Series: Penguin Pocket Hardbacks

In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius - the Roman emperor renowned for his intellect and stoic philosophy - shares his profound inner thoughts, reflections, and wisdom. This collection of personal writings provides readers with a rare glimpse into the mind of a ruler whose musings on life, duty, and virtue were not originally intended for public consumption. Instead, these writings served as...

Pocket Hardbacks - the new non-fiction series that combines the collectability of Clothbound Classics with the popular spirit of Great Ideas. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli is the Bible of realpolitik, a tough-minded, pragmatic handbook on how power really works, and how to hold on to it in a dangerous world. How can a leader be strong? Is it better...

Letters from a Stoic by Seneca is a timeless philosophical work that dives deep into the heart and mind of one of Ancient Rome's greatest thinkers. Through a collection of epistolary writings, Seneca, the eminent Stoic philosopher, shares his wisdom and insights on how to lead a meaningful and virtuous life. These letters, originally penned to his friend Lucilius, discuss...

The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels's revolutionary summons to the working classes, changed the face of the twentieth century beyond recognition. A rousing call to arms whose influence is still felt today, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' The Communist Manifesto is edited with an introduction by Gareth Stedman-Jones in Penguin Classics. Marx and Engels's revolutionary summons to the working classes,...

The Nature of Things by Lucretius is a profound exploration of the natural world and our place in it. This epic poem, composed in the 1st-century BC, offers a comprehensive examination of the universe, nature, and the human soul through a combination of scientific inquiry, philosophical discourse, and lyrical poetry. Lucretius embarks on a poetic journey to explain the workings...

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is an ancient Chinese military treatise that has transcended time to become a universal guide for those seeking wisdom in strategy, leadership, and decision-making. Written over two millennia ago, this seminal work offers profound insights into warfare tactics, psychological warfare, use of spies, and the significance of adaptability and resourcefulness. The book is...

Beyond Good and Evil demonstrates