Video starts at 13:20

this is good it know because I've always thought these books are so pretty but I like my books to last a long time!

One of my favourite books is Jane Eyre. I had a cheap paperback as a child and I read it to pieces. As a replacement, I was given a Penguin clothbound copy for my sixteenth birthday. I turn twenty-six in a month and my copy still survives; despite being read dozens of times and accompanying me on more house moves than I care to remember. It's been shoved in bags and taken on numerous camping holidays and generally loved so it doesn't look new, but nor is it as destroyed as it has every right to be.

This was very interesting! It’s a shame they don’t hold well because they are so pretty ✨

Oh that’s such a shame! I was thinking of purchasing one of these editions as a Christmas gift this year. I’m glad I saw this as I wouldn’t want it to be ruined. Thanks for making this.

Thanks for the warning! I had the Brontë sisters bundle on my Christmas list, after this video I'm going to replace them with a different edition.They are gorgeous, but I don't want a book that won't survive being read and reread, shoved in my backpack, lent out to friends, and all around manhandled 😅

I experienced the fading or fragile printing on the artwork as well. I solved or remedied it with fabric protection spray of some sort. I opened the book and placed it pages-down on a paper towel outside and gave it a couple of coats.

I personally bought The Count of Monte Cristo and it really helped to preserve it.

Yeah i would be disappointed too if i have spent a good amount of money and it couldn't withhold my handling of it.
That Dickens one is gorgeous though. I love the dark color with the pattern.

Finally someone said it!! These books look so pretty, but it is just so sad that they fade so quickly!!

The designer of the covers has put out a post on instagram I believe about the way the covers will be made going forward should last a lot longer! This was super recent I'm sure and I cannot find it now but I am absolutely certain I saw it - maybe got told off by penguin because they can't prove the longevity yet. I do find that the older ones tended to arrive to me already very worn, but every one that is of newer publication is still in perfect condition. I've noticed the inks on lots of the older ones have also changed colours now (like recent months, I haven't bought any this year!) since they were originally published, maybe they got changed for longevity too??

why not use a book cover, like a brown paper bag like we used to do for our school books way back? Use a book cover while reading it then take cover off and return to bookshelf

yeah, i feel like the only function of these books is to stand on a shelf and look pretty. which isnt really worth the money imo, you're not even buying a book just a decoration lol(unrelated but that lipstick colour looks great on you! and that turtleneck really make your eyes pop :)

I've found the texts themselves vary in quality in these books. For instance, The Jungle Book and Oliver Twist use the text of the first editions (Oliver Twist in particular uses the original serialized texts), which leads to stuff that might have been altered in later editions being reinstated, so they're worth checking out just for that (and the notes in the backs of the books mention the major changes between editions for those curious). Then we get to Sherlock Holmes, and it outright uses the infamous butchered version of The Resident Patient that includes the opening paragraphs of The Cardboard Box in it (and the back of the book simply says something like "some editions include a shorter opening here," but doesn't say why and doesn't provide the text of it, despite the shorter opening being the original). Although not available as a clothbound, their English translation of The Nutcracker is phoned in as well (there's a whole section where the Nutcracker is called "Fritz" for a paragraph or two). It just strikes me as pretty humorous that in some of these books clearly put the effort in of reconstructing the original text and listing most of the revisions, while others... really don't.

These are one of the rare series that I am not collecting and I refuse to start now. I would love Middlemarch.

I'm honestly surprised that the fading was the only issue you had with these books! I was expecting you to say that the spines or glue fell apart as well. I don't know why, but it seems a lot of 'special editions'  of books that look like eye candy in the store are terrible quality somehow or another (like those stylish Paper Mill Press editions of classics). On the other hand, the mass market old Penguin Classics I have that are 40+ years old hold up totally fine after many readings! Sometimes penny pinching pays off and results in a collection of boring-looking but reliable books, haha. :D

Wish I had known that the design rubs off before I bought the jane austen set. I had to laminate them to protect them and I'm def not buying any more

So good to know, I love that pattern on the Jane Eyre; it's very disappointing to see them peeling/fading like that!

Thank you so much for making this video. I've been eyeing these bad boys for a while now but now I can focus on other things!

Hoping the best for you and your channel! Happy holidays! <3

Literally just finished Treasure Island, my first of this collection, and still have red on my hands from where my fingers have decimated several parrots from the cover. So I searched to see if was the only one and found your video. Thanks for confirming it’s not just me. Such a shame!

I had bought Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a few weeks ago and now the boat centerpiece on the front of Treasure Island has massive chunks missing from it. I thought there was some kind of production error with my copy or that I wasn’t handling it properly. At least I found this video before getting any more Clothbound Classics, but I’m still really irritated because they were the first books I bought with my own money.