Can you help me find these books?


Note: There was no online sale update this morning.

I don’t mean to brag but I have the best sister ever. For my birthday, said best sister ever got me the Penguin Clothbound Classics collection (which Anthropologie just so happens to carry). Here they are on my shelf in the photo above. Not only do they look beautiful, they also happen to contain some of my favorite titles. I’m currently running through Sense & Sensibility for about the millionth time. The entire collection looks so nice on the shelf. Or at least I thought it was the whole collection until I found this post from Design*Sponge.


Being the completionist that I am I’d love to get the remaining books in the set. My hope is that you super sleuths in the community can help me track down these books, which may or may not be available here in the United States.


Through a bit of research (OK, the blog post cited above) I found out that the books are available at Waterstone’s in the UK. Due to the exchange rate though the 8 books available on their website would cost almost $300 and that’s more than I’d like to spend. Have you seen these books anywhere stateside? Or somewhere else in the UK? Any tips are much appreciated. And Penguin, if you happen to see this post, PLEASE release the entire collection here in the USA!

Here are the titles I’m looking for:
Madame Bovary (not pictured)
Crime & Punishment (not pictured)
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Oliver Twist
Emma
The Odyssey
The Woman in White
Treasure Island
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Little Women
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The following titles are available from Anthropologie:
Great Expectations ($20)
Cranford ($20)
The Picture of Dorian Gray ($20)
Sense and Sensibility ($20)
Wuthering Heights ($20)
Jane Eyre ($20)
Pride and Prejudice ($20)

And there’s one more!
Tess of the D’Ubervilles

36 Comments

  1. January 26, 2010 / 1:18 pm

    Hmmm I know Amazon carries all of the books that Anthropologie has. Maybe Amazon will/can get them in?

  2. Elizabeth
    January 26, 2010 / 1:23 pm

    Overstock.com carries some of them for an awesome deal of $13.46! Use ebates and you get an even better deal. :0)

  3. January 26, 2010 / 1:26 pm

    Roxy,The ones that are only available in the UK are available through bookdepository.com. I only checked two of them for you based on the ISBN from Waterstone's; Alice in Wonderland is sold out but they have the Odyssey in stock for pre-order for $15 (and free shipping), and probably at least some of the others.

  4. January 26, 2010 / 1:31 pm

    another place to try might be alibris.com. you'd have to use the isbns (I did it by "penguin clothbound classics" and didn't come up with much) but you never know. I've found tons of stuff there that I thought was long gone. The other thing to be careful of is a lot of them are used.these are GORGEOUS books!!!

  5. January 26, 2010 / 1:31 pm

    A long time lurker and book collector – I second what hoxtonmarket said definitely check book depositoryhttp://www.bookdepository.co.uk/You will have to go title by title but there are a good few there. Shipping is free (even if you order more books) and from personal experience it is quite fast and the books are packaged really well so they don't get squished in the transit.

  6. Anonymous
    January 26, 2010 / 1:35 pm

    try bookfinder.com

  7. Brittany
    January 26, 2010 / 1:52 pm

    If you put the ISBN numbers into Amazon, it says that the books are available for pre-order and will be released in early March

  8. Anonymous
    January 26, 2010 / 2:00 pm

    To reiterate Katie K, Amazon does carry all of the Penguin Classic title in your library (at a significantly lower price I might add). However, they don't seem to have the other books you desire. I would contact Penguin directly to see if there is a place stateside where they are sold. And thanks for posting this!!!! I bought a whole set on Amazon this morning. Barnes and Nobles also has some beautiful cloth bound classics.

