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NEW Partwork: Complete Books

johnwaynefreak 21 Dec 11 at 12:13 p.m. GMT

I have received notification at work (WHS) of a new partwork scheduled for the beginning of 2012 and will quote verbatim from the sheet:

THE AGATHA CHRISTIE COLLECTION

- A series of elegant hardbacks from Britain's most famous crime author

- Every issue is a faithful replica of the original first edition cover artwork [and also features contemporary advertisements for other Collins Crime Club titles]

- Each issue also includes an accompanying fact-filled magazine, full of invaluable information for the reader such as Agatha Christie's life and times, the scene of the crime, the suspects, inspirations and much more

- Launch date 4th January 2012, on sale every two weeks

- Issue 1 £1.99, Issue 2 onwards £5.99

- Launch issue backed by a major TV advertising campaign [04/01 to 13/01]

The target market is listed as "Women 35+" and it is down for 85 issues. The little photo shows "The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd" as issue 1 - sadly, it appears that the dust jacket of the book itself will be marked in the bottom right with the "Hachette" company logo - curiously, with only a fortnight until the launch, no mention is made of the magazine on the Hachette partworks website.

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9 replies

Reverse order

johnwaynefreak 18 Apr 12 at 2:11 p.m. GMT

REMINDER ALERT: Issue 9 of the collection (with facsimile dustjacket), "And Then There Were None", will be in the shops tomorrow.

treplag 25 Jan 12 at 2:09 p.m. GMT

nathatanuO - The Bantam leatherette collection which was published in the 1980s is probably the closest you are going to come to a complete collection of actual books.  Many of the volumes, and occasionally entire sets, are available on eBay for very reasonable prices.

johnwaynefreak 25 Jan 12 at 1:12 p.m. GMT

Maybe an e-collection would be a good idea, although I imagine many Christie fans prefer physical books. It would be very difficult to present a definite collected works, especially as an edition of say, five years ago, would be outdated with the previously unreleased material found in the Curran volumes. In a sense, the new partwork could be viewed as a complete works, were it not for the fact that the provisional list of books omits the romance novels. Similarly, any true completist would require titles such as "The Floating Admiral", "The Scoop", "Behind The Screen" and both versions of "The Regatta Mystery" presented together.

treplag 25 Jan 12 at 12:19 p.m. GMT

Agatha Christie wrote 66 mystery novels and 14 books of short stories, so the answer is, NO.  However, you can find books that have three or five novels in a single volume.  The five-novel editions are published by Avenel, but they do not include all of Christie's books.

nathatanu0 25 Jan 12 at 5:16 a.m. GMT

I am sorry for the silly question that I am going to ask here ! 

Can anyone tell me, if there is any complete works of Agathe Christie ? Like, where each and every writing is included... 

please provide me with this information, if the answer is positive then definitely I am going to buy one.

--Regards

Atanu

johnwaynefreak 06 Jan 12 at 3:20 p.m. GMT

I think this partwork sets a very high standard - good quality covers and the top and tail of the spines even have ribbons for reinforcement when removing from the shelf, something the more expensive facsimile series didn't have. At £5.99 full price, these are cheaper than the paperback equivalents. The magazine itself seems very informative and well put together (not surprising given that from the copyright notifications, Agatha Christie Ltd. seems to have had a lot of input with this release - from first impressions, I'm not surprised this has Matthew Prichard's endorsement, it is clearly driven by people who care about Christie). It does fall prey to the curse of most partworks in that it wastes space with the scene of the crime and suspects sections, which merely regurgitate what is found in the book. The Christie biography part (easily the most interesting section) has excellent detail and well-selected photos. It's a shame that the interior of the books aren't facsimiles of the original typesets but they are still very pleasing and easier on my eye than the current typeset of our UK paperbacks. This launch issue really is flying off the shelves at work and a handful of customers have asked me the all-important question (sadly not covered by the introductory leaflet) - will "Ten Little Niggers" be included under the original title / dustjacket? I hope so, just to give the series a sense of completion. Also, unlike my introductory post infers, the majority of customers are a lot younger than the 35+ category it's aimed at - hooray, new blood! Westmacott titles would also be very welcome; 85 issues would cover the 78 titles in the UK cannon (I assume the Charles Osborne novelisations will be omitted), the 6 Westmacotts would make 84 - maybe, then, the Autobiography as no. 85? If only that damned Christie Film partwork had had half as much thought put into it...

TheQueenOfCrime 06 Jan 12 at 6:33 a.m. GMT

Hello, I'm interested to know if anyone bought a copy yet? I purchased the first of the series yesterday from a local newsagent. If you have bought or seen a copy, what are your general thoughts on the overall quality of the book (incl dust jacket), and magazine content. Thanks, QC.

johnwaynefreak 04 Jan 12 at 3:25 p.m. GMT

Website now up!

http://www.agathabooks.co.uk/

johnwaynefreak 30 Dec 11 at 2:10 p.m. GMT

Image here:

https://www.nfrnonline.com/assets/uploaded/files/QUILTING%20CHRISTIE%20MARVEL%20DEC11%20JAN12.pdf