Timeline

Collins is the first to publish a series of illustrated, shilling-priced pocket-size classics with the introduction of Collins Illustrated Pocket Classics. Included in this series are a maroon cloth-bound David Copperfield, many other Charles Dickens favorites, Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth, George Eliot’s Adam Bede, and Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley. These books are small, inexpensive, and remarkably beautiful. Between 1903 and 1948, the series sells more than 25 million copies.