Welome to the HCBooksOnline Blog
Currently in the process of writing a new section of my blog introducing some of my favourite authors.
Further additions will be made over the next few months.
Find these exciting introductions at Authors Introduction
I have customers currently waiting for the following;
If you have any of these that you want to sell or indeed any Folio Society collections or Heron Books collection then please contact me on;
email: sales@hcbooksonline.com
Phone: 0113 273 2025
From the early 1970s until 2000, Franklin Library, a division of The Franklin Mint developed a following by providing beautifully bound editions that would not break the bank. Known for beautiful leather bindings, Franklin Library books were published in three styles, full genuine leather, imitation leather, and quarter bound genuine leather. The full leather bound editions were produced throughout the Library’s lifespan but the other two styles (imitation and quarter bound) were only published in the 1970s and ‘80s. For this reason all Franklin Library editions are now considered “out of print” and are no longer available for sale from the Franklin Mint.
The 100 Greatest Books of All Time series is among the most collectable Franklin Library collections. Published between 1974 and 1982, the heavily illustrated 100 Greatest Books of All Time collection features remarkable works by literature’s most legendary writers. Readers will find Charlotte Bronte, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Shakespeare, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Goethe, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville and John Donne among the long list of greats. Along with each book subscribers received a brief reader’s guide commenting on the content of the book and its author, the design and illustration of the volume, and the enduring significance of the work in world literature.
All Editions were produced using high quality paper with pages that are sewn not glued into the binding and gold gilded page edges on all three sides. Raised spine bands give each book that distinctive antique look. The genuine full leather bound editions are the highest quality of the three. While most characteristics remained constant throughout the different series and years of production the style of end papers varied from silk moiré to decorative paper. The full genuine leather binding had 22k. gold lettering and stampings on the spine and covers and is the only edition that has the attached silk page marker.
This exclusive edition of “The 100 Greatest Books Of All Time” was privately printed and bound solely for those who subscribed to the complete collection. The books were never offered to the general public nor were they sold in bookshops and were not sold singly. This superb collection was published in a single Limited Edition.
Browse the books available at Franklin Library
To make it easier to view the Brand New Unwrapped Folio Society Books I have in stock,
I have created a separate new category; Folio Society (New Unopened)
Browse all my Folio Society books at Folio Society
Are you looking for the best price for your Folio Society collection?
Have you a collection of Folio Society books For Sale?
Email me now at sales@btinternet.com
or phone me now on 0113 273 2025
A Family Prone To Death – The Brontes
Spare a thought for Patrick Bronte, priest of Haworth in Yorkshire from 1820 until his death in 1861. Patrick lived until the age of 84 – really quite an old age in comparison to most other Victorians – and in those years he buried not only his wife, but every single one of his children. This is a circumstance which every father would shudder to consider – but this was Victorian Yorkshire, and people died all the time. Not all of these people, however, were Brontes, and not all of them would ‘live on’ through the body of literature they left behind. While their physical forms of the Brontes passed away very quickly, the literary lives of the Bronte sisters have endured for centuries.
Inherently Weak?
To our modern eyes, it may well seem that there was a congenital weakness within the Bronte genepool, presumably inherited from their mother’s side. Marie Bronte, the mother of the remarkable writers and their brother, Branwell, died at the age of 38 – setting a pattern which her children would follow. At the time, it was thought that she died of tuberculosis, although medical experts now speculate that she may have suffered from uterine cancer. She was followed in a few years by her eldest daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, who contracted tuberculosis at their boarding school and died before reaching their teenage years. These deaths were certainly tragic, but not particularly unusual for Victorian Britain. This was an era before the NHS, before widespread and systemic medical knowledge, and before the option of health insurance became available for the truly health-conscious. Those who fell ill (even from curable diseases) were in danger of their lives, and women – partly due to the risks of Victorian childbirth, and partly due to the plates of sons and husbands being piled higher when it came to mealtimes than those of daughters and wives – tended to die younger than men. This fact did not, however, save the unfortunate Marie’s son – Branwell – who became the third Bronte sibling to succumb to tuberculosis some twenty years later, at the age of 31.
