Hackett Classics, Verso Books, and Library of America have their strong points — Delphi Books, LivriVox and StandardEbooks should’ve been in my original post - Many readers recommended Archipelago Books and McNally Editions - Gossip about Penguin Classics - I am less concerned about paper quality
Here again to support the rec for Archipelago. They aren't strictly a classics reprint - they publish exclusively literature in translation, both new and classic. But I have read probably a dozen of their books and have only disliked one (The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu) and have absolutely loved many that would not have otherwise been available in English: The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas (Norwegian, 1957), Dawn by Sevgi Soysal (Turkish, 1975), The Last Pomegranate Tree by Bachtyar Ali (Kurdish, 2002). I admire their curation a lot and I love their physical books, notable for their square shape and quality paper.
I agree that Archipelago is cuts above New Direction, I also have found their curation is "better" than NYRB or McNally. The latter three can be hit or miss, whereas I haven't found anything I haven't finished or enjoyed from Archipelago.
Also, Virago (rediscovered feminist literature). And I forgot to mention Dalkey Archives is also great!
I always feel a little nervous making strong recommendations; what if they're not to your taste but are to mine?
And not to oversell (though I totally am) - but they have a great membership program: $15/monthly, and they send you everything they newly publish, plus previous publications are discounted. It more than pays for itself, and you're supporting a small non-profit publisher to boot.
I’m glad to see the movement on Hackett! I think I would have thought much the same as your original post not too long ago, but through a few years of teaching, I’ve really grown to love the translations and accessibility of Hackett for students. In some cases (e.g., the Reeve translation of Plato’s republic or the Irwin translations of Aristotle), they become beloved in their own right even among the serious scholars you’d expect to drift toward Cambridge or whatever. I also think your LOA adjustment is fair. When I want to read any single work by an author, I’m not usually grabbing my LOA volumes, but if I need to reference their work broadly, nothing else comes close.
I was interested in the recommendation for Standard Ebooks. I was an ebook developer for many years, involved in standards, best practices, and production. Accessibility is one of the major benefits of ebooks: the ability for a device to read a book to sight- or hearing- or otherwise-challenged consumer, and for readers to navigate around an ebook easily.
There are strict (but learnable and easily applicable) formatting requirements. I looked at the sample code on the Standard Ebooks website, and, sad to say, it doesn't fully conform to current standards for accessibility.
In the EU, ebooks must conform to EPUB3 accessibility standards by this year (2025). The US has similar ADA requirements. (FYI, ebooks standards follow those set by the W3C, the Worldwide Web Consortium, which governs web accessibility. The W3C creates and manages EPUB standards and requirements.)
Since Standard Ebooks are free, perhaps they're not bound by the standards, but it would be great to make them as usable as possible for the widest audience possible.
(I'm retired now, so don't have the software needed to download and open an ebook to examine more closely; just going by the screenshot of source code on Standard's site.)
Hackett is fantastic. I used to create digital world literature anthologies for undergrads and over half the text included licensed excerpts from them, including the Odyssey (Stanley Lombardo), the Prince (James B. Atkinson), and Don Quixote (James Montgomery). IIRC, Lombardo's version of the Odyssey is considered one of the best modern translations and got reviews in major outlets when it as published. More anecdotally, many students seemed to really like it and engage with it, probably because the prose is so accessible—and often fun. And, for what it's worth, the company was always very pleasant to work with.
Also agree that Oxford Classics is excellent. (As is their Very Short Introductions series! One of my favorite subway-commuting reads.)
Also, at the opposite pole from Verso, the libertarian publisher Liberty Fund produces inexpensive, high quality editions of classic works of political philosophy. Their mostly free "Online Library of Liberty" (https://oll.libertyfund.org/) is a sort of right-wing equivalent to the excellent marxists.org free library (https://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm).
This is a great follow-up to your original post. I am more interested to explore Archipelago from this set. And thank you so much for including my recommendations as well. I appreciate it.
