Penguin Classics

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Sunflower Sutra features poetry by Allen Ginsberg, whose work fomented a social and political revolution. Renowned for its rawness and spontaneity, Ginsberg's poetry changed the course of the American lyric. His verses explore themes of sex, death, and America, delivering a blend of profane and prophetic insights. The humour of his...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Of course, very few people go through the gate and abandon the beautiful phenomenon of the outside world for the interior reality that they intuit... A visitor to a zoo discovers he can understand the animals talking, a young man turns into a mountain, and a bird guides a boy to...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Maigret moved slowly, edging his bulky frame through the throng in Rue Saint-Antoine, which burst into life every morning, the sunshine streaming down from a clear sky onto the little barrows piled high with fruit and vegetables. In these three tales of deception, set in and around Paris, Simenon's celebrated detective...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books The body was cold as ice; the heart had long ceased to beat—yet there were no other signs of death. The phantoms and ghouls of Japanese folklore in Some Japanese Ghosts are driven back into the world of the living. Mysterious brides melt into mist, paintings come alive, and man-eating goblins...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books A writer engulfed by a new obsession, an occasional sex-worker, a runaway, and a teenager entering the workplace—these four tales of desire and dislocation explore the rough edges of relationships and the inner lives of women negotiating their precarious place in the world. In these coolly compelling and quietly devastating stories,...

Sailing to Byzantium by W B Yeats is a part of the collection celebrating 90 classic titles marking 90 years of Penguin Books. Under bare Ben Bulben's head In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid. An ancestor was rector there Long years ago, a church stands near, By the road an ancient cross. No marble, no conventional phrase; On limestone quarried...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books And this is fantasy, the flutter, the rapture of fantasy! A bashful dragon, a lost wood-sprite, the prophet Elijah, and the Devil disguised as a middle-aged woman appear in these playful, exuberant stories by Vladimir Nabokov. So do a vengeful husband, a barber confronting his torturer, and the author himself, as...

