It
all started in a bookstore, last year autumn as the dappled sunlight
tenaciously tore through the clouds, highlighting the golden leaves
that danced amidst the air crystallised with frost. Among the divine
smell of dusty, leather-bound books, there wandered a young girl,
with eyes sparkling as her fingers stroked the spines of the books
she called her friends. Stopping in the classic section that smelt of
history, love, indigo tears and golden smiles, a book that mirrored
the colour of the sky outside, captured her attention. A cloth bound
copy of Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte, with a black
etched picture of the moors and a desolate Cathy featuring on the
cover. The girl was captivated and immediately swooped the copy into
her arms and adopted it, placing it lovingly on her bookshelf and
feeling a sensation of utter joy dance through her whenever she
looked at it.
Ahem.
That
girl was me (I apologise for the descriptive little short story piece
there but creativity struck) and the copy of Wuthering Heights was
the book which left me spellbound. It was the Reader's Digest,
World's Best Reading edition, only £2
and I had fallen completely in love with it. I then went to the
bookstore a few months later and I saw a whole crate of those
editions and I fell in love yet again, floating on a cloud of paper
and ink fantasies as I carried them against my heart and made place
for them on my bookshelf.
Ever since then I've been set on collecting these gorgeous editions, not only because I think they could rival the beauty of Sam Claflin, but because they're books that have been loved by a huge amount of previous generations and by reading them it's as if you're connected to those people somehow, who held the book and wept and laughed and had their lives miraculously altered by the fragment of heaven that had fallen into their hands.
So far I have copies of Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham. I haven't read any of them yet, but once I have my review pile under control I'll open up the book and let the words speak to me and hopefully I'll fall in love with what they have to say.
Each
book has its title in a gold coloured font (generally) on the spine,
there are stunning watercolour or ink paintings hidden among the
ivory pages and simple, yet beautiful covers! I absolutely love these
books so much and I'm so happy I stumbled upon them. Now, I just have
to make time to read my new friends!
Don't you agree that these editions are gorgeous? Do you like classics? Have you read any of these? What's your favourite classic? Do tell!
