What is Your Favorite Classics Publisher?

[Zeruiah]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to discuss this, but here it goes:

My favorite so far is B&N Classics. Why? It's cheap, it has footnotes, and it has an introduction discussing the world of the author, confusing allusions throughout, and general themes prevalent in the novel. I need that because I'm not very knowledgeable of history and I tend to miss key literary allusions in the book.

I haven't used very many other classics publishers so I may not be making a valid comparison. All of the other ones I've used only have an intro from the author and/or translator, which does me no good.

Which one is your favorite?

[Virgil]

To be honest I haven't given it any thought. Penguin seems to be a pretty good one.

[Dori]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to discuss this, but here it goes:

My favorite so far is B&N Classics. Why? It's cheap, it has footnotes, and it has an introduction discussing the world of the author, confusing allusions throughout, and general themes prevalent in the novel. I need that because I'm not very knowledgeable of history and I tend to miss key literary allusions in the book.

I haven't used very many other classics publishers so I may not be making a valid comparison. All of the other ones I've used only have an intro from the author and/or translator, which does me no good.

Which one is your favorite?

I also prefer B&N classics. :)

[Dark Muse]

I do not know if I have a favorite, but it seems I most often end up getting Wordsworth Classics, or Penguin, sometimes Bantam, and well that is just what the bookstore I go tends to have most often, and usually I pick by whichever one is the chepest in the store.

[Shea]

I've never thought about that either, but Penguin is pretty good because it also provides that extra info with the footnotes too.

[Tersely]

I collect Penguin above most the others. They have introductory notes/plot analysis,timeline of the author, bio on the author, a note from the author (if valid), notes on the text, and then the footnotes at the back of the book. They cost anywhere from $8-15 depending on size and author..but for a few extra bucks I like to have the notes, author bio, and the plot anaysis. The pages are always clean. If I buy the cheaper (usually Bantam or Signet) the printed letters a really runny or smushed into the pages, and the pages are usually too small. If I cant find it in penguin I try to get Oxford since they have almost the same info contained. I really want to get a library going for my kids, so I want to put a little bit of investment into them.

[Logos]

I always choose the Norton Critical Edition (http://www2.wwnorton.com/college/english/nce_home.htm) if it is available :)

[Zeruiah]

I've never used Penguin or Norton, but I've seen them around. I need to write these down so I'll remember later. :)

[Dori]

When compared to Signet Classics, B&N Classics wins by a large margin. I own four (4) books published by Signet Classics, including The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, Don Quixote by Cervantes, Selected Stories by Anton Chekhov, and Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Don Quixote was given to me (its previous owner very much disliked the book, perhaps because of what is seemingly a low-quality edition). I bought the other three in this edition because it was the only edition available at the time.

Signet classics include an introduction, a selected bibliography, and a short, paragraph-long bio of the author. Some might include an afterword (Crime and Punishment, for example). But that's it.

Alternatively, B&N Classics "present new scholarship with commentaries, viewpoints, chronologies, notes, and discussion questions." Also, they look a lot more attractive than Signet Classics (and most others, in my opinion). Not that that matters...:rolleyes:

I own a few Penguin editons (Meditations and Other Metaphyisical Writings by Descartes; Essays and Aphorisms by Schopenhauer), but they only include an introduction, chronology, and notes. Not to mention they're more expensive than B&N Classics. I've heard that Penguin usually uses "better" translations, but I don't think so.

[Splendour]

I must say, I do not like Bantam and Signet. The book itself have very bad papers (I'm sorry, I like my pages smooth and doesn't smell so bad, it's just me being me..I used to like to judge editions of books by its smell *sweatdrop*) They are cheap, of course, but Wordsworth editions are equally cheap (when they are availiable) and has notes/introductions (not that I read all of them). Penguin and Oxford are excellent, no question, but they are slightly more expensive (Sometimes I feel I'd just take it from a library), and Oxford isn't available everywhere. Not sure about B&N Classics, if anyone could show me the cover of one I might recognize it.

Penguin doesn't always have nice translations, their Iliad and Odyssey somehow ended up being prose translation. Of course it's not a BAD thing, it's just...you can find a better translation in verse...like Pope for example. Honestly I haven't seen a single Pope's edition these days, all are Fagles. Chapman is rather difficult to read.

[mayneverhave]

Vintage, because they publish Camus and Faulkner, two of my favorite writers.

Also, the covers are usually aesthetically pleasing, though my vote goes to Penguin as having the best looking covers. Personally though, I feel Penguin puts far too much introductory material in their books, so you have to flip through hundreds of pages to get to the actual novel

As far as overall quality though, I agree with Norton's Critical additions, judging from my version of the Brothers Karamazov and the incredibly valuable Norton's Anthology of English Literature. Other anthologies are no where near as good.

[Zeruiah]

For those of you unfamiliar with B&N Classics:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/classics/index.asp?PID=17978&z=y&cds2Pid=16451&linkid=1091569

[LadyWentworth]

Most of the classics that I own are Signet. That ended up happening because years ago, just when I started to really get into reading, a bookstore here had a sale on all of the Signet Classics. So, I REALLY took advantage of that! Penguin is OK. I guess I almost prefer B&N, though. I didn't like them in the beginning (I am saying years ago when I worked for them), but now it just seems that I am automatically drawn to their books. The shame is I already own the majority of them but published by Signet. So I am not going to buy their version of a novel now. Too bad. I'll live, though. Signet is tolerable enough for me.

[kiz_paws]

Penguin has always served me well. ;)

Good question!

[Sir Bartholomew]

as of sturdiness i'd go for little brown.

i agree as of quality it's B&N Classics. I own some but there's this one time where I bought their edition of Middlemarch and it has these innumerable typo errors.

i own a lot of Signet but they smudge. ugh!

i adore those penguin popular classics (the green ones not the former gold editions) they're cheap though they lack additional materials.

i have some Vintage. Vintage Internationals are great but no additional materials too. i have Vintage Classics by Woolf and Faulkner. The quality on Woolf's is OK, but the Faulkner that I own has torn its binding.