Rescue by Czeslaw Milosz is a part of the collection of 90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books. This volume brings together two of Milosz's most celebrated works. Rescue, penned in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation, stands alongside A Treatise on Poetry, a monumental history of Poland told through four cantos. These works represent the keen insights of...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books My dear friend, he said, life is strange and strange things happen in life It is a hot July Sunday in Lisbon and our narrator has an appointment to meet someone by the quayside. But when his guest does not arrive, he spends the day wandering the deserted city, encountering some...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books On a military base in 1930s Georgia, Private Ellgee Williams catches sight of his captain's wife in the nude and becomes obsessed with her. But Captain Penderton—unhappily married to the unfaithful Leonora—in turn erotically fixates on Williams. Spare, muscular and sensual, with the dramatic vision of a Greek myth, Carson McCullers'...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books We are the ones we have been waiting for These poems of radical love, urgency, and global consciousness reach across borders to break open the silence of oppression and the taboo, liberating both body and soul. Lively and enigmatic, Passion is June Jordan's most accomplished and animated collection. Her virtuosic, resolute...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books All Frenchmen know you have to become civilised between eighteen and twenty-three and that civilisation comes upon you by contact with an older woman, by revolution, by army discipline, by any escape or any subjection, and then you are civilised and life goes on normally in a latin way. Gertrude Stein's...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books This small group of stories by D. H. Lawrence shows him in a number of moods. The hope is that in such a limited number of pages, the reader will come away with a compressed, rich sense of Lawrence's wonderful prose style, precision of language, and expansive vision of the human...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books In October Nights, Gerard de Nerval takes us on a gentle meander through nighttime Paris - a dreamlike journey towards getting lost. Also included in this volume is Sylvie, his haunting novella of love and memory, the 'masterpiece' that inspired Proust to write In Search of Lost Time. Together, these works...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Yes, as my swift days near their goal, 'Tis all that I implore; In life and death, a chainless soul, With courage to endure. In this new selection of Emily Brontë's heart-rending poems, we uncover a soul unafraid to confront mortality, tragedy and the wild cruelty - and beauty - of...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books I decided that my trip had evidently been in vain, since nothing of interest could possibly occur on this visit. I was mistaken. Condemned to sleeplessness by the chatter permeating his guesthouse room, a forlorn traveller turns his ear to the riotous tale spun by the garrulous, meddlesome, inane and utterly...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Wu Cheng'en's 16th-century novel Journey to the West is widely regarded as one of the most important Chinese novels ever written. Here, in Julia Lovell's witty and charismatic translation, we meet one of its heroes - Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, whose powers include shape-shifting, immortality, and being incredibly rude. Though...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Beware the self-righteous man of faith, the wicked-eyed child, the jealous lover. For this is Salem, in 1691, where rumours fly on the wind and witchcraft is abroad. Lois the Witch, cursed in childhood, is a stranger in a strange land - and the devil will work his mischief on Lois's...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books No author perfected the twist in the tale better than Roald Dahl. His stories—many of which were filmed as Tales of the Unexpected—take us into a world that is shocking, cruelly funny, and always has a sinister edge. What if plants could feel pain? What kind of father would bet his...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Why should I bother to invent things? My life has been far more exciting and wonderful than any fairy-tale In the heart of the English countryside, surrounded by irritatingly polite relatives and hopeless sycophants, Lady L. is celebrating her eightieth birthday. But as the guests disperse, she feels the undeniable pull...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books But how sweet a fruit the 'suppose' must be, that people will sup and sup on it! A juicy fruit, like a lychee but without the pit, sparkling and light green - a fruit that hides the tart within the sweet. In this haunting collection of stories, a young man's obsession...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books May I remember always when, Your glance in secrecy met mine, And in my face your love was like A visibly reflected sign. May I remember always when, Your chiding eyes were like my death, And your sweet lips restored my life, Like Jesus's reviving breath. May I remember always when,...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Of all the sleep a man can have, the fisherman's sleep is the sweetest. It is the greatest of luxuries - sleep and fishing. Through tender, vivid, and often humorous recollections - from magical fishing trips to the rivers and ponds of Bustehrad to his charismatic father's eccentric business ventures -...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books What can you say, when a man asks you to dance with him? I most certainly will not dance with you. I'll see you in hell first. Why, thank you, I'd like to awfully, but I'm having labour pains. Acerbic, pithy and vibrant, Dorothy Parker's writings capture the dizzying decadence of...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Edgar Allan Poe's short stories have lost none of their power to horrify. He remains a destabilisingly terse sketcher of ideas, a writer who allows the reader to fill in the many ghastly blanks in his narratives of violence, retribution and animalism. It is hard to recommend Hop-Frog wholeheartedly (its original...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Lay down all hope, you that go in by me . . . Through the gates of Hell, past whirling hurricanes, leering devils and rivers of blood, lies the ultimate evil - Satan himself. Masterfully translated by Dorothy L. Sayers, this first instalment of The Divine Comedy tells the captivating tale...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Few artists' letters are as self-revelatory as Vincent van Gogh's. From the humanistic inspiration behind The Potato Eaters to his long-time obsession with painting the vision that eventually became The Starry Night, the letters in this selection paint an intense personal narrative of his artistic development and creative process across the...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Ecce Homo No, I don't hate being black. I'm just tired of saying it's beautiful. No, I don't hate myself. I'm just tired of people bruising their knuckles on my jaw. A novella with the force of a screaming trumpet flare, Dambudzo Marechera's seminal literary debut explores a body and spirit...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Luminous and intensely lyrical, Dylan Thomas' works have captivated generations of readers, inspiring artists like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Igor Stravinsky, and Phoebe Bridgers. This selection includes some of his best poetry, celebrating both inner and outer landscapes in the face of mortality, decay, human weakness, and beckoning readers to rage,...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books I am Black because I come from the earth's inside now take my word for jewel in the open light. Impassioned and profound, the poems in Coal showcase Audre Lorde in all her dazzling elegance and multiplicity. Mournful, celebratory, and politically conscious, this early collection is a testament to Lorde's beloved...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Closely Watched Trains tells the story of Milos Hrma, a young railroad apprentice coming of age in wartime Czechoslovakia. Milos is overwhelmed with worries—about his virginity, his love for the conductor, and ongoing scandals in the stationmaster's office—besides which the idea of fighting the Germans seems a simple affair. Poignant, humorous,...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Now you slip away in sleep. Your boat is sea-mist, dreaming, by the shore. Spain's most beloved poet, Federico García Lorca, brilliantly captures the beauty and brutality of the twentieth century. His creative imagination transcends his own experiences—be it from the perspective of an ant, a gypsy nun, or Socrates—to meditate...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books No thinking person can or does genuinely keep out of politics, in an age like the present one. Unfailingly wise and often startlingly prophetic, George Orwell's essays are masterpieces of plain English prose. This stirring new collection brings together his most cherished pieces with lesser-known gems, ranging over everything from tree...