Mortal Influences
While such deaths may have been expected for a Victorian family, this did not mean that the sisters were unaffected by the loss of their loved ones. Indeed, the Bronte sisters appear to have been profoundly affected by the untimely demise of their siblings and mother – so much so that the strong feelings and symbolism inspired by these deaths permeates their work, inspiring both passion and tenderness by degrees. Most directly, the death of Maria is said to have influenced the character and death of the saintly Helen Burns in Charlotte Bronte’s turbulent masterpiece ‘Jane Eyre’. More obliquely, the enjoined themes of mortality and eternity run through the Bronte canon – particularly within the single, incredible novel of Emily Bronte, ‘Wuthering Heights’. Alas, Emily did not long outlive her brother.
The Curse Of The Brontes
By the time they approached their thirties, the remaining Bronte sisters – Emily, Anne, and Charlotte – had begun to carve considerable literary careers for themselves. In 1846, under the male pseudonyms Currer, Acton, and Ellis Bell, the sisters had published poems. In 1847, each sister had a novel – ‘Jane Eyre’ for Charlotte, ‘Agnes Grey’ for Anne, and ‘Wuthering Heights’ for Emily – published. ‘Jane Eyre’ received great acclaim, and ‘Agnes Grey’ was praised. The more prudish critics were shocked at the simmering passions and ‘immorality’ of ‘Wuthering Heights’, but all agreed that it was masterfully and beautifully written. ‘Wuthering Heights’ was ahead of its age – it is now considered one of the greatest literary efforts of all time. Alas, modern lovers of Emily’s work were to be denied anything else from her pen. In 1848 she sickened and died, carried off by the same disease which had killed her siblings and possibly her mother – the curse of the Brontes, tuberculosis. A tantalising legend holds that Emily Bronte was working on a second novel at the time of her death and that this, like its author, met an untimely end when Charlotte Bronte burned it. Given the passionate nature of her previous work, and the way in which the critics had treated it, it is possible that Charlotte – seeing the same emotional intensity within the new novel – burned it to save her sister from being dragged through the jaws of the critics after death. If this is the case it is a great shame, for time would almost certainly have rectified the public’s opinion of Emily’s writing, just as it did with ‘Wuthering Heights’.
The Death Of Anne
Anne and Charlotte were now the last of the Bronte siblings left alive – and Anne did not have long for this world. Anne’s work was not as popular as Charlotte’s, nor as widely discussed as Emily’s during her own time – but has since received critical acclaim not only for the skill of her writing but for her refusal to romanticise male brutality. She was arguably the greatest feminist of this undeniably feminist family, refusing to obfuscate the dark realities of Victorian male-female relations with the glamor of brooding sexuality. During her short life, she managed to publish two books – ‘The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall’ and ‘Agnes Grey’ – but sickened shortly after the death of Emily, and declined rapidly thereafter. Determined that the sea air would be good for her lungs, Anne Bronte had herself taken by donkey cart to Scarborough. However, she died at the age of 29 in 1849, and is buried in Scarborough. She, too, had succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis.
The Death Of Charlotte
That left just Charlotte Bronte to grieve with the ageing Patrick. Charlotte is a sometimes controversial figure among Bronte lovers. As mentioned, she is thought to have burned Emily’s second novel, and she suppressed the publication of ‘The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall’ after Anne’s death for motives which she took to the grave. However, her love for her sisters is not in doubt, and seeps into her writing at many points. ‘Shirley’ – not critically acclaimed and rarely thought of these days – was written as a manner of coping with Anne’s death. She went on to publish the novel ‘Villette’ in 1853, much of which is probably inspired by her own oft-expressed but unrequited love for a married professor in Belgium. She ultimately married her father’s curate, but it seems that Charlotte did so out of a sense of womanly duty rather than much love on her part. She soon fell pregnant, opening up the possibility that a new grandchild could once more fill the depleted family life of poor Patrick – but, sadly, the weakness of the Brontes caught up with poor Charlotte. She died in 1855 at the age of 38, and her unborn child died with her. She was initially thought, like her siblings, to have fallen prey to tuberculosis – but is now considered to have suffered and died from extreme morning sickness, the same condition with which the Duchess of Cambridge was hospitalised with while pregnant with Prince George in 2013.
