@oldmanofarchenland I don't know the answer to your question, but I'm wondering if you've encountered a cheap paperback printing done by an company called Arcturus. Their logo is a small bear silhouette.

They seem to be based in Hong Kong or China, and are reprinting classics, ignoring copyright. Of course only Harper Collins has the right to publish Narnia. There are no illustrations, which is odd looking.

@coracle No, all of the books I mentioned are official Harper Collins books, all with illustrations. Personally, I don't think Harper Collins is doing a very good job with Narnia.

@oldmanofarchenland I haven't looked at the copies of the Chronicles available in bookshops currently, but some years ago I had a set of HarperCollins paperbacks with the Pauline Baynes illustrations on the covers (same illustrations as the original Puffin paperback editions of the 1960s - '70s, though with a different font used for the titles) and the interior illustrations, also by Baynes, in full colour. I think these were originally published in the late 1990s and still in print in the mid-late 2000s, which was when I bought them. Unfortunately I don't have those any more (I moved house several times, including moving overseas, and sadly jettisoned a lot of my books), but I remember they were very good quality, with excellent paper for the pages, the illustrations reproduced very clearly, and definitely no smell about them. I'm pretty sure the same editions were also available in hardcover (no dust jackets, just the same Baynes cover illustrations printed directly onto the covers).

Those were definitely the best quality editions I've seen in recent years, and while I don't think they're currently in print, they may not be too difficult to find second hand if you or others are interested. However, those were UK editions (and when I owned them, I bought them in Australia!), and I'm not sure if different editions are printed for the US or other countries.

I've got a set of hardcovers from the 1990s, so I can't really comment.  

@courtenay Hmm, thanks for the tip. Yes, I'm thinking that I may have to go vintage to find something I really like. But I suppose I'm just particular.

The 50th anniversary editions of the Narnia series in paperback with color illustrations by Pauline Baynes are actually quite good. I have the hardcovers of Harper Collins from about twenty years ago. The seven books have black and white illustrations and the paper is much better quality than the Macmillan paperbacks of the 1970’s, which have cropped illustrations. I am quite satisfied with the hardcover volumes, although I wish they were numbered in publication order. I would recommend the older editions from twenty years ago or more over the newer books. They are usually of better quality. It would probably be easier to find a set of used books in good condition at a reasonable price.

Posted by: @narnian78

The 50th anniversary editions of the Narnia series in paperback with color illustrations by Pauline Baynes are actually quite good.

That's right, those were the ones I had. I'd say they're the best relatively recent editions of the Chronicles that I'm aware of.

Now that gets me thinking — next year, 2025, it's the 75th anniversary of the first publication of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and then of the other Chronicles in each year after that up till 2031. I wonder if HarperCollins will bring out any new special anniversary editions for that occasion? It's the last chance they'll get to mark a major anniversary of the Narnia books before the copyright runs out, after all... (It has already expired in some countries, but in the UK it will last until 70 years after the author's death, which makes it late 2033.)

Posted by: @oldmanofarchenland

I have noticed books printed in China often use a paper with a strange smell...

You just made me go smell all of my Narnia books......

Makes me wish there was a leather-bound special edition for Narnia... if LOTR can get them, you'd think the Chronicles would.

The closest thing I could find was a couple Etsy sellers who make them on demand, but it doesn't seem like anything official was ever produced. Harper Collins should consider this...

I really like the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2004 hardcover edition that I have of The Lord of the Rings. The binding and paper are excellent for the one volume edition. The book was inexpensive at about twenty two dollars.  It would certainly be nice if the Narnia books were available in a similar quality format with all seven books including Pauline Baynes’ illustrations in one volume. 🙂

I always wondered why this Barnes and Noble one volume edition was allowed to go out of print:

https://pin.it/6GFinUN1F

Yes @oldmanofarchenland , I've thought exactly the same. I own the ISBN 0060244887 hardbacks that you mentioned. They're beautiful and by far the best I have seen - but they actually don't come with dustjackets, leaving the spines open to fading if kept by the window as mine are.

I wasn't keen on any of the modern cover art so decided the vintage Pauline Baynes covers in hardback were the best option and the paper inside is very premium. 

I recommend them, they're lovely!

I'm really keen to have a a full-colour illustrated book set, with Baynes illustration also on the front cover of each, myself. The series is special enough to warrant me re-buying to higher standards; the versions I have with another artist's cover illustrations, not fitting how I see the characters, don't do it for me. I hope I can find a good set for this -- the ones in the shops just aren't it and neither are ones I'm getting coming up online.

One day...!

Posted by: @courtenay

Posted by: @narnian78

The 50th anniversary editions of the Narnia series in paperback with color illustrations by Pauline Baynes are actually quite good.

That's right, those were the ones I had. I'd say they're the best relatively recent editions of the Chronicles that I'm aware of.

I think that Pauline Baynes was asked to color her Narnia illustrations for the anniversary edition from Harper Collins in 1998, at the 100th anniversary of C.S. Lewis' birth. The covers for that edition were illustrations from inside the books (LWW has the famous 'Faun and Lucy in the snow'-picture on its cover). I believe that they were only issued as paperbaks.

I also believe that those were the first color edtiions I saw in British bookstores in England, possibly as early as 1999. I considered buying them, but either from cost considerations or for considerations of weight of airplane luggage, I decided not to. I'm still very sad that I didn't buy them.

Perhaps I've seen the 50th anniversary editions in England as well, a bit later, with covers from Pauline Baynes' earlier Puffin Books editions. I don't know about what difference there may be in paper or in print quality between the 1998 and the 2000 editons. (I doubt that either of them were printed in China - but that's just my guess. )

A couple of years ago I was able to buy a hard-cover boxed set with color illustrations (via Amazon). This set has been discussed earlier here on NarniaWeb in the Full colour hardback narnia set thread. It's a "slipcase edition", first published in 2015 by Harper Collins Childrens Books (the chronicles of narnia box set 9780007528097). They have the same cover pictures as the 50th anniversary and the Puffin Books editions. No dust jackets. And I don't know how easy it is to find them now, even in net shops.

The books are printed and bound in China. I haven't noticed any particular smell of those books, though.

But I fear that the printing of the color pictures are not as good as those from 1998 and 2000. I seem to remember some differences in at least some of the pictures - like some cropping, or missing color around the edge on one side, or problems of that nature. Lots of the pictures are as I remember them, though.

The ISBN number of the set is 978-0-00-752809-7, and the books' individual ISBN numbers are 
MN 978-0-00-758851-0
LWW 978-0-00-758852-7
HHB 978-0-00-758854-1
PC 978-0-00-758855-8
VDT 978-0-00-758856-5
SC 978-0-00-758857-2
LB 978-0-00-758858-9

This may have been the only full color hard-cover set that has ever been printed, though. The only other full color hard-cover Narnia books I remember, were some large one volume editions (probably from about 1998), with the text in two columns, and most of the illustrations then being narrowed down to one column width.

Perhaps a new full color hard-cover set (perhaps not even printed in China) would be a great idea for a 75th anniversary edition?

@varna 

It would be nice if there was a calendar with Pauline Baynes’ illustrations.  I think there was one years ago, but in recent years Narnia calendars (even old ones) have become hard to find.  This is disappointing since many people still love her artwork. And in the paperback editions of the books her illustrations are quite small.  A calendar with large pictures by her would be great to display on a wall.