Beauty by Andy Warhol is one of 90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books. 'People should fall in love with their eyes closed. Just close your eyes. Don't look.' From Warhol's romantic relationships to his thoughts on interior design, these candid, highly entertaining musings—on love, sex, beauty, work, and space—give an intimate glimpse into the mind of one...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Baron Bagge, a cavalry officer during the First World War, receives orders from his unhinged commander to ride into Russian machine guns. But instead of meeting certain death, he and his brigade pass, unscathed, into a peaceful, otherworldly country where festivities are in full swing... Alexander Lernet-Holenia, championed in his lifetime...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Best known for his existentialist novel The Outsider, set in French-occupied Algeria, Albert Camus was profoundly influenced by the landscapes, towns and traditions of his youth. Selected here are some of his finest personal essays about Algeria and its environs, including the luminous 'Nuptials at Tipasa', one of his earliest works...

Orwell's chillingly resonant allegorical fable, in a stunning new cover look for his great works. 'All animals are equal - but some are more equal than others' When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually...

An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by César Aira is part of 90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books. It is 1837 and a brilliant German artist sets out to cross the mountains between Chile and Argentina. Perhaps nobody before him has been able to paint the sights that unfold—vast chasms, surreal plants and animals......

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books How light and alive she was! Like a bird caught in a net . . . A Lost Lady by Willa Cather tells the story of Marian Forrester, a captivating woman who enchants everyone around her—her husband, an elderly railroad pioneer; the small town of Sweet Water; and Niel Herbert, her...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Best known for his hardboiled Harlem Detective series, Chester Himes was also a superb literary writer, beginning his creative life by writing short stories in the 1930s while serving jail time for armed robbery. Selected here are some of his best stories—from a satirical tale about a student bet that purportedly...

A Lady in Kyoto by Sei Shonagon is one of 90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books. All moonlight is moving, wherever it may be... Japanese gentlewoman Sei Shonagon invites us to look behind the painted screens in the Emperor's palace and discover a lost world, where games of poetry are the highest form of wit. Lovers send...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books The whole town got involved with the hunger-artist; from day to day of his starving, people's participation grew; everyone wanted to see the hunger-artist at least once a day; on the later days there were season-ticket holders who sat for days on end in front of his little cage. Reading these...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Arrested in Cologne for remarking that the Führer looked sweaty, nineteen-year-old Sanna has fled to Frankfurt. But her troubles are far from over. Her best friend Gerti has fallen for a Jewish boy, her brother writes books that have been blacklisted, and her own aunt could turn her in to the...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books She drew a long, soft breath, as though the paper daffodils between them were almost too sweet to bear. Katherine Mansfield was a magician of the short story, whose work was described by Virginia Woolf as 'the only writing I have ever been jealous of'. These eight tales show her gift...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Following the death of his sister, middle-aged Dr Graesler leaves his winter home in Lanzarote for a health resort in Germany, where he practised medicine for many years. There he meets the Schleheim family, and is particularly drawn to their daughter Sabine. But a simple, stilted courtship soon unravels a web...

Vladimir Nabokov's shocking masterpiece, now in a beautifully designed clothbound edition. Poet and pervert, Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed by twelve-year-old Lolita and seeks to possess her, first carnally and then artistically, out of love, 'to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets'. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or...

