Dent & Sons Ltd. (London, UK)
Series dates: 1933-1936
Size: 7″ x 4.5″
A sub-series of the venerable Everyman’s Library, Dent’s Double Volumes were merely repackaged two-volume Everyman’s Library editions. 30 titles were issued, most in 1933, but three in 1934 (Cobbett, Rural Rides; Green, A Short History of the English People; The Poetical Works of Shelley), two in 1935 (Roget’s Thesaurus, A Dictionary of Quotations), and the final four titles in 1936 (Shakespeare’s Comedies and Tragedies, Browning’s Poems and Plays, English and American Short Stories, Ancient and Classical Geography). It appears that the Double Volumes were a UK only issue (Dent) although at least one title (The Poems of Lord Tennyson, 1933) has a Dent and Dutton [US publisher of Everyman’s Library] imprint noted; this may be a mistake).
At least two three-volume titles were published as Dent’s Treble Volumes: Tolstoy’s three-volume (in one) War and Peace (1939) and Burton’s three-volume (in one) The Anatomy of Melancholy (1936).
A 1933 edition of The Poems of Lord Tennyson is from the initial fifteen titles in Dent’s Double Volumes. Viewing the fore-edge of the book’s pages, it is easy to see that the paper from one of the original volumes was probably older (and darker) than paper from the other. In this case, the first volume (bottom) is darker.
Jackets are on heavy tan paper with a bell design common to the entire series. The series name is indicated on the jacket spine, front, and front flap. The price is 5s. net.
A numbered summary of the key characteristics of the sturdy bindings of the series titles is included on the back jacket flap (millboard, not strawboard!). At this point, 21 titles were in the series. The list indicates early 1933 titles and projected October 1933 titles to be published.
Solid brick colored bindings with gold stamping, in general very solid books. The series name is included on the book spine.
Half-title page.
A list of currently (mid-1933) available titles in the series faces the title page.
As with Everyman’s Library, Dent is typically good at including both original publication dates as well as reissue dates on the copyright page.
