I own a few of these. I don’t see a difference between those two, except for the price. I have seen a number of sources ask high prices for this volume.
I found these two books on Blackwell and they appear to be the same book. But they have a very different price and one is 10 grams lighter.
Book 1:
Book 2:
Modified your post, to show the items with the Publisher Details, one is the UK edition (HarperCollins) and the other is the US edition (William Morrow). The only real difference is the logos on the spine and the copyright details in the book.
I have been watching reviews on this book. A lot of people seem to be dissatisfied with the harper collins version. (I have not seen any morrow reviews) Some prefer the standard hardback version over the deluxe.
Pages sticking together, very thin paper, variations in page color and faded ink. And other issues that your would not expect in an expensive “deluxe edition”
Any chance william morrow addressed these issues or is it exactly the same quality?
I have been watching reviews on this book. A lot of people seem to be dissatisfied with the harper collins version. (I have not seen any morrow reviews) Some prefer the standard hardback version over the deluxe.
Pages sticking together, very thin paper, variations in page color and faded ink. And other issues that your would not expect in an expensive “deluxe edition”
Any chance william morrow addressed these issues or is it exactly the same quality?
Both of these are printed by the same printer https://www.rotolitolombarda.it/en, they are just published by HarperCollins and William Morrow (a HarperCollins company).
You can see the discussion in this thread about these books when they first came out.
I would also add some context about the discussion on these Deluxe Illustrated by the Author editions now that we are a few years (in the case of LOTR) removed from their release. When they were first released, they were initially released only in the U.K., so American buyers had no choice but to have them shipped to them. These editions were not released in the U.S. until about a year following their U.K. release. So most of us who bought it initially were unable to view the book at all prior to receiving it in the mail, and then many discovered defects in the product. Now - a few years later - these books are available in stores in the U.S. They are not as common, given the price point and being specialty editions. But, for example, my favorite local independent bookstore and my local Barnes & Noble both have recently had copies on the shelf for sale. So if you have concerns, it might help to go take a look at the copies they have. Some of the books may still be in the box/shrinkwrap, in which case you may be out of luck in terms of inspecting the interior of the book. But I have seen in some cases bookstores have removed them to have the binding on display, and you could probably open the book to inspect the pages if you have concerns.
For whatever it's worth, my LOTR did not have damage, but my Silmarillion in this edition was significantly damaged (and not by shipping). After the complaints about issues with LOTR and Silmarillion, my understanding is a different printer was used for the Hobbit edition and I saw far fewer complaints about any issues with that one.
Currently I just own the mass market paperbacks. But, I would like to accumulate a little “bookshelf wealth” starting with some fine editions of Hobbit/LotR/Silm.
I absolutely love the style of these editions and tolkiens original art is icing on the cupcake.
I’m just very hesitant to drop that much coin if they aren’t pristine. And thin paper with questionable ink definitely gives me pause.
Edited by Scarlet_Sorcerer on 2024-3-19 7:42:45 PM UTC
2024-3-19 7:34:54 PM UTC
For what it’s worth, the non-deluxe variations (that have dust jackets) of the illustrated by the author style offer the same content inside the actual book; though you don’t get the extra goodies & packaging with them.
I mention this, due mostly to cost difference; as well as the fact that the standard hardcover variations - as far as I’m aware - did not suffer the same printing errors that the deluxe slipcase additions had/have.
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