Folio Society Books

Paul A. Whyles - Second-Hand Books

Folio Society Sorted By Author's Surname - Section A

Aksakov, Serghei - A Russian Gentleman. 1976, Folio Society, 1st thus. Translated and introduced by J. D. Duff. An intense admirer of Gogol and much influenced by him, Aksakov was a great literary artist with astonishing powers of observation and memory, and his colourful, detailed account of life in a Russian family in the reign of the Empress Catherine is a work of considerable importance. To quote J. D. Duff, the whole book 'is dominated by the tremendous personality of Aksakov's grandfather . . . Plain and rough in his appearance and habits, but proud of his long descent; capable of furious anger and extreme violence . . . but also capable of steadfast and even chivalrous affection; a born leader of men and the very incarnation of truth and honesty. . . more like a Homeric hero than a man of modern times. This portrait of his grandfather is the masterpiece in Aksakov's gallery; and his descriptions of his parents' courtship and marriage are just as vivid. . . (as those) of his early childhood.' As a portrayal of patriarchal life and of a seff-owning society on the Bashkirian steppes, Aksakov's sensitive, simply written narrative is an extraordinary achievement. (Folio Society). 9" x 5ź", 260pp plus 9 plates, full 'Japanese sack-cloth', brown leather spine lable blocked in gold, hardback. Illustrated with two-colour drawings by Jane Johnson. Fine, probably unread, complete with slip-case that has its spine and one end slightly sunned.
[Order code:5937 / Price £8.00]

Allingham, William - The Diaries. Folio Society, 1990, 1st thus. Introduced by John Julius Norwich. 'ALLINGHAM,' said Lord Tennyson, 'would it disgust you if I read "Maud"? Would you expire?' William Allingham's lifelong friendship with the Poet Laureate provides the focus for this marvellous diary. It also provides it with some of its richest anecdotes: when Allingham spilt some port on the tablecloth, Tennyson spread salt on it 'with his usual imperturbality, remarking as he did so, "They say it never comes out!"' No diarist ever had a better ear for a story; added to which the Irish poet, author of 'Up the airy mountain/Down the rushy glen', knew nearly all the great writers and painters of his day. Carlyle, Browning, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, George Eliot, Ruskin and Turgenev spring alive from the page: here is the novelist, Onida, for example, 'in green silk, sinister, clever face, hair down. . . voice like a carving knife.' 'Within a quarter of an hour,' writes John Julius Norwich, 'I knew that I had in my hands one of those books that would be a favourite for life.' From his deft impressions of nature to the marvellously funny exchanges between Tennyson (fretful) and the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (bossy), Allingham's diary is the purest joy. (Folio Society). 10" x 6ź", 352pp plus plates, full green buckram blocked in gold over the front and spine with a pattern, gold blocked spine lettering, hardback. Index. Illustrated with contemporary photographs. Fine, probably unread, complete with slip-case.
[Order code:2714 / Price £5.00]

Aubrey, John - Brief Lives. Folio Society. 1975, 1st thus. Outspoken and intimate, gossiping and haphazard, Aubrey's often quoted Brief Lives was a pioneer work in the field of English biographical writing. The vivid phrases, the striking anecdotes - often based on first hand knowledge and all recorded without the slightest hint of malice - conjure up the reality of the seventeenth century in a way that no writer before or since has equalled. His passion for details, even for the trivia that make the work more rather than less valuable, was all-absorbing, and yet his recording of them was backed by very real scholarship. At the same time, however, his love of life was so intense, his curiosity so wide-ranging and so insatiable, that no project he put his hand to ever really reached completion. This edition of more than a hundred of the Lives, based on the often chaotic manuscripts, has been specially commissioned by the Society. A further outstanding feature lies in the fact that, for the first time, every life included carries an accompanying contemporary portrait. (Folio Society). 10" x 6", 326pp, full grey 'canvas' with the front and spine blocked in brown and gold with a repeat pattern, brown blocked title panel, gold spine lettering, hardback. Printed on laid paper. This is the original Soceity binding, difficult in 1st edition. Illustrated with contemporary monochrome portraits. Very, very slightly sunned spine (much less than is usual with this edition), fine, complete with slip-case.
[Order code:7836 / Price £8.00]

