Tudor History Lovers discussion

I just found out that I bought the same book twice, and thought I would post a warning before someone else does the same thing.

Some years back, I had bought the hardcover edition of Henry VIII: The King and His Court, by Alison Weir, and it's been sitting on my TBR shelf ever since. More recently, I saw paperback editions of Weir's biography of Elizabeth I, and a matching one titled Henry VIII. They also went onto the TBR shelf. The other day, while adding Weir's books onto my Goodreads bookshelf, I got confused because I saw the cover from my paperback with the title from my hardback. I investigated and examined the two books - they are the same! The paperback (which cover you can see here), ONLY says "Henry VIII" on the cover - the front cover and the spine. However, when I opened it, the title page has the full title. I think this is very misleading, and I am a bit irritated! If the full title had been on the cover, I would never have bought it. Now my problem is which one to get rid of. I would much rather have the hardback, but I find that there are a couple of extra appendices in the paperback, which was published later. One is discussion questions, which I don't care about so much, but the other is a discussion by Weir about her opinions of the various portrayals of Henry in movies and TV series over the years, and it is very interesting. I was glad to see that she was very impressed by my own favorite, the old BBC series with Keith Michell, and that she is as frustrated as I was about The Tudors. She lists many others, going back to silent movies. Maybe I'll try to photocopy the essay, and keep the hardback.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know so that they don't make the same mistake that I did and buy the same book twice! I think the shortening of the title on the cover was very misleading.

I feel your frustration and agree it is misleading to do that.

I agree; that is misleading.

Old wine in new bottles, as it were.

I always look at the cover page because I've done that once before with another author. Hopefully you got your money back!

I've found that happens a lot! I've bought quite a few books for the second (and third!) time by various authors...all due to different covers.

I ordered the books, so I didn't have a chance to look inside. I just assumed that since the cover and the title were different, it was a different book. I know that obviously the people on this board are interested in the Tudors, and Alison Weir seems to be a favorite, so I hoped that I could keep someone else from making the same mistake.

I done the same thing. I purchased The King and His Court from Barnes & Noble then turned around and bought Henry VIII from a book-club catalogue!I ended up giving Henry VIII to my Mum. What aggravated me was that Henry VIII was advertised as a new biography rather than just a reissue.

Ahhh - another victim! I also thought it was a new biography, and I think I also got it from a book club, probably The Literary Guild.

I purchased mine from The History Book Club.

I think those book clubs are related, like The Mystery Guild (that I also belong to), and The Science Fiction Book Club (that I used to belong to). I might even have bought it, along with the bio of Elizabeth I, from one of those inserts, which would probably have come in both of the ones I belong to.