books to start a library - inspiration please

[Babbity]

I have £200 = $300 to spend on amazon.com

A good friend is getting married and has requested books "to start a library" as wedding presents. She has been very kind to us, hence the generous budget.

She's a Brit, English graduate, he's American. Both v bright Oxbridge/Ivy League.

I don't know where to start. Thinking typically British, not too many that they won't have read before, but the odd classic would be ok. Ideally available in US edition so cheaper to buy from Amazon.com (I was thinking Persephones but they're a- a bit girly and b-expensive to buy/ship to US).

Where do I start?

Oh how lovely - and exciting.

Vanity Fair
A Room With A View
Jane Austen - but of course
Madame Bovary
A couple of lovely editions of chidlren's classics - am thinking Alice In Wonderland / The Secret Garden / Winnie The Pooh / Five Children And It etc
Miss Pettigrew is a persephone that's available on Amazon and is gorgeous

Do you know the Everyman books? Nice hardbound editions of classic books - might be worth a look.

janeite - Vainty Fair, RWAV, Secret Garden are already on there

Good idea re Everymans - they might not to prohibitive

oh, I've just remembered the Persephone Classics which are cheaper than the "normal" persephones.

Cheers.

(this is FUN)

I was going to suggest a collection of really nicely bound classics as well

Not from Amazon I know butThese are really nice

Market place only on Amazon

How about some poetry too?
Not English I know
wordsworth
Just a couple of searches...may not be to their taste...

I'm finding some entirely inappropriate as wedding preents, when I think of the subject matter. It's a bit depressing how many wonderful books have a plot which revolves around an unhappy marriage....

But the Everyman idea was a great one as amazon.com has the Everyman's Children's Classics on special offer - I have The Railway Children, Alice In Wonderland, Treasure Island, and The Secret Garden on there.

Need to find some not too girly classic fiction (but not TOO classic as I don't want them to have to return them all as duplicates!).

What about a copy of Mrs Beeton's Household Management? Can't get more British than that!

If she is an English graduate, dont you think she already has a lot of English classics?

Maybe be a little more erm, adventurous?

I am thinking:

Tao Te King
Marriage à-la-mode (Hogarth)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Nietzsche)
Plato's Symposium
The Oresteia by Aeschylus
The Odyssey
A Dolls House (Ibsen)
Hunger (Hamsun)

I would love some nice editions of these.

QS -- I know, I agree; that's what makes it difficult. I'm fairly sure she would have left most of her books behind when she moved to the US, but given she's asked for books, I don't want to be giving her her fifth copy of Great Expectations, or whatever.

Thanks for the ideas, I will have a think. I'm pretty well read, but not to English Lit degree standard, so it's quite a challenge for me.

but OTOH, most of her guests are American, so this is a chance to fill in the gaps with some properly British stuff, and force her to read all MY favourite books mwah ha ha ha. I'm thinking Trollope, Waugh, contemporary British fiction (that she won't have covered at uni), fun stuff etc.

120 days of Sodom - de Sade

FeelABitCrapToday good idea, will bridge that difficult gap between Lolita and The Pearl

Ooh yes, deffo Waugh - although not many of his marriages are happy either!

Some poetry would be great - John Donne, Manley Hopkins, Eliot.

Tis also quite nice to upgrade from a dogeared paperback, even if you do already have something. Suspect they are going to have tonnes of duplicates, though! But it's a lovely idea.

that's another reason I wanted to do it on Amazon.com even though they're The Man - it's easier for them to return/substitute if they have duplicates.

Will have a think re poetry. Eliot and maybe Larkin.

Yes to Larkin - very English!

Surely we can think of some with wonderful evocations of love, marriage and happy family life.

can't we....?!!

Agree that Persephone Books have some wonderful titles - 'Greenery Street' by Dennis Mackail is lovely - about the first year of a very happy marriage. 'Good Things in England' by Florence White is a fascinating cookery book you might think appropriate. Just a thought, but might they like books set in places which are special to them ie where they met, got engaged, are going on honeymoon etc? This is an excellent site
www.bibliotravel.com/

Do you definitely want to buy new books, or would they appreciate some old books, eg first editions?