Classic General Fiction

Borges' stories have a deceptively simple, almost laconic style. In maddeningly ingenious stories that play with the very form of the short story, Borges returns again and again to his themes- dreams, labyrinths, mirrors, infinite libraries, the manipulations of chance, gaucho knife-fighters, transparent tigers and the elusive nature of identity itself.

Set in the volatile Paris summer of 1938, The Age of Reason follows two days in the life of Mathieu Delarue, a philosophy teacher, and his circle in the cafes and bars of Montparnasse. Mathieu has so far managed to contain sex and personal freedom in conveniently separate compartments. But now he is in trouble, urgently trying to raise 4,000...

Raunchy, raucous...a rich, turn of the 19th century world, which reeks of human and animal variety — The Times Is Sophie Fevvers, toast of Europe's capitals, part swan...or all fake? Courted by the Prince of Wales and painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, she is an aerialiste extraordinaire and star of Colonel Kearney's circus. She is also part woman, part swan. Jack Walser,...

The Two Towers is the second part of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. Impossible to describe in a few words, J.R.R. Tolkien's great work of imaginative fiction has been labelled both a heroic romance and a classic fantasy fiction. By turns comic and homely, epic and diabolic, the narrative moves through countless changes of scene and...

Vintage Quarterbound Classics - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of Angela Carter's feminist retelling of fairy tales—masterful, seductive, and luminous. From familiar fairy tales and legends—Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires and werewolves—Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories. 'Magnificent set pieces of fastidious sensuality' Ian...

A sparklingly ironic comedy of manners set in 60s London. A rediscovered classic by 'the Poet Who Disappeared'. With a new introduction by Stewart Lee 'Should The Bloater be republished? Oh God, absolutely, it's fantastic.' - Stewart Lee Min works at the BBC as an audio engineer, where she is struggling to replicate the sound of a heartbeat. At home,...

VINTAGE DECO – Nine blazing, daring novels to celebrate the 1920s – 100 years on. 'We couldn't go on indefinitely being swept off our feet' One of the great literary curiosities of the twentieth century, Save Me the Waltz is the first and only novel by the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the years when Fitzgerald was working on...

Part of the Vintage Classics Austen Series — all six of Jane Austen's major novels, beautifully designed by writer and illustrator Leanne Shapton, and introduced by our finest contemporary writers. Discover Jane Austen's most beloved classic. When Elizabeth Bennet meets Mr Darcy, she is repelled by his overbearing pride and prejudice towards her family. But the Bennet girls are in...

Vintage Minis bring you the world's greatest writers on the experiences that make us human – from birth to death and everything in between. Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust? And, live we how we can, yet die we must What is the true meaning of power? Are some simply born to it, or can it...

Part of the Vintage Classics Austen Series — all six of Jane Austen's major novels, beautifully designed by writer and illustrator Leanne Shapton and introduced by our finest contemporary writers. Persuasion is a sort of private novel. In the heroine Anne Elliot, we have glimpses of Austen and what happened to her; the lost romance and the lost youth. Eight...

Of Human Bondage is the first and most autobiographical of Maugham's masterpieces. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, Philip settles in London to train as a doctor. And that is where he meets Mildred,...

Vintage Minis bring you the world's greatest writers on the experiences that make us human - from birth to death and everything in between. Well, Watson, we seem to have fallen upon evil days Sherlock Holmes—the quintessential British hero and the world's most popular detective. Through his powers of deduction, and with the help of his faithful companion Dr Watson,...

With introductions by Carol Ann Duffy and Valentine Cunningham In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of the party she is to give that evening. In her mind, she is much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with memories and,...

VINTAGE DECO - Nine blazing, daring novels to celebrate the 1920s - 100 years on. The world wavered and quivered and threatened to burst into flames In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of a party she is to give that evening. As she readies her house, she...

