As You Like It

Presenting a pastoral with provenance: As You Like It (2000) by Rex Gibson, published by the ever-earnest Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521666367—for those who enjoy the steady drumbeat of digits before entering the Forest of Arden. Condition: Good, which in the taxonomy of second-hand splendour means “well-grazed but still frolicsome.” Offered, with a wink and a curtsy, by Crappy Old Books.

This particular copy comes with a backstory Rosalind herself would approve of: it’s an ex-school book from Old Palace School in Croydon. Translation: it has seen assemblies, survived timetable changes, and heard more teenage sighs than Jaques at a staff meeting. Expect the noble heraldry of library stamps, the faint outline of an issue slip that once ruled the endpaper like a minor duchy, and perhaps the gentle ghost of a barcode that tried, valiantly, to impose order on Act II.

Inside, Rex Gibson does what he does best: ushers you through Shakespeare with a kindly nudge and a raised eyebrow, the editorial equivalent of a knowing stage whisper from behind a conveniently placed tree. You’ll get the “All the world’s a stage” speech sitting neatly where it always does, looking freshly ironed and ready for recital; Touchstone practising advanced foolery like it’s a competitive sport; and Orlando hanging love poems on trees because that’s what passes for Wi-Fi in Arden. The notes are crisp, the guidance is lucid, and you can almost hear the hum of Year 10 diligently underlining “themes” while wondering if a wrestling match counts as character development (it does).

As for Condition: Good, picture a copy that has danced through a few scene changes but never missed its cue. Corners with a tasteful bevel (courtesy of time), a spine that has bent but not broken (more flexible than Duke Senior’s court), and pages that turn with the pleasing hush of a well-rehearsed aside. If you’re lucky, you might encounter the sacred relics of past scholarship: a tidy tick beside “pastoral comedy,” a faint pencil “??” near a metaphor that went rogue, or a triumphant “YES” next to a question about disguise. Provenance with personality; marginalia with manners.

Display it on your shelf and watch it instantly confer the air of someone who both reads Shakespeare and gets the joke. Use it to prep a performance, to decode a punchline, or to prove (once and for all) that love at first sonnet is a perfectly reasonable life choice. And when friends ask why your copy smells faintly of scholastic destiny, you may say, with becoming modesty, “Old Palace, Croydon. They raise their readers well.”

In short: a bright, battle-tested Cambridge paperback that’s passed its school uniform inspection and now seeks a new home where Arden is always in season. Brought to you, with admirable honesty and an eye for the gloriously pre-loved, by Crappy Old Books—where the titles are classic, the condition is candid, and the irony is, as you like it.

This is an ex-school book from Old Palace school in Croydon.

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