The terrible spectacle of the beast, the fog of the moor, the discovery of a body—this classic horror story pits detective against dog. When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on the wild Devon moorland with the footprints of a giant hound nearby, the blame is placed on a family curse. It is left to Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson...

A landmark in Boswell and Johnson studies In The Life of Samuel Johnson, one of the towering figures of English literature is revealed with unparalleled immediacy and originality, in a biography to which we owe much of our knowledge of the man himself. Through a series of richly detailed anecdotes, Johnson emerges as a sociable figure, vigorously engaging and fencing...

The 1660s represent a turning point in English history, and for the main events—the Restoration, the Dutch War, the Great Plague and the Fire of London—Pepys provides a definitive eyewitness account, along with lively descriptions of his socialising, his amorous entanglements, his theatre-going and music-making. Unequalled for its frankness, high spirits and sharp observations, the diary is both a literary...

The now-classic account of Orwell's experiences in the Spanish Civil War, in a stunning new cover look for his great works. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism as I understand it. Thus wrote Orwell following his experiences as a militiaman in the Spanish...

Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell's vivid memoir of his time among the desperately poor and destitute, now comes with a stunning new cover look for his great works. 'You have talked so often of going to the dogs - and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them.' Written when Orwell was a struggling writer...

A landmark collection of poems from the author of Cider with Rosie, as evocative and poignant as his prose. 'If ever I saw blessing in the air I see it now in this still early day...' Laurie Lee is beloved for his writing on a lost rural world. His evocative poetry springs from his deep connection with nature, as he...

Women so empowered are dangerous. Written with a 'black woman's anger' and the precision of a poet, these searing pieces by the groundbreaking writer Audre Lorde are a celebration of female strength and solidarity, and a cry to speak out against those who seek to silence anyone they see as 'other'. GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the...

June 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement and a catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing from the New York Public Library's archives, The Stonewall Reader is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines...

The volume that completes our new four-book collection of Euripides plays. Through their sheer range, daring innovation, flawed but eloquent characters, and intriguing plots, the plays of Euripides have shocked and stimulated audiences since the fifth century BC. Phoenician Women portrays the rival sons of King Oedipus and their mother's doomed attempts at reconciliation, while Orestes shows a son ravaged...

We women are roused. Now that we are roused, we will never be quiet again. Bringing together the voices of women who fought for equal rights and representation—from aristocrats and actresses to mill workers and trade unionists—these speeches, pamphlets, letters and articles form an inspiring testament to the power of a movement. GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed...

In 20 short books, Penguin Classics brings you the new canon of great environmental works. Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As humans have driven the living planet to the brink of collapse, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend it. Their words have endured, becoming the classics that define the environmental...

In 20 short books, Penguin Classics brings you the new canon of great environmental works. Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As humans have driven the living planet to the brink of collapse, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend it. Their words have endured, becoming the classics that define the environmental...

In 21 short books, Penguin Classics brings you the new canon of great environmental works. Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As humans have driven the living planet to the brink of collapse, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend it. Their words have endured, becoming the classics that define the environmental...

In 20 short books, Penguin Classics brings you the new canon of great environmental works. Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As humans have driven the living planet to the brink of collapse, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend it. Their words have endured, becoming the classics that define the environmental...

In 20 short books, Penguin Classics brings you the new canon of great environmental works. Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As humans have driven the living planet to the brink of collapse, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend it. Their words have endured, becoming the classics that define the environmental...

Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov is a unique and enchanting collection of Russian folk tales collected over the last two centuries. In these tales, young women embark on long and difficult quests, wicked stepmothers transform children into geese, and tsars pose dangerous riddles. Characters receive help or face obstacles from magical beings such as dolls, cannibal witches, talking...

In 20 short books, Penguin Classics brings you the new canon of great environmental works. Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As humans have driven the living planet to the brink of collapse, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend it. Their words have endured, becoming the classics that define the environmental...

So the only question is - do animals other than man suffer? One of the great moral philosophers of the modern age, Peter Singer asks unflinching questions about how we should live our lives. The ideas collected in these writings, arguing that human tyranny over animals is a wrong comparable to racism and sexism, triggered the animal rights movement and...

