Elibron Classics have 3 paperback volumes at $32.99 for the set
Kessinger Publishing have 2 different sets each of 2 paperback volumes, for $54.12 and $57.36 respectively (price via Amazon)
Also, possibly
AGES Software used to have another, 8 volume, Victorian edition on a
CD-ROM
Elibron Classics (apparently
no ISBN): We bought a copy of this at $30.99 plus
$9.90 shipping to UK. The price is now shown at $32.99, and
Elibron's site says “This book will be available
soon”.
What follows is a review of our experience of the content,
production, and delivery of this edition.
Content:
This contains a condensed
edition by Rev Michael Hobart Seymour, MA. It is in double column
small print and extends to xxxii + 1082 pages.
The
condensing is described by the editor in his preface:
“The
edition which we now present to the public, possesses certain
peculiarities which require to be noticed.
I. There is a large
mass of official documents and forms, which, though interesting to
the writers of history, possess no interest or value for the
religious, or general reader. They seem to have been published by
Foxe, more with the view of preserving them as records, than in the
expectation that they would be perused by the general reader.
A
large portion of these have been omitted from this edition
II.
There is a series of narrations, from time to time introduced by the
author, connected with the superstitious credulity of the dark ages.
Some of them are absurd, others are marvellous. And Foxe, while he
inserts them, does not hesitate to express judgment on them,
pronouncing them to be apocryphal.
These have been excluded from
this edition, as calculated to injure, rather than promote the
interests of religion.
III. There is also inserted in the
original work, a variety of Latin quotations, a few from the Greek,
and a number of letters and documents, also in the Latin
language.
These have been removed from the present edition, as
being calculated to encumber it unnecessarily.
IV. Owing to the
state of society in the age in which the work was written, there was
a coarseness of expression, and an absence of delicacy and
propriety, in some of the narrations, which render it unfit for
family perusal, in the present state of society, and which have
aided much in consigning the work itself into oblivion.
All these
narrations, and indelicacies, have been most carefully expunged from
this edition.
V. There are many errors in the dates, embodied in the
original work. Some of these are, perhaps, the result of those
mistakes into which the authors of that age were very likely to
fall, in reference to more ancient history. Many of them are merely
the mistakes of the printing press, accumulated through successive
editions.
These have been carefully corrected in the present
edition, so as to prevent the reader falling into error.
These
particulars, present the peculiarities of this edition. The object
has been, to present the Protestant population of this land, with A
FAMILY EDITION – one that, in point of size and cheapness,
would be accessible to all – one that could be perused without
toiling through unnescessary and uninteresting documents – and
especially one that could be read with interest, and advantage, in
the family circle.
.....
In order to render the work complete, an Appendix has
been added, containing accounts of the massacre of St. Bartholomew –
of the Spanish Armada – of the Gunpowder Treason – of
the great Rebellion of Ireland, in 1641 – all written by
authors who wrote immediately after the events which they narrate.
Also an account of the executions in the reign of Elizabeth, proving
them to have been the punishment for treason, and not a persecution
of Popery.
From a quick glance at the first few
paragraphs and comparing with Amazon's sample pages of the Kessinger
reprint of John Cumming's edition (see below – section (2) –
for Kessinger editions), it is evident that Seymour also
modernised and condensed the language to some extent. For instance
Cumming's edition says “In the tractation of all which
things our chief purpose and endeavour shall be, (so near as the
Lord will give us grace,) not so much to intermeddle with outward
affairs of princes, or matters civil, (except sometimes for example
of life,) as specially minding (by the help of the Lord) to
prosecute such things only which to the ecclesiastical state of the
church are appertaining...”. In Seymour's edition this
reads “In treating of all which things, our chief purpose
shall be, not so much to intermeddle with outward affairs of
princes, or civil matters, as especially minding to prosecute such
things as appertain to the state of the church...”. This
example shows Seymour modernising and abridging. Of course Cumming
may have done the same in other places.
Production: Elibron's printing is a facsimile
reprint from Seymour's edition published by Scott, Webster and
Geary, London, 1838. There are no illustrations apart from a
frontispiece portrait of Mr Foxe himself. It has been divided into
three volumes, containing Books 1-5; 6-10; 11-12 & appendices,
respectively. These are printed on bright white paper and bound in
green shiny covers which tend to curl. The pages are glued into the
spine with a hard brown glue. The print is a bit fuzzy throughout
but is eminently readable. Bizarrely, the set we received had the
first volume 4 mm (nearly 2 tenths of an inch) shorter in height
than the other two.
Delivery:
Despite saying in their original email confirmation of our order on
23 January “We expect to ship this order in 3
business days”, Elibron
did not in fact ship these volumes until 3 March (they sent us an
email to say they had shipped on 1 March, but both customs label and
postage say 3 March). This was a delay of 39 days, or 5½
weeks. As expected, the books were shipped by Surface Mail M-Bag
and arrived today, 29 April, thus within the usual time frame of two
months for Surface Mail shipments from USA, but over three months
after they were paid for! It is only fair to mention that we paid
$9.90 for shipping, but it actually cost Elibron $17.05, not to
mention the cost of the box.
The packaging was
inadequate for despatch of heavy books weighing 3.1 kg or nearly 7lb
in an M-Bag. It consisted of a singlewall box, with two layers of
bubblewrap filling the void on top of the books, but no cushioning
underneath the books or round the sides. As a result, when one
bottom corner of the box hit another solid object during shipping,
one of the corners of the first volume ended up no longer in new
condition, having obviously received a shock, though with no tearing
or soiling. Users of the M-Bag service need to realise that sacks
of mail will be thrown, violently, several times during their
journey, and pack accordingly.
Kessinger Publishing: two
different editions
Kessinger
uses Lightning Source to produce some, perhaps all, of their output.
We have some of Lightning Source's smaller paperback items and have
found the quality to be quite good.
-
AGES Software: Acts and Monuments appeared in the “Reformation History
Library” CD which is no longer available on its own – I
am not clear as to whether you can still buy this from AGES as part of a
larger DVD.
This was a different edition to those reproduced by
Elibron and Kessinger. According to a review in The Tyndale Society
Journal by Vic Perry
(on
the web at http://www.tyndale.org/TSJ/16/FoxeCD.html),
the edition reproduced is the second nineteenth century one with
a 'life of the martyrologist, and vindication of his work' by George
Townsend, published 1843-49.
On consulting COPAC
(http://copac.ac.uk), it appears
this would be the 8 volume edition published in London by Seeley,
Burnside, and Seeley. |