I was very lucky with this Thomas Hardy Folio Society boxed set.  I picked it up in a second hand book store for a quarter of the “new” price but it looked as good as new.  As you will have guessed by now, I love Folio books! 

I love the way Thomas Hardy uses language.  My favourite is Tess of the D’Urbervilles.  Life treats her so unfairly and I can never read the ending without getting a lump in my throat as her sister and Angel walk away at the moment when she is being executed.  It is full of missed opportunities.  Angel saw her first before all her troubles began, when she was dancing in white in her village.  He missed that chance and then she is left to her fate.  When she meets Alec Hardy says “where was her guardian angel?”.  Angel eventually marries and then deserts her, returning home too late to save her a second time.

There are a few other assorted Folio books in this picture.  Travels of a Victorian Photographer is an interesting photographic record of England taken by Francis Frith.  All those people and places caught in time. 

Bestiary is an unusual book.  It depicts animals, both real and fictional, from the middle ages with descriptions from the time.