897 edition. I believe that the FS version is also based on on this edition--is that correct? The EP edition is available for less than the FS edition on the secondary market, although no one is giving it away.

Could someone who has seen both editions describe some of the differences? I suspect I will eventually invest in one of them, and would like to make the decision with a maximum of knowledge.

>31 Eumnestes: I would also consider the Limited Editions Club issue, with absolutely stunning full page engravings by Agnes Miller Parker. The paper and presswork is superior to these other editions by a wide margin, though the binding is not leather. If you are not set on a facsimile of the Crane edition, and are just in search of a fine printing, it is a good option.

(It would also probably be cheaper than the current market price of the Folio Society edition to buy a copy of the LEC issue with fine condition text block and get it rebound to your spec, if you don't mind a project.)

>31 Eumnestes: Yes both the FS LE and EP editions are based on the Crane edition. The leather used in the FS edition is much nicer than that used in the EP version but the EP edition is still pretty nice. I only own a copy of the EP edition. I've had a hard time making it through Spenser's poem so I have no interest in replacing my copy.

>31 Eumnestes:
While I can’t compare the two, I can tell you something about the EP edition. It is an excellent leather-bound 3-volume reproduction of the 1897 edition complete with the introduction from that edition, but otherwise it contains no scholarly assistance — no explanatory notes of any kind, no glossary, etc. It would almost certainly have been promoted as a deluxe limited edition (DLE) if it had been published after EP began that series. The fact that it is not might explain the price differential. I love the Crane illustrations.

The description from the monthly letter:

...

Now the book which we are packing for shipment to you, is, as we have already said, the biggest and heaviest book we have ever distributed.

The size of the page is seven and one-half by eleven and one-half inches, making in shape what the bibliogaphers might call “an oblong folio". There are one thousand and eighty-eight pages, which are divided into two volumes.

The type for the composition of the text is the monotype version of Garamond, in the bold and brave sixteen-point size.

The paper is made completely of rags, and especially for this book. It is "the best quality of paper obtainable" from the greatly admired paper mill of William Nash in Oxfordshire.

The typographic design closely follows the plan laid down by John Austen and John Johnson in 1939. There are headings and ornamental borders and ornamental initials, all of them as charming as charming can be, all of them drawn by Austen.

The two volumes are bound into a heavy English buckram of a pale green shade. The title, and an ornamental design are stamped on the covers, ("blocked", as the English like to say) in gold leaf; and these blockings are from designs by Agnes Parker.

...

Apologies for the slight digression, but this is my favorite edition of this work.

>35 abysswalker: Love the engravings. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, everyone, for this information; I very much appreciate it.

>35abysswalker: The LEC looks and sounds beautiful. Thanks for the images and description. It also looks gigantic. How wieldy would you say it is for reading?

>34jroger1: Lack of scholarly apparatus not a problem; I've read the poem through several times and am pretty comfortable with the language. But one complaint with some EP editions (as you know) is the quality of their reproductions of the text, which sometimes seems a bit faded. How would you rate the EP edition in that regard?

>37 Eumnestes:
The reproduction is excellent, even better than many of today’s DLEs. My only criticism might be that the leather doesn't seem as thick and plush as the DLEs.

I know that many readers prefer not to have footnotes or endnotes, but I like to understand what I’m reading. Allusions to people and events require help centuries later, and the meanings of even common words often change with time.

>37 Eumnestes: the LEC version is quite large, and it is not a book I would want to hold at arms length for an extended period of time, but I do not find it unwieldy to read on a desk or on my lap in a comfortable chair.

This will depend to a large degree, I think, on whether you enjoy reading large books or not. Personally, I find it more comfortable to read a well-made large book where the pages will stay open of their own accord on a desk compared to, for example, a much lighter trade hardcover. But there is no getting around the fact that the LEC is heavy.

As a reference point, I see you have the Folio Society 2005 edition of Faust in your LibraryThing catalog. The LEC Faerie Queene is no more unwieldy than that book, and a bit smaller by page area, though it might be slightly heavier given the all rag paper.

>38 jroger1: That's good to hear. Sounds like the difference between the EP and FS editions might be the leather. Thanks for the info.

I hear what you're saying about political and social allusions, but I think the urgency for footnotes varies among texts. There are places in Dante's Commedia, for example, where if you don't know a little bit about the figure the narrator encounters, you won't really understand why he is there. I contrast that with much of The Faerie Queene. You may not know that Sir Burbon represents the French monarch Henri IV, who changed religions despite previous promises. But even if so, when Sir Burbon gives up his shield to the enemy, it's not hard to see he's an exemplar of false promises.

I suppose I'm saying there are some dense texts, like the FQ, that can be easily appreciated without knowledge of their historical references, while there are others, like the Commedia, where it is harder to do so.

>39 abysswalker: Thank you; this is a very helpful reply. I'm torn. It's true that I have the FS Faust, but I have not tried to read it yet; so far I've only managed to lift it. But the LEC sounds beautiful, I'm a great admirer of Agnes Miller Parker, and I like the idea of having it rebound in leather.