Patrick Alone
Patrick Bronte had come tantalisingly close to seeing his family proceed into the third generation. To lose both his final child and his first grandchild at once must have been a terrible blow. Patrick, by now very elderly, poured the rest of his life into helping Elizabeth Gaskell with a biography of his daughter Charlotte, and saw to the posthumous publication of Charlotte’s first, rejected novel, ‘The Professor’. His widowed son in law stayed with him until his death, and it can only be hoped that this man and the comforts of his daughters’ literary afterlife provided the last living Bronte with some solace.
This article is by courtesy of Helen Salter
Find more at The Novels of the Sisters Bronte
Browse all my books at Hcbooksonline
The Madness and Modernism of Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf was a prolific author and one of the most important modernists of the early twentieth century. She was also one of the most famously mentally unwell writers of the same period, with her personal life attracting nearly as much attention as her works.
Whilst her battle with the depression and other mental health conditions that ultimately drove her to suicide have been well documented, what is less well known is that Virginia Woolf also battled with substance abuse. Woolf was a regular user of the class A drug chloral (commonly used at the time to treat insomnia and known for the sedated and hypnotic state it left its users in). Woolf referred to the drug as “that mighty prince with the moth’s eyes and the feathered feet.” All of these factors, which are often referred to as ‘the madnesss of Virginia Woolf’, greatly influenced her works.
The Language of Madness
What is interesting is that, despite her obvious innovative writing skill, Woolf never saw herself as a professional writer, instead viewing her writing as an outlet, a function to help her control and process her mental health problems. She therefore was never really writing for an external audience as much as for herself, something that is occasionally very apparent within her works. The theme of madness, of sanity and insanity, runs like a thread through all of Woolf’s works, particularly her most famous piece Mrs Dalloway. The fury of her depression and her bi polar disorder governed Virginia Woolf’s life and her need to write was, above all else, a need to make sense of the chaos of her mind and demonstrate some semblance of control over her psyche. Woolf was truly troubled, in every sense of the term, and her works demonstrate this very clearly, with madness and mental confusion bubbling below the surface in every novel that she creates. The language used within her works also repeatedly and insistently raises questions about the very origins of language, as well as the linguistic connection with madness and suicide.
The Writing Cycles of A Manic Depressive
Many of her works were written during cycles of depression and mania, although Woolf herself admitted that she was a much more productive writer during her periods of depression, which no doubt explains why this remains the dominate theme of any mental health discussions within her works. The Years, Three Guineas and Between the Acts were all written in spurts and starts before she succumbed to her depression and the writing stopped. It’s important to remember that as well as being a modernist, Woolf was also a late Victorian, and these Victorian influences are also included in her works, with To The Lighthouse being a focus and critique of the imbalance of the typically Victorian relationship between her deceased parents; a huge contrast to the equal and equally worthy relationship that she strived to have with her husband Leonard, who himself battled with mental illness in the form of depression. The death of her parents had a huge impact on the young Woolf, and is thought to be the trigger that led to Woolf’s first suicide attempt and her first experience of manic depression. One biographer of Woolf was keen to point out that Woolf was not an insane individual, but a sane person who suffered with a mental illness. Perhaps it is this sanity that lead to Woolf’s self-awareness about her condition and her preoccupation with including it in her works.