One man's fight for revenge against a corrupt justice system. Kleist's influential German novella has been newly translated by the renowned Michael Hofmann. 'I finished it in one sitting. Probably for the tenth time... it carries me along waves of wonder' — Franz Kafka Michael Kohlhaas has been wronged. He will have justice. Based on the real life of an...

Part of the Vintage Classics Austen Series- all six of Jane Austen's major novels, beautifully designed by writer and illustrator Leanne Shapton and introduced by our finest contemporary writers. Read Jane Austen's unsung masterpiece. 'The most perfect artist among women, the writer whose books are immortal' - Virginia Woolf Fanny Price's rich relatives offer her a place in their home...

Over 150 years since its first publication, the power of Madame Bovary remains undiminished. Stunningly translated by Adam Thorpe, this edition brings us closer to Flaubert's original. A NEW TRANSLATION BY ADAM THORPE 'A great novel that is also an inexhaustible pleasure to read' - Guardian Emma Bovary is an avid reader of sentimental novels; brought up on a Normandy...

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature A landmark in American fiction, Light in August explores Faulkner's central theme—the nature of evil. Joe Christmas— a man doomed, deracinated and alone—wanders the Deep South in search of an identity, and a place in society. After killing his perverted, God-fearing lover, it becomes inevitable that he is pursued by a lynch-hungry mob....

Part of the Vintage Classics Brontë Series - three sisters, three major novels, beautifully designed. A beautiful deluxe gift edition of Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece With an Introduction by Maggie O'Farrell As an orphan, Jane's childhood is full of trouble, but her stubborn independence and sense of self help her to steer through the miseries inflicted by cruel relatives and a...

Jane Eyre is the inspiring heroine of one of the best-loved British novels of all time. As an orphan, Jane's childhood is not an easy one, but her independence and strength of character keep her going through the miseries inflicted by cruel relatives and a brutal school. However, her biggest challenge is yet to come. Taking a job as a...

A beautifully designed series that pays homage to the essential books of the most important and revolutionary Black arts movements in modern history. VINTAGE CLASSICS' HARLEM RENAISSANCE SERIES Celebrating the finest works of the Harlem Renaissance, one of the most important Black arts movements in modern history. 'Why did I want to mix mahself up in a white folk's war?...

VINTAGE DECO – Nine blazing, daring novels to celebrate the 1920s – 100 years on. Goodbye to Berlin is the novella that inspired Cabaret, evoking the glamour and sleaze, excess and repression of Berlin society. Isherwood depicts the lives of people under threat from the rise of the Nazis: a wealthy Jewish heiress, Natalia Landauer; a gay couple, Peter and...

VINTAGE DECO — Nine blazing, daring novels to celebrate the 1920s — 100 years on. This is a hell of dull talk...How about some of that champagne? Paris in the twenties — Pernod, parties, and expatriate Americans, loose-living on money from home. Jake is wildly in love with Brett Ashley, aristocratic and irresistibly beautiful, with an abandoned, sensuous nature that...

Part of the Vintage Classics Austen Series — all six of Jane Austen's major novels, beautifully designed by writer and illustrator Leanne Shapton and introduced by our finest contemporary writers. Jane Austen's Emma is her masterpiece, mixing the sparkle of her early books with a deep sensibility. Observer Emma is young, rich, and independent. She has decided not to get...

A collection of fifteen stories, evoking the voices and lives that teem in Joyce's vision of his native city Edited by Hans Walter Gabler with introductions by Scarlett Baron and John Banville In this powerfully influential series of short stories, James Joyce captures uneasy souls, shabby lives, and innocent minds in the dark streets and homes of his native city....

'A story of the voluptuousness of doom' — Thomas Mann Translated and Introduced by David Luke Death in Venice is a story of obsession. Gustave von Aschenbach is a successful but ageing writer who travels to Venice for a holiday. One day, at dinner, Aschenbach notices an exceptionally beautiful young boy who is staying with his family in the same...