Naomi, your update is as much fun as the original — and the comments are icing on the book cake. I’ll make a small update of my own to my comments from last time: first I wouldn’t want my praise of Archipelago books to be seen as putting down New Directions. I regular check out their New & Noteworthy, I have scores of their books on my shelves including my favorite French author Mathias Énard. (Compass is the best book ever about insomnia, a box of dreams.) Second, bravo for your Hackett revision. I’d encourage anyone to read Lombardo’s translations aloud. Third, a trio of tiny recommendations from Archipelago’s list for the curious: Dominique Fabre’s The Waitress Was New; Maylis de Kerangal’s Eastbound; and Jacques Poulin’s Autumn Rounds. Any of these can be read in an evening and your life will be sweeter.
I want to note that although NOW it might be best known for Knaussgaard, Archipelago has been around and publishing very good work for ages, all in its distinctive square shaped books with high-quality paper. Some examples of writers they publish who are good include Scholastique Mukasonga, Hugo Claus, Francis Ponge, Josep Pla. . .And their search function on their site lets you search by author, or by translator, since they have always given due credit to translators.
Fitzcarraldo is as thr french would say, ecroyable. Jaques , the founder, is a very astute editor. They’re small but published three of the last five nobels.
The books are also very beautiful. I bought 'The Question of Palestine' yesterday (white cover with blue embossed lettering), and I noticed how distinctive their fiction (indigo blue with white lettering) looks on a shelf alongside very graphic design-heavy literary novels.
Here again to support the rec for Archipelago. They aren't strictly a classics reprint - they publish exclusively literature in translation, both new and classic. But I have read probably a dozen of their books and have only disliked one (The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu) and have absolutely loved many that would not have otherwise been available in English: The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas (Norwegian, 1957), Dawn by Sevgi Soysal (Turkish, 1975), The Last Pomegranate Tree by Bachtyar Ali (Kurdish, 2002). I admire their curation a lot and I love their physical books, notable for their square shape and quality paper.
Yes! Both translated new and classics. Agreed on how beautiful the books are, and the books you named are all incredible.
I agree that Archipelago is cuts above New Direction, I also have found their curation is "better" than NYRB or McNally. The latter three can be hit or miss, whereas I haven't found anything I haven't finished or enjoyed from Archipelago.
Also, Virago (rediscovered feminist literature). And I forgot to mention Dalkey Archives is also great!
Cuts above! Wow! High recommendation. Okay I gotta check them out more seriously.
I always feel a little nervous making strong recommendations; what if they're not to your taste but are to mine?
And not to oversell (though I totally am) - but they have a great membership program: $15/monthly, and they send you everything they newly publish, plus previous publications are discounted. It more than pays for itself, and you're supporting a small non-profit publisher to boot.
I’m glad to see the movement on Hackett! I think I would have thought much the same as your original post not too long ago, but through a few years of teaching, I’ve really grown to love the translations and accessibility of Hackett for students. In some cases (e.g., the Reeve translation of Plato’s republic or the Irwin translations of Aristotle), they become beloved in their own right even among the serious scholars you’d expect to drift toward Cambridge or whatever. I also think your LOA adjustment is fair. When I want to read any single work by an author, I’m not usually grabbing my LOA volumes, but if I need to reference their work broadly, nothing else comes close.
I was interested in the recommendation for Standard Ebooks. I was an ebook developer for many years, involved in standards, best practices, and production. Accessibility is one of the major benefits of ebooks: the ability for a device to read a book to sight- or hearing- or otherwise-challenged consumer, and for readers to navigate around an ebook easily.
There are strict (but learnable and easily applicable) formatting requirements. I looked at the sample code on the Standard Ebooks website, and, sad to say, it doesn't fully conform to current standards for accessibility.
In the EU, ebooks must conform to EPUB3 accessibility standards by this year (2025). The US has similar ADA requirements. (FYI, ebooks standards follow those set by the W3C, the Worldwide Web Consortium, which governs web accessibility. The W3C creates and manages EPUB standards and requirements.)