The modernist style of Woolf’s work changed and evolved, becoming more and more sophisticated with each subsequent novel that she produced. She was at the center of a literary revolution, a position she both relished and simultaneously found pressurised and uncomfortable. Reading Woolf’s works is like a lesson in well written modernism: they also reveal so much about her psyche, and their almost autobiographical nature have fascinated readers for generations. When viewed in conjunction with her diaries and letters (Woolf was a prolific letter writer and journal reader) it is possible to really create a full picture of the author that can enhance and deepen the experience of reading Woolf’s unique modernist works.
This article is by courtesy of Helen Salter
Search for books by Virginia Woolf at Virginia Woolf Books
Browse all my books at Hcbooksonline
Tempestuous Victorians: How the Romantic Resonances of the Brownings Fuel an Eternal Fascination
His poetry is defiantly sordid, anguished, and repressed; beneath the lines linger a simmering sense of devilishness which is almost seductive in its intensity, reined in only by form and carefully-calculated conceit. Browning – renowned for his place in the literary fiction canon among the Victorians and his relationship with another icon, Elizabeth Barrett Browning – continues to be revered for his prowess in wit, character, dark humour and social commentary. But Browning’s own achievements have often paled to those of his mistress, muse, and wife – a poet who revolutionized Victorian literature while echoes of Romanticism brooded in her rhetoric.
Together, both Brownings produced some truly memorable and definitive works; Browning’s perhaps alarmingly, potentially-biographical “My Last Duchess” and Barrett Browning’s empowering Aurora Leigh have made their way into the syllabi of virtually every academic institution featuring an English literature programme. But it is the mystery and allure of the poets themselves which entice curiosity, even more than a century and half later – perhaps overshadowing their very works as is often the case.
Victorian Excess
While many Victorian literary circles fully-embraced the “carpe diem” mantra – particularly the fin de siècle in later years – the Brownings were not especially hedonistic; many writings verged more on the philosophical nature of morality, society, and critiques of Victorian archetypes. Yet the writers continue to fill the image of the tormented artist, particularly Barrett Browning’s tragic and untimely death (which some even theorize to be at the hands of her husband) and her dependency on opium. Of course, the mere mention of this potent substance immediately conjures up the decadent and hallucinogenic imagery of Victorians cavorting or being transported into the throes of artistic inspiration, as it is commonly romanticized by so many in relation to writers both contemporary and past. But Barrett Browning’s fixation on the drug played a very small role on her creative output. Instead, it was used as a coping alternative for her ailing health, and while she spoke of it like a love affair, Barrett Browning’s words “so far, that life is necessary to writing, & that I should not be alive except by help of my morphine” clearly indicate to what extent she relied on the drug.
The Brownings would relocate to Italy for the purpose of improving Barrett Browning’s health. Sadly, she died in 1861, her death having devastating effect on Browning. Browning’s poetry would continue to be received, however – not only because of its religious influences and allusions to Milton and Dante, but the power it would have to captivate the minds of Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson. Certainly, the themes covered in much of both Brownings’ works would add to their mystique. And as with all “celebrity pairings”, critics and fans alike have delved into the many-layered verses to decipher not only the social and spiritual resonances but the relationship between the two visionaries as well.
Defiant Spirit
Like many poets of the period, the Brownings were highly attuned to the social condition of those around them. Barrett Browning in particular focused on American slavery in her poem “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” and child abuse and labour in “The Cry of the Children”, urging strong criticisms by those who felt that, as a woman, she was stepping out of her depth. Her husband’s commentary through poems like “Fra Lippo Lippi” and “Childe Roland” would examine the idea of art and poetry as prophecy, as well as its potential for psychological insight through exploring different settings and circumstances (both in literal and figurative form). In many ways, Browning and Barrett Browning alike exhibited a kind of otherworldlyness distinct from contemporaries, though almost a hybrid the mystical nature of works by Tennyson and the more critical, focused material of Matthew Arnold. As poets and prophets, the Brownings succeeded in that balance which tilts on the brink – and becomes fully submerged at times – with another plane of thought, while maintaining an astute eye on the social implications of change, especially regarding human rights, labour, industry, and politics.
