I have three problems with this set, all things commented on by reviewers.
1) Many of these works are out of copyright and can be obtained from the Gutenburg project at no charge whatsoever.
2) A significant number of the book are duplicated within the set, by the end of the As listed by authors, I found several duplicate and at least one triplicate. Admittedly these were translations of foreign works into english but how many people really need three different versions of Beowulf?
3) The designs don't match so it won't look neat and tidy on the shelves, which is surely one of the things you would expect from buying a set of books.
I am not going to get into whether something should have been included or not.
1) You can read them on a screen for no charge, but if you want a printed bound copy it will cost money.
2) There are four versions of the Illiad. Anyone who actually needs a copy of Beowulf at all (or the Aeneid, or Capital) probably does need multiple versions, the rest of us could always give away the versions we don't prefer. (I think I have two versions of Beowulf at the moment, but maybe it's just the Ted Hughes one (not included).)
3) I'd missed that. I think you could still get shelffuls of matching stuff, but it does rather lower the appeal of buying the lot as a set.
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Date: 2005-06-28 06:41 am (UTC)1) Many of these works are out of copyright and can be obtained from the Gutenburg project at no charge whatsoever.
2) A significant number of the book are duplicated within the set, by the end of the As listed by authors, I found several duplicate and at least one triplicate. Admittedly these were translations of foreign works into english but how many people really need three different versions of Beowulf?
3) The designs don't match so it won't look neat and tidy on the shelves, which is surely one of the things you would expect from buying a set of books.
I am not going to get into whether something should have been included or not.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-29 02:55 am (UTC)2) There are four versions of the Illiad. Anyone who actually needs a copy of Beowulf at all (or the Aeneid, or Capital) probably does need multiple versions, the rest of us could always give away the versions we don't prefer. (I think I have two versions of Beowulf at the moment, but maybe it's just the Ted Hughes one (not included).)
3) I'd missed that. I think you could still get shelffuls of matching stuff, but it does rather lower the appeal of buying the lot as a set.