In Praise of "Complete Works"

The pleasure of keeping and preserving those bulky companions

There’s something strangely defiant—almost subversive—about loving a “Complete Works” edition in 2025. In a world where literature streams at the speed of thought and everything is searchable, hyperlinkable, and endlessly fragmentable, I find myself drawn to the most monolithic of formats: the heavy, dignified, clothbound volume that declares: here, at last, is everything.