Ultimately it is the writings of the Brownings themselves which reveal most about their lives and perhaps confuse, enlighten, bewilder, and entice the reader even more – and perhaps we will never truly understand or disclose the underlying secrets of one of literature’s most powerful couples. But this is exactly what keeps us coming back – to wonder at the strange lives of these brilliant individuals, and be ever enthralled by the masterpieces they have left behind.
This article is by courtesy of Helen Salter
Search for books by the Brownings at Robert & Elizabeth Browning Books
Browse all my books at Hcbooksonline
There are three major collected editions of the works of D H Lawrence.
The first of these is the The Works of D. H. Lawrence “Phoenix Edition” in 26 Volumes published by William Heinemann (1955-), London with the volumes uniformly bound in red cloth.
This 26 volume edition contains;
The White Peacock; The Trespasser; Sons and Lovers; The Rainbow; Women in Love; The Lost Girl; Aaron’s Rod; Kangaroo; The Plumed Serpent; First Lady Chatterley; Lady Chatterley’s Lover; Apocalypse; Twilight in Italy (Travel I); Sea and Sardinia (Travel II); Mornings in Mexico & Etruscan Places (Travel III); The Short Novels (2 volumes); The Complete Short Stories (3 volumes); The Complete Poems (3 Volumes); Phoenix: The posthumous papers of D.H.Lawrence (2 volumes); Boy in the Bush (Skinner, M.L., Lawrence, D. H.)
——————————————————————————————–
The second of these is The D H Lawrence Collection published in 24 volumes in the late 1970’s by Heron Books.
This 24 volume edition contains;
The White Peacock; Sons and Lovers; The Rainbow; Women in Love; The Lost Girl; Aaron’s Rod;
Kangaroo; The Plumed Serpent; Lady Chatterley’s Lover; Twilight in Italy, Sea and Sardinia;
Mornings in Mexico, Etruscan Places, The Trespasser (also seen as Short Novels III); Short Novels (2 volumes); Short Stories (3 volumes); Poems (2 volumes); Plays; Phoenix Part (2 volumes); Letters (2 volumes); Studies in Classic American Literature and Fantasia of the Unconscious.
——————————————————————————————–
The third of these is the scholarly edition of Lawrence´s works, The Cambridge Edition of the Works and Letters of D. H. Lawrence in 44 Volumes (36 Volumes Works + 8 Volumes Letters) Cambridge University Press, publication began in the 1980s.
This edition contains;
The White Peacock; Sons and Lovers; The Rainbow; The First Women in Love; Women in Love
The Lost Girl; Aaron’s Rod; Kangaroo; The Plumed Serpent; The First and Second Lady Chatterley Novels; Lady Chatterley’s Lover and A Propos of ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’;
Mornings in Mexico and Other Essays; Sea and Sardinia; Sketches of Etruscan Places and Other Italian Essays; Twilight in Italy and Other Essays; The Prussian Officer and Other stories; England, My England and Other Stories; St Mawr and Other Stories; Mr Noon
The Boy in the Bush; The Fox, The Captain’s Doll, The Ladybird; Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine and Other Essays; Love Among the Haystacks and Other Stories; The Trespasser; The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories; The Virgin and the Gipsy and Other Stories
The Vicar’s Garden and Other Stories; Paul Morel; Quetzalcoatl; Late Essays and Articles; The Poems (2 Volumes); The Plays; Introductions and Reviews
View D H Lawrence books at Heron Books
Looking for something to read?
A challenge for book lovers and bibliophiles, to explore a little further with a literary bucket list
21 Categories with 50 books in each category
Find them at Bucket List
Then see if you can find a copy at www.hcbooksonline.com