Aubrey, John - Brief Lives. Folio Society, 1990, 6th impression of reissued edition. Outspoken and intimate, gossiping and haphazard, Aubrey's often quoted Brief Lives was a pioneer work in the field of English biographical writing. The vivid phrases, the striking anecdotes - often based on first hand knowledge and all recorded without the slightest hint of malice - conjure up the reality of the seventeenth century in a way that no writer before or since has equalled. His passion for details, even for the trivia that make the work more rather than less valuable, was all-absorbing, and yet his recording of them was backed by very real scholarship. At the same time, however, his love of life was so intense, his curiosity so wide-ranging and so insatiable, that no project he put his hand to ever really reached completion. This edition of more than a hundred of the Lives, based on the often chaotic manuscripts, has been specially commissioned by the Society. A further outstanding feature lies in the fact that, for the first time, every life included carries an accompanying contemporary portrait. (Folio Society). 10" x 6", 326pp, quarter dark-green cloth with pale biscuit cloth sides, black blocked title panels on spine and front board, gold blocked lettering, hardback. Illustrated with contemporary monochrome portraits. Slight bump to top-front corner of front-board, fine, complete with slip-case that has a bumped spine corner and some faint white marks.
[Order code:11604 / Price £4.00]

Aubrey, John - The Worlds Of John Aubrey. Folio Society 1st, 1988. The magpie curiosity of John Aubrey, master of seventeenth-century gossip and author of the celebrated Brief Lives, was by no means confined to people. As a biographer he was unrivalled, but he was also a historian, archaeologist, scientist, anthropologist and collector of folklore long before such terms had any real meaning. Even while on the run from numerous lawsuits and creditors he was a compulsive collector of unconsidered trifles, which he jotted down for posterity on disordered scraps of paper in unforgettable prose. His Brief Lives have long been loved and admired, and this new selection of his work includes not only all those Lives which were omitted from the original Folio volume, but introduces the other worlds of John Aubrey, to make this the broadest collection of his work yet produced. There are passages from his Monumenta Britannica, a study of ancient British sites (Aubrey was one of the first to suggest that stone circles might be Druid temples), and the Natural History of Wiltshire. His opinions on education show him trying to reform the barbarisms of English upper-class schools, while the Miscellanies is a hugely diverting cornucopia of marvels, prophecies and ghost stories, including the sighting of an Apparition on the road to Cirencester in 1670, which, when accosted, disappeared 'with a curious perfume, and a most melodious twang.' Here is a fitting tribute to an eccentric scholar to whom we owe so much of our knowledge of England in the seventeenth century. (Folio Society). 10" x 6", 300pp, quarter dark red cloth with pale biscuit cloth sides, black and gold blocking, hardback. Illustrated with contemporary monochrome portraits within the text. Very, very, very slightly sunned spine, fine, probably unread, complete with slip-case.
[Order code:13358 / Price £8.00]

Austen, Jane - Emma. Folio Society, 1962, 1st thus. Emma was 'handsome, clever and rich', and accustomed to ruling her little world. But she was not so spoilt as to be incurable - and it is the gentlemanly hero Mr Knightley who plays no small part in the cure. (Folio Society). 9" x 5ž", 382pp, quarter light-grey cloth, orange paper sides printed with a repeat patttern, gold blocked spine lettering, hardback. Illustrated endpapers (monochrome drawings of Chawton and Austen), identical. Illustrated with monochrome wood-engravings by Joan Hassall within the text. Sunned spine (as usual with this edition), fine, complete with very good (edge wear, 1 end and spine sunned; very slight sunning round opening) slip-case. Please note that at this time (early '60s) the Society's slip-cases were not particularly good fits; this is, however, the genuine slip-case for this book.
[Order code:4762 / Price £9.00]