Classic Ghost Stories is a Vintage Classics selection of haunting tales by some of the masters of nineteenth-century literature. This collection includes spine-chilling stories by Charles Dickens, M.R. James, H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and E. Nesbit. As the winter nights draw in and you settle in front of a cosy fire, it's the perfect time for a dash of...

VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS- Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of one of the most subversive anti-war novels ever written - reading Catch-22 is a rite of passage. Set in the closing months of World War II, this is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he has never met...

The gripping, tragic account of Kyiv during the Second World War, based on the author's diaries as a young boy. The powerful rediscovered masterpiece of Kyiv during the Second World War, told by a young boy who saw it all. Read it and weep... Nothing I have read about that barbaric time has been as affecting as this gripping, disturbing...

The first authorised selected collection of the twentieth-century's most influential short story writer. Selected and introduced by Booker Prize winner Julian Barnes Reading Cheever is a restless pleasure, the work never settles—these brilliant stories make me get up and walk around the room — Anne Enright John Cheever, the "Chekhov of the suburbs," forever altered the landscape of contemporary literature....

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... Lucie Manette has been separated from her father for eighteen years while he languished in Paris's most feared prison, the Bastille. Finally reunited, the Manettes' fortunes become inextricably intertwined with those of two men, the heroic aristocrat Darnay and the dissolute lawyer Carton. Their story, which encompasses violence,...

The greatest love story I've ever read - Andrew Davies Anna Karenina is a novel of unparalleled richness and complexity, set against the backdrop of Russian high society. Tolstoy charts the course of the doomed love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer who pursues Anna after becoming infatuated with her at a...

After the Banquet, Mishima's 1960 novel, is a portrait of love and marriage in later life, featuring his best female character - the irrepressible Kazu. For years, Kazu has run her fashionable restaurant with a combination of charm and shrewdness. Then she falls in love. The man is one of her clients, an aristocratic retired politician, and she renounces her...

Four of George Orwell's most essential books, 1984, Animal Farm, Down and Out in Paris and London, and Homage to Catalonia, are available for the first time in Vintage Classics with a stunning and unexpected new cover look. THE AUTHORITATIVE TEXT "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." The year is 1984. War...

Funny, irreverent and full of joy, this is the perfect book to accompany you on holiday — a celebration of escaping the everyday. With an introduction by Brenda Bowen Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot, cowed and neglected by their husbands, make a daring plan: they will have a holiday. Leaving a drab and rainy London one April and arriving on...

A beautifully designed series that pays homage to the essential books of the most important and revolutionary Black arts movements in modern history. VINTAGE CLASSICS' HARLEM RENAISSANCE SERIES Celebrating the finest works of the Harlem Renaissance, one of the most important Black arts movements in modern history. 'She could neither conform nor be happy in her unconformity.' Nella Larsen wrote...

Vintage Minis bring you the world's greatest writers on the experiences that make us human – from birth to death and everything in between. "The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility." Is lying simply an uncomfortable truth about life or something to be...

Islands in the Stream is Ernest Hemingway's last novel written before his death and his most autobiographical. Hemingway's last major novel, set in the Gulf Stream islands, captures the struggles of adult personal relationships in his consummate distinctive style. 'He knew too what it was to live through a hurricane' This is the last book Hemingway wrote before he died,...

Babi Yar is a Ukrainian classic - the gripping account of Kyiv during the Second World War as told by a young boy who witnessed it all. This gripping story captures the experience of Kyiv during the Second World War through the eyes of a young boy who saw it all. 'Rightly hailed a masterpiece' - Daily Mail "So here...

The remarkable new work of fiction from the Booker Prize-winning author of Last Orders, Wasteland, Here We Are and Mothering Sunday In the aftermath of the Second World War, Private Joseph Caan, a young Jewish soldier stationed in Germany, seeks the truth about lost family members. In the 1960s, a father focuses on his daughter's wedding even as the Cuban...