Since Standard Ebooks are free, perhaps they're not bound by the standards, but it would be great to make them as usable as possible for the widest audience possible.
Here's a link to one of the leaders in creating conforming ebooks: https://bornaccessible.benetech.org/resources/. It can be a bit wonky, but it gives an excellent overview.
(I'm retired now, so don't have the software needed to download and open an ebook to examine more closely; just going by the screenshot of source code on Standard's site.)
Hackett is fantastic. I used to create digital world literature anthologies for undergrads and over half the text included licensed excerpts from them, including the Odyssey (Stanley Lombardo), the Prince (James B. Atkinson), and Don Quixote (James Montgomery). IIRC, Lombardo's version of the Odyssey is considered one of the best modern translations and got reviews in major outlets when it as published. More anecdotally, many students seemed to really like it and engage with it, probably because the prose is so accessible—and often fun. And, for what it's worth, the company was always very pleasant to work with.
Also agree that Oxford Classics is excellent. (As is their Very Short Introductions series! One of my favorite subway-commuting reads.)
I am so fond of the VSIs! When I start a new big deal author I'll often read their VSI. Thanks for reminding me about those!
These posts are a great public service! Here are some suggestions for what they are worth:
You sometimes hit marvelous narrators at LibriVox, like this fellow reading a bunch of Dryden (https://librivox.org/the-poetical-works-vol-1-by-john-dryden/) but French-speakers should check out the free audiobooks at https://www.litteratureaudio.com/. The quality of narration is generally quite high.
Also, at the opposite pole from Verso, the libertarian publisher Liberty Fund produces inexpensive, high quality editions of classic works of political philosophy. Their mostly free "Online Library of Liberty" (https://oll.libertyfund.org/) is a sort of right-wing equivalent to the excellent marxists.org free library (https://www.marxists.org/archive/index.htm).
Incredible! Thank you! I might have to start arranging this stuff into a page that I continually update.
But to be clear fjtzcarraldo does a lot of translations. Not reprints , as far as I know
I second Galley Beggar.
This is a great follow-up to your original post. I am more interested to explore Archipelago from this set. And thank you so much for including my recommendations as well. I appreciate it.
Naomi, your update is as much fun as the original — and the comments are icing on the book cake. I’ll make a small update of my own to my comments from last time: first I wouldn’t want my praise of Archipelago books to be seen as putting down New Directions. I regular check out their New & Noteworthy, I have scores of their books on my shelves including my favorite French author Mathias Énard. (Compass is the best book ever about insomnia, a box of dreams.) Second, bravo for your Hackett revision. I’d encourage anyone to read Lombardo’s translations aloud. Third, a trio of tiny recommendations from Archipelago’s list for the curious: Dominique Fabre’s The Waitress Was New; Maylis de Kerangal’s Eastbound; and Jacques Poulin’s Autumn Rounds. Any of these can be read in an evening and your life will be sweeter.
What a great idea for a follow-up! I wouldn't have read about this anywhere else, and it was nice to follow the conversation that developed.
I am so grateful for all the publishing suggestions! It is really difficult to receive them in one place! I have saved both posts. Thanks again!
I want to note that although NOW it might be best known for Knaussgaard, Archipelago has been around and publishing very good work for ages, all in its distinctive square shaped books with high-quality paper. Some examples of writers they publish who are good include Scholastique Mukasonga, Hugo Claus, Francis Ponge, Josep Pla. . .And their search function on their site lets you search by author, or by translator, since they have always given due credit to translators.
Thanks for this. I have used Standard Ebooks before but wasn't familiar with a lot of these publishers. Time for some reading!
Fitzcarraldo is as thr french would say, ecroyable. Jaques , the founder, is a very astute editor. They’re small but published three of the last five nobels.
The books are also very beautiful. I bought 'The Question of Palestine' yesterday (white cover with blue embossed lettering), and I noticed how distinctive their fiction (indigo blue with white lettering) looks on a shelf alongside very graphic design-heavy literary novels.