Austen, Jane - The History of England. Folio Society. Austen, Jane - The History of England from the Reign of Henry IV to the death of Charles I: by a Partial, Prejudiced and Ignorant Historian. Folio Society, 1993, 1st thus. Introduced by Deirdre Le Faye. A facsimile edition of Jane Austen's own manuscript, with the original colour illustrations by her sister Cassandra, and a transcript of the text. 'But history, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in . . .I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me . . . to be at so much trouble in filling great volumes, which, as I used to think, nobody would willingly ever look into, to be labouring only for the torment of little boys and girls, always struck me as a hard fate'. So COMPLAINS Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey. Her creator, Jane Austen, even at barely sixteen, was a far tougher character and already an accomplished author of burlesque. In her own History of England, written in 1791, she created a wickedly witty parody of the textbooks of the time, the 'great volumes' of Oliver Goldsmith (used in the Austen schoolroom) and his contemporaries. From Henry the 4th, who 'ascended the throne of England much to his own satisfaction in the year 1399' to Charles the Ist, ever stedfast in his own support', the youthful Jane Austen whisks us through two hundred and fifty years of history in a few incisive pages, giving a free rein to her own enjoyable prejudices against the Lancastrians - 'I shall not be very diffuse in this, meaning by it only to vent my Spleen against, & shew my Hatred to all those people whose parties or principles do not suit with mine, & not to give information'. The History is uncannily like a much later comic classic, 1066 and All That, both in its humour - 'There will be very few Dates in this History' - and in its recognition that very little 'real solemn history' stays in the mind, apart from odd landmark figures such as Joan of Arc who 'made such a row among the English' or 'that Monster of Iniqmty and Avarice, Henry the 7th'. To this lively text, Cassandra Austen (Jane's beloved sister) added some deliberately irreverent coloured illustrations, showing monarchs as contemporary and sometimes disreputable-looking ordinary people. Comprises 10pp prelims, title-page and introduction; 34pp colour facsimile reproduction of the original manuscript; 14pp transcript. 8˝" x 6˝", quarter cream paper, hand marbled paper sides by Ann Muir, gold blocked spine lettering, hardback. The slip-case has the title and description blocked in gold on one side. Illustrated in the MS by Austen's sister Cassandra. Very, very slightly sunned spine (usual for this type of material), fine, probably unread, complete with slip-case. A really smashing book, a must for every Austen fan.
[Order code:13750 / Price £15.00]

Austen Leigh, J. E. - A Memoir of Jane Austen. Introduced by Fay Weldon. Folio Society, 1989, 1st thus. If YOU'VE EVER WONDERED exactly what Jane Austen thought of Scott, whether she was good at spillikins, or how Emma and Mr Knightley fared after they were married, then these memoirs will provide you with the answers. Written by her nephew (only eighteen when she died) half a century after her death, they offer a unique insight into Jane Austen's own life, and the society in which she was brought up. An eager and punctilious social historian, he presents a vivid reconstruction of events in the Austen household. James Edward Austen-Leigh's firsthand knowledge of his aunt is recorded with 'a distinct recollection of her person and character'. The edition also includes excerpts from her juvenilia, along with many of her letters, which are always entertaining and often mordant: 'Mr B seems nothing more than a tall young man. This is the first biography of Jane Austen, and a very important one. We are left feeling we have been granted a very personal glimpse behind the scenes of a genius at work; the 'Immortal Jane' writing on tiny pieces of paper, ears pricked to hear the creaking swing door, announcing the entrance of an inquisitive relation. (Folio Society). 8" x 5ź", 222pp plus 10 plates, orangy-pink cloth with a cameo design on the front board (repeated on slip-case), silver spine lettering, hardback. Index. Illustrated with a colour frontispiece (the water-colour by Cassandra of Jane Austen), and with historical material in monochrome. Fine, probably unread, complete with slip-case.
[Order code:569 / Price £8.00]

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