  9. January 26, 2010 / 2:22 pm

    You're in luck, Roxy! You've got a book industry insider reading your blog! Well, you have bookseller reading your blog, anyway… I checked out Penguin's US site and it looks like they are releasing the next round of classics on March 10. Titles include:9780141192475 Emma9780141192451 Treasure Island9780141192468 Alice in Wonderland9780141192482 Lady Chatterly's Lover9780141192444 The OdysseyIf you input the ISBNs at bn.com, all titles are available for preorder for $13.50 with fast and free shipping on an order over $25. (Gee, can you guess where I work?)This is just a guess, but I would expect the rest of them to come out in the fall. Penguin's site really only has future releases through March, but I'm sure they'll post information as it gets closer to the release date.

  10. January 26, 2010 / 3:25 pm

    I knew you'd come through for me! Thank you ALL for the tips so far — I'll start browsing these over my lunch break. You're fantastic. 🙂

  11. January 26, 2010 / 3:33 pm

    The grand exit boots are half off now!! I think they are JUST starting to update the website with sale stuff…

  12. January 26, 2010 / 3:58 pm

    Why not check the ISBNs on the Penguin Website?The company website lists whatever books that have been released, or will be released.

  13. January 26, 2010 / 4:08 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

  14. January 26, 2010 / 4:10 pm

    Oh my! I am so excited to learn there are more entries in this series! I loathe Austen so despite how pretty these were, there weren't a lot of titles I was interested in actually owning until now! I neeeeeeeed that Alice in Wonderland and the Sherlock Holmes and The Odyssey and Shakespeare (despite owning all of his works twice over already)! Okay maybe not *need* but boy are they pretty. Forgot to add that thank you for the post, Roxy, and thank all of you in the comments for sharing tips!

  15. Anonymous
    January 26, 2010 / 5:32 pm

    Hi Roxy!I ordered the first clothbound set thru Amazon in the past and I noticed that the US set is not numbered along the spine as the UK set. It isn't a big deal to me but I wanted to make you aware of it.

  16. January 26, 2010 / 5:41 pm

    Thank you for showing me how great these look as a set. I just bought a set for a friend for her birthday – she will LOVE it!

  17. MAB
    January 26, 2010 / 6:13 pm

    roxy,i had actually seen the books at Border's (and at UO) here in houston!so, i just did some looking and it seems as if those titles are on their way (some in march, some in sept). you can preorder them but they are still $20. Emma: <a href="http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=014119247Xhttp://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?s… />The Odyssey:http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0141192445The Woman in White:http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0141192429Treasure Island:http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0141192453Lady Chatteryley's Lover:http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0141192488Little Women:http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0141192410Alice's Adventures:http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0141192461couldnt find madame bovary or crime and punishment however.hope this helps somewhat!

  18. January 26, 2010 / 6:25 pm

    roxy, i too received "p & p" and "jane eyre" for christmas. definitely some of my favorite gifts, ever. the enclosed ribbon as bookmark is a lovely touch. anyway, i went on a hunt myself and managed to score "little women" on ebay for sixteen bucks. "madame bovary" went for more than fifty. SUCH a gorgeous cover! i think you can still find some dickens on ebay. good luck!!

  19. January 26, 2010 / 6:39 pm

    I feel much better knowing the next round comes in March…that's not too long to wait. September though is too far away!! Thanks again ladies for all the tips. I think I will have to scour ebay for Madame Bovary and Crime & Punishment in the meantime. 🙂

  20. January 26, 2010 / 6:44 pm

    When I was at home a couple of weeks ago in Portland, OR I saw several of these on the shelves at Powell's Books.They're having a 30% off sale on the Penguin Classics with the graphic art covers, not sure about the clothbound editions. http://www.powells.com

  21. Glenda
    January 26, 2010 / 7:27 pm

    I loved that you used the term "completionist"–I have to admit I'm that way too. Good luck on the search, and thanks for bringing this to our attention…I hadn't realized how pretty the book designs are–especially along the spine.

  22. Traci
    January 26, 2010 / 7:43 pm

    Barnes and Noble carries the same titles (online) as Anthropologie for slightly cheaper and if you have a membership they are about $14.50 each. I don't care for many of these books but I want them anyway for display! I'm going to have to look into this…

  23. January 27, 2010 / 12:35 am

    Check Borders. They also carry some of these books.

