Why do people buy these Penguin Clothbound Classics?

This is a nifty combo video where I talk briefly about the third of my literary white whales - Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.

For the entire LWW backlog see here:

Four Literary White Whales -    • Four Literary White Whales  
Reviewing 1984 by George Orwell -    • Literary White Whales UPDATE - 1984  
Reviewing Bleak House by Charles Dickens -    • Literary White Whales Update - Bleak ...  

I completely forgot to talk about the main thing about Vanity Fair which I meant to bring up and that is the connection between this wonderful novel and Tolstoy's War & Peace. I couldn't help but think that some of the action scenes played out in fairly similar ways. Turns out Tolstoy was a big fan of Vanity Fair. I love that about these two chunkers.

Anyway, about the whole Penguin Clothbound Classic thing. Having read one which I got for free, I can't imagine ever paying full price to read one of these editions again. They don't stand up to the normal wear and tear of a single reading and they're way overpriced for something you can pick up anywhere for a quarter of the cost or even less.

What do you think?