I am a woman's rights. I have ploughed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I am as strong as any man that is now A former slave and one of the most powerful orators of her time, Sojourner Truth fought for the equal rights of black women throughout her life....

Their Finest Hour is part of Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the cataclysm that swept the world, which remains the definitive history of the Second World War. Lucid and dramatic, this work is remarkable both for its breadth and sweep, and for its sense of personal involvement. It is universally acknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction and is an enduring, compelling...

This definitive three-volume Penguin Classics edition provides a complete and unmodernised text, presenting the History as it appeared to its early readers. Edward Gibbon's six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88) is among the most magnificent and ambitious narratives in European literature. Its subject is the fate of one of the world's greatest civilisations over...

This definitive three-volume Penguin Classics edition provides a complete and unmodernised text, presenting the History as it appeared to its early readers. Edward Gibbon's six-volume The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88) is among the most magnificent and ambitious narratives in European literature. Its subject is the fate of one of the world's greatest civilisations...

The Hinge of Fate by Winston Churchill is part of his six-volume series detailing the monumental events of the Second World War. This series remains the definitive history of the conflict that swept the globe, noted for its lucid and dramatic narrative. The work is remarkable not only for its breadth and sweep but also for its vivid sense of...

Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the cataclysm that swept the world remains the definitive history of the Second World War. Lucid, dramatic, and remarkable both for its breadth and sweep and for its sense of personal involvement, it is universally acknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction and is an enduring, compelling work that led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize...

In his introduction, John Keegan discusses Churchill's historical methods and the extraordinary achievement of The Second World War. This volume also includes appendices, an index, maps, and diagrams. Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the Second World War.

Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the cataclysm that swept the world remains the definitive history of the Second World War. Lucid, dramatic, remarkable both for its breadth and sweep and for its sense of personal involvement, it is universally acknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction and is an enduring, compelling work that led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize for...

Fifty new books at £1 each, celebrating the pioneering spirit of the Penguin Modern Classics series, from inspiring essays to groundbreaking fiction and poetry. He needed to hear Africa speak for itself after a lifetime of hearing Africa spoken about by others. Africa's Tarnished Name features electrifying essays on the history, complexity, and diversity of a continent, from the father...

A definitive collection of stories from the unrivalled master of twentieth-century horror in a Penguin Classics Deluxe edition with cover art by Travis Louie. Frequently imitated and widely influential, Howard Philips Lovecraft reinvented the horror genre in the 1920s, discarding ghosts and witches and instead envisioning mankind as a tiny outpost of dwindling sanity in a chaotic and malevolent universe....

New in Penguin Japanese Classics - a surreal work of apocalyptic science fiction. Introducing Penguin Japanese Classics - a collection of some of Japan's most celebrated and ground-breaking 20th-century writers, with covers inspired by Japanese art and design. Taking us from a sun-drenched affair in a seaside town to an underground 'ark' full of shadows and eccentrics, with stops at...

Jean Rhys's late, literary masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea was inspired by Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and is set in the lush, beguiling landscape of Jamaica in the 1830s. Born into an oppressive, colonialist society, Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent sensuality and beauty. After their marriage, the rumours begin, poisoning her husband...

A new selection of poetry from the generation-defining author of The Copenhagen Trilogy, translated for the first time into English. While Tove Ditlevsen is now famous around the world as an extraordinary prose writer, in Denmark she has also long been celebrated as a poet. She published her first collection in her early twenties, and continued writing and publishing poetry...

The feminist cult classic about a smart, sensitive, yet deeply troubled young woman fighting to live on her own terms. Ellen is a single artist living alone on New York's Upper West Side in the 1970s. She is beset by old boyfriends, paint pigment choices, and, occasionally, by 'radiances'—episodes of joyous, reckless unreality. Under the influence of 'radiances,' she becomes...

At twenty-seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each other again is movingly told in Jane Austen's last completed novel. Set...

A spellbinding selection of short stories in the original Italian alongside their English translations. This new dual-language edition of ten stories selected from The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories celebrates some of the very best twentieth-century literature from Italy. Each story appears in the original Italian alongside an expert English translation, providing unique cultural insight and literary inspiration for...