  24. January 28, 2010 / 4:30 pm

    I own all of the current titles out there as well, and have the March and September releases on pre-order. I fell in love with them on Anthro's site, but ended up purchasing them on buy.com because they were about 50% cheaper(under 12 bucks), no tax, AND I could use ebates. 🙂 I have had zero luck on finding copies of C&P or Madame Bovary and would love to hear if anyone has any tips on where to look. Thanks!

  25. January 29, 2010 / 12:22 am

    Since this post alerting me to more titles, I've been on a hunt to find Crime and Punishment and Madame Bovary and I can't anywhere! So sad.I did see this Hans Christian Andersen collection from Penguin on amazon.uk – I'm not sure if it's strictly part of this same set but looks awfully similar!http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0713996412/ref=sib_rdr_dp

  26. Usha
    January 30, 2010 / 3:01 pm

    Borders in Australia carries these books exclusively and they have most of them incl C&P and Madame Bovary..Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is sold out nationwide though – I am not surprised, who can resist Pink Flamingos!

  27. Anonymous
    February 11, 2010 / 2:47 pm

    Crime and Punishment and Madame Bovary are both on ebay.Interesting to see how high they go.

  28. Natasha
    February 23, 2010 / 11:45 pm

    I'm not sure if it matters or if you have obtained the whole set but I stumbled upon your blog and then saw this set. I have to say I have become so obsessed with getting this entire set it is absolutely ridiculous. I have 15 out of 20 and am I looking to pick up the last 5 when they are released. The places I had the most luck was with were Chapters.ca (Borders in the US I believe is the equivalent) and Amazon. Amazon will even let you pre-order all five outstanding titles. But Madame Bovary and Crime & Punishment were the hardest to find and I had to have them shipped in from quite the distance so consider yourself luck you have those two. The rest will be easy to get!

  29. February 24, 2010 / 1:53 am

    Hello!Does anyone want to trade a numbered Crime & Punishment for a non-numbered edition…? You can e-mail me at allisondavies@shaw.caThanks!

  30. Anonymous
    February 24, 2010 / 10:54 am

    Has anyone actually found Madame Bovary or Crime and Punishment since this post was started? I checked all the sites listed above and couldn't find either of them anywhere. The rest of them are available on Amazon.com for $13.60 each. The original 8 are available for purchase now: Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, Sense & Sensibility, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jane Eyre, Crawford, Pride & Prejudice, and Tess of the D'Uberilles. The newest set of 5: Emma, Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Odyssey, Treasure Island and Alice in Wonderland are available for pre-order now (shipping March 10th!).The second set of 5: Little Women, Oliver Twist, Hound of the Baskervilles, The Sonnets & A Lover's Complaint, and The Woman in White are also available for pre-order (shipping Sept 25th!), but are harder to find on the website because the book covers aren't up yet. However, if you look at the price, its easy to see which ones they are…they were "originally $20.00, but are "on sale" for $13.60. I pre-ordered all of them tonight.PS. your card is not actually charged until they ship the books, so you can safely pre-order all of them now without racking up a ton of money all at once! 😉

  31. February 24, 2010 / 3:21 pm

    I called many Chapters across Western Canada before I located a Madame Bovary & Crime & Punishment. I finally located one of each, but it was a task! The people at Chapters were great, though! As I mentioned in my pp I'm still looking to trade a numbered C & P for a non-numbered edition…anyone??

  32. Anonymous
    February 25, 2010 / 9:40 pm

    Natasha, who shipped the books for you? I located Madame Bovary at a Chapters in Canada, but they would not ship to the US (even after my pleas and bribes).

  33. February 26, 2010 / 4:27 pm

    I am desperately seeking anyone who can help me find Madame Bovary and Crime & Punishment to complete my collection (at a fairly reasonable price)! Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I will be forever indebted to you! twodogsagirl@gmail.com


Looking for Something?