Your Basket is Empty
Inspired by the format and production quality of the 19th century editions of Jane Austen, Chiltern Publishing have since their formation in 2018 produced a fabulous range of wonderfully bound, decorative editions of literary classics. Splendidly combining the latest printing and binding technology with a traditional approach to book craft, the resultant volumes (and their attendant notebooks) are genuinely a delight to both behold and, due to the wonderfully tactile nature of their textured binding, hold! Country House Library are delighted to be able to represent the Chiltern Publishing editions on our bookshelves, knowing that they will be appreciated by readers and book lovers across all ages, and make for the perfect gift. We've put together a selection of some of our current favourites here, that we think exemplify the Chiltern Publishing books, both as objets d'art and worthy editions of classic works of literature.
A sumptuous edition of Jane Austen's coming-of-age novel, a clever play on Gothic novel tropes, famously featuring the "horrid novels" (Udolpho, The Italian, Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine and Horrid Mysteries) recommended by Isabella Thorpe to Catherine Morland. These titles became so scarce as to be considered Austen's own fictional inventions by later readers, until they were rediscovered (and repopularised) by the early 20th century bibliographers Michael Sadleir and Montague Summers. Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels, to be completed for publication, in 1803. However, it was not published until after her death in 1817, along with her novel Persuasion.
Since its first publication in 1865, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has continued to fascinate generation after generation with the fantastical world that Lewis Carroll created, spawning many imitators, parodies and adaptations over the years. This wonderful Chiltern Publishing edition of Lewis Carroll's classic children's book, in its suitably mind-bending rainbow-patterned binding, would make the perfect gift for those who enjoyed the stories when very young, and are now looking to experience them anew. Here accompanied by a similar-format 'Alice in Wonderland' notebook, charmingly illustrated by MiniLima, the design duo behind the graphic props of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films.
Another great Chiltern Publishing edition, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous Sherlock Holmes case, based on the legend of the Black Hound of Hergest associated with the Vaughan family of Hergest Court in Herefordshire. Doyle subsequently re-located his version of the story, with Sherlock Holmes as the main protagonist, to Dartmoor in Devon. Here accompanied, the 'Watson' to its 'Holmes' perhaps, by a suitably bound notebook, featuring the distinctive art nouveau design by English artist Alfred Garth Jones that graced the first edition.
One of Hardy's greatest works, featuring the tragic hero Michael Henchard, of whom the critic Albert Guerard wrote, "Henchard...stands at the very summit of his creator's achievement; his only tragic hero and one of the greatest tragic heroes in all fiction. He takes his place at once with certain towering and possessed figures of Melville, Hawthorne, and Dostoevsky". First published in weekly instalments in The Graphic from January to May 1886, several major revisions were made to the plot before publication in book form. It did not however prove popular, only 650 copies were bound by the time of publication, and some copies were remaindered. Perhaps if the publishers had offered as lovely a binding as houses this Chiltern Publishing edition, things might have been different!
One of two pioneering modernist authors (the other being Virginia Woolf) to be handsomely represented by Chiltern Publishing, this edition of James Joyce's first novel is a visual delight with the title lozenge on the upper cover bobbing in a sea of red, gold and white. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man marks the earliest sustained experimental work by the Irish author, and introduced his alter-ego Stephen Dedalus, chronicling his development from a bright young student to a promising clergyman to an artist.
A gem amongst the Chiltern editions, this delightful rerepresentation of Saint-Exupéry's classic for children is bound in beautiful bright blue boards decorated with threads of gold linking silver & gold planets and stars, referring to the eponymous character's journeys before landing in the Sahara desert. Following the German invasion of France, aristocrat and pilot Saint-Exupéry went into exile in the United States, where he wrote & illustrated The Little Prince during the summer and fall of 1942. The book was published in English & French the following year; however, due to the Vichy Regime's ban on his works, The Little Prince would not see publication in France until after the war. The book proved to be Saint-Exupéry's last, as he disappeared while flying a reconnaissance mission for the Allies the following year.
Shakespeare's Sonnets are truly immortal; famous lines such as ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’ and ‘Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds’ rank amongst the best known, and best loved, in the English language. In his 154 sonnets, Shakespeare considered love in all its guises, introducing us to the famous Dark Lady and the Fair Youth, the identities of whom still tease us to this day. Beautifully patterned with gold & silver detailing and stunning gilt-edged textblock to match, this Chiltern Publishing edition makes the perfect gift, even if just to one's self!
A fabulous edition of this important Chinese text, written around the sixth century BC. A work of wide-ranging influence on both eastern and western culture, it has been accepted as a definitive work on strategy, as applicable on the battlefield as in business and politics.
In this age of e-books and mass produced, subquality paperbacks jostling to be the cheapest options on the market, it is reassuring to find someone like Chiltern Publishing who restores faith in traditional book making values! These luxurious hardback editions, with their fine decorative covers and high quality printing, look great on any bookshelf, and make fantastic gifts to lovers of literature and bibliophiles in general.
ADD YOUR CHOOSEN BOOKMARK TO YOUR BASKET. DISCOUNT APPLIED WHEN YOU CHECKOUT
