Duplicate copies

Over on my Virago venture today, I have a guest post from Paperback reader Claire, who is writing about her 3 copies of The magic toyshop. And it got me thinking about MY duplicate copies and what I'd consider keeping duplicates of. I was first introduced to the idea of owning the same book in more than one edition by my father, who one day brought home a lovely hardback book of the first three Molly Hughes "London Child" books; I'd long been familiar with our lovely Oxford paperback editions and asked him why - he said that it was a lovely edition of the book with many different photographs. Of course, when Persephone brought out an edition of The London child, I was quite happy to buy that to complement our copies. Since then I've been more open to owning multiple copies, particularly if they have different introductions or new illustrations.

One title that I own several copies of is The school at the Chalet by Elinor M Brent Dyer. The Armada paperback copy is the copy my Mum bought for me to read when we were in Innsbruck, aged 8 (where the book is partly set), the hardback copy is my Mum's copy which she had forgotten about and is an original Collins 1st edition, and then it was reissued by Girls Gone By Publishing (in fact I have a number of Chalet School duplicates due to GGBP - many of the original CS books were heavily cut when published in paperback and GGBP have been publishing them in full) with lots of lovely explanatory material and maps.

Another book that I have two copies of is Vanishing Cornwall by Daphne Du Maurier. I own a Penguin paperback second hand copy (which I loved) and the sumptuous edition which Virago republished last year and was a birthday present from my Dad. My Mum thought I was insane asking for a copy of a book I already had, especially in hardback (Mum likes to wait for the paperback), but Dad understood.

The final duplicate I want to share with you today is my copy of Mariana. I bought this a while ago, and love the simplicity of the old Penguin cover. I now also own the Persephone edition of it. I haven't yet read it as I can't bear to read the last Monica Dickens that I haven't read before, and I'm not quite sure which copy to read when I do.

I'm having to be strict with myself at the moment with regard to my recent acquisition of Virago Modern Classics - if I'm buying a VMC of a book that I already have, then the non-VMC unless it is particularly special must go. In an ideal world I'd love to have multiple editions of all of the VMCs, owning them in new and green covers, but sadly the bookshelves in Verityland are not quite extensive enough for that possibility. Although, I've just heard this week that Virago are bringing out a paperback copy of Excellent women, which I bought in cloth covered anniversary hardback earlier this year, next month, and it will be difficult to resist that to go with my other Barbara Pym re-issues...

What books do you own multiples of?