This sumptuous gift set includes a replica of the very rare first edition of The Hobbit, the only edition where one can now read the original version of the story before Tolkien re-edited it to become the one enjoyed by readers since 1951. The Hobbit was published on 21 September 1937, with a print run of 1,500 copies. With a...

Special collector’s film tie-in hardback of the best-selling classic, featuring the complete story with a sumptuous cover design inspired by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and brand new reproductions of all the drawings and maps by J.R.R. Tolkien. Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely travelling further than the pantry of his hobbit-hole in Bag...

Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is Baldwin's fourth novel, recounting a lifetime of grappling with love, loss, and identity. 'Everyone wishes to be loved, but in the event, nearly no one can bear it.' At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life...

Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner is an extraordinary re-imagining of historical fiction. The novel explores the tale of a Victorian woman's love for her husband's mistress. The story follows a young English aristocrat who, cut adrift by tragedy, is led by her husband's former mistress deep into the fervour, chaos, and bloodshed of the French revolution. Summer Will...

A private meeting, chance encounters and a mysterious tour of Lisbon, in this brilliant homage to Tabucchi's country, culture and people. In the city of Lisbon, Requiem's narrator has an appointment to meet someone on a quay by the Tagus at twelve. Misunderstanding twelve to mean noon as opposed to midnight, he is left to wait. As the day unfolds...

Ambler's classic thriller of post-war international politics and intrigue, centring on gun-smuggling in South-East Asia. Girija Krishnan, an Indian clerk, sees the opportunity of his lifetime when he stumbles on a lost cache of arms hidden in the Malayan jungle. If he can find a buyer for the weapons, he will be able to achieve his life-long dream of creating...

Virginia Woolf's playful mock biography of a chameleonic historical figure, written for her intimate friend Vita Sackville-West. Orlando has always been an outsider... His longing for passion, adventure, and fulfilment takes him out of his own time. Chasing a dream through the centuries, he bounds from Elizabethan England and imperial Turkey to the modern world. Will he find happiness with...

The second novel in the Great Plains trilogy, The Song of the Lark is a passionate portrait of the artist as a young woman. Thea Kronberg, a young girl from a small town in Colorado, has a great gift—her beautiful singing voice. Her talent takes her to the great opera houses of Europe, and through ambition and hard work, she...

A new translation of a twisting detective novel from the celebrated author of the Maigret series. The Strangers in the House follows Hector Loursat, a lawyer in the small town of Moulins, who has lived as a drunken recluse since his wife left him eighteen years ago. Unmoored from society and estranged from his daughter, he shuts himself away, numbed...

The True Heart is a love story set in Victorian England by one of the most original writers of the twentieth century. Leaving her orphanage at sixteen, Sukey Bond finds employment as a servant in the remote New Easter Farm, deep within the Essex Marshes. There she falls in love with simple, gentle Eric, the son of the rector's wife....

Nadja is a Surrealist romance, and has come to be known as a book which defined that movement's attitude towards life. With its blend of intimate confession and sense of the marvellous, Nadja weaves a mysterious and compelling tapestry of daily life as seen through a magical perspective. Combining autobiographical fact with memory and imagination, Breton spins one of the...

Thirteen strangely wrought stories make up Nabokov's Dozen. In some of these stories, shadowy people pass through, cooped up by life, mangled by it, with nowhere to escape to. Their dreams lie stifled, smothered by routine and repetition, and frustrations lurk in all the corners. In others, there are elusive glimpses of fleeting happiness, which flutter away before they can...

The final novel in the Great Plains trilogy, this is a celebration of the American Midwest with Cather's strongest heroine at its heart. Jim and Ántonia meet as children in the wide open plains of Nebraska at the end of the nineteenth century. Jim leaves for college and a career in the east, while Ántonia stays at home, dedicating herself...

A reissue of the PMC edition of Woolf's masterpiece, now with a new jacket. One of the most moving, revolutionary artworks of the twentieth century - Michael Cunningham Mrs Dalloway introduces us to Clarissa Dalloway, elegant and vivacious, as she prepares for a party and reflects on those she once loved. Meanwhile, in another part of London, Septimus Warren Smith...

One of Sylvia Townsend Warner's best-loved novels—a droll and deeply affecting story of love and disillusionment on a remote tropical island. After three years on the remote tropical island of Fanua, Timothy Fortune, a missionary from London, has made little headway. The islanders show very little interest in Christianity and he has only a single convert—a boy, Lueli. As Mr...

A PMC reissue of this collection of Kafka's greatest short fiction, translated by Michael Hofmann. A reissue of the Penguin Modern Classics edition, this collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he himself thought worthy of publication. It includes Metamorphosis, his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation; Meditation, a collection...

Maigret Travels delves into the intriguing circumstances surrounding the attempted suicide of a countess and the mysterious death of a multi-millionaire. Both incidents involve seemingly unrelated individuals, yet they occur in the same hotel. When multi-millionaire David Ward is found dead just hours after the countess's suicide attempt, Maigret suspects a connection between the two cases. The investigation intensifies when...

Maigret's Patience follows Inspector Maigret as he delves into the murder of a criminal he had known for twenty years. Maigret finds himself back on the Rue des Acacias just ten days after cracking another case there. This time, it is the murder of a criminal Maigret has known for over twenty years, someone he always suspected was behind a...

An old woman's cries for help are left unanswered in this gripping story. A kind but seemingly paranoid old lady turns to Inspector Maigret for help. Against the judgement of his subordinates, he decides to pay a visit to her Parisian apartment to investigate, but is he already too late? Maigret's Madwoman is a tale of mystery and suspense that...

With Paris under siege following a series of murders, Maigret must hatch a cunning plan to lure the murderer out. High up in Montmartre, there was a festive atmosphere, people were crowding round the little tables where rosé wine was being served... Yet a hundred metres further on, the little alleyways were deserted, and the killer might find it easy...

A visit from an old school-friend leads Maigret to a murderous affair. When a long lost friend pays a visit to Maigret's office, he is shocked to learn that the man's roommate has been murdered. With the help of his old friend, Maigret delves into the life of the victim and finds a complex web of relationships that leads him...

Maigret's Anger is a gripping tale where Maigret loses his composure when a suspect plots to tarnish his reputation. During a quiet spell in June, Maigret is called to investigate the disappearance of a reputable businessman. When a body is discovered near the famous Père Lachaise cemetery, Maigret struggles to find any clues to the perpetrator. He loses his temper...

While on holiday Maigret gets involved in a local murder case. Maigret and his wife take a much-needed holiday to Vichy, where they quickly become accustomed to the slower pace of life. When a woman, whom they regularly pass by on their daily strolls, is murdered, Maigret can't help but offer his assistance to the local Inspector, a former colleague...

Maigret in Court sees Maigret called to testify in court, where he reveals his doubts about the guilt of the accused. Maigret receives an anonymous phone call concerning the brutal murder of a woman and a young child. The tip-off points to the woman's nephew, a mild-mannered man by the name of Gaston Meurant. Maigret, however, remains unconvinced of the...

A series of letters set Maigret up for a peculiar case. Maigret Hesitates features Inspector Maigret as he receives a series of letters warning of a murder that is going to take place. The letters do not reveal who will die, when it will happen, or who will do it. Maigret must trace the letters back to their source before...

During a much-needed holiday, Maigret pulls a prank on colleague Janvier. When Maigret's holiday plans go awry, he and his wife spend their vacation in Paris, on the condition that he has nothing to do with work. However, a case involving the death of a doctor's wife intrigues Maigret and he assiduously follows its development in the papers. He cannot...

When Maigret becomes the accused, he must rely on his investigative skills to prove his innocence. For the first time in his career, Inspector Maigret receives a written summons to the Prefect's office, where he learns that he has been accused of assaulting a young woman. With his career and reputation on the line, Maigret must fight to prove his...

Maigret and the Tramp by Georges Simenon follows Inspector Maigret as he investigates an attack on a Parisian tramp. When a tramp is recovered from the Seine after being badly beaten, Maigret must delve into the man's personal circumstances to figure out just who wanted to kill him.

Maigret and the Saturday Caller introduces us to a tense encounter where Inspector Maigret finds himself face-to-face with a visitor who openly admits his intentions to commit murder. However, when this visitor goes missing, Maigret is left to worry that he himself may have become the victim. The story unfolds one evening when Maigret is followed home by a man...

Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses follows Maigret as he struggles to break through a victim's uncooperative family to uncover the truth behind a murder in book fifty-three of the series. Maigret is called to the home of the Lachaume family, where the eldest brother has been found shot dead. Upon his arrival, the family close ranks and claim to have...

When a professional gambler is shot dead, all except Maigret suspect his mistress is to blame. Maigret is called to the home of professional gambler, Felix Nahour, who has been found shot dead by his chambermaid. Maigret is shocked to recognise a photo of the man's wife, who becomes the main suspect. All signs point to her guilt, but Maigret...

A gripping novel about the corrupt and avaricious world of politics, newly translated as part of the Maigret series. Was Maigret wrong? From one point of view, certainly, because he had nothing to gain but everything to lose in confronting as powerful and wily a man as Mascoulin. The latter, on his feet, was proffering his hand. In a flash,...

A homeless loner haunted by his past is found murdered in this murky tale. When a socially isolated vagrant is found dead in the condemned building where he had been sleeping in Les Halles, Paris, Maigret must delve into the victim's mysterious past to discover who could have killed him.

Maigret and the Lazy Burglar features Maigret's relentless pursuit of justice as he tracks down the murderer of a burglar he had known for thirty years. Set against a high-profile hunt for the latest criminal gang to hit Paris, Maigret is determined to uncover the truth behind the death of a quiet crook for whom he cannot help feeling affection...

Maigret and the Killer involves Inspector Maigret on a compelling investigation following the stabbing of a young man. When a tape recorder is discovered on the murder victim, Maigret sees it as a potentially crucial clue, which could lead him to the killer.

In the penultimate novel in the series, Maigret investigates a crime in Paris's seedy red light district. The body of a well-known Parisian restaurateur turns up on Avenue Junot in Montmartre, seemingly having been killed elsewhere. Inspector Maigret is on the case and soon discovers that the murder may be gang-related after a colleague working in the red-light district receives...

When a man is found dead at home, Maigret must look past the seemingly good intentions of the victim's family to figure out just who the culprit is. A retired manufacturer has been shot dead by his own pistol, last seen alive by his son-in-law. In this seemingly motiveless murder, Inspector Maigret must rely on his famous intuition to discover...

When a colleague is injured in an undercover operation, Maigret takes over and becomes embroiled in the dark underbelly of the Parisian art scene. During an undercover case, Inspector Lognon is shot in a room he was sharing with a beautiful woman who has since disappeared. Inspector Maigret retraces Lognon's secretive last few days and is drawn into the darker...

The last novel in Simenon's celebrated series When an elegant but nervous woman appears in Inspector Maigret's office and reports her rich and successful husband missing, Maigret and Lapointe find themselves on the trail of a man leading a double life— a prominent Parisian solicitor by day, a playboy known as Monsieur Charles by night.

The first novel by the great American novelist, now the subject of a major new film starring Jude Law. Look Homeward, Angel tells the story of Eugene Gant, who was born in 1900 to hard-drinking stone-cutter Oliver and entrepreneurial Eliza, growing up in small-town America. Eugene is both a lonely outsider and a passionate chronicler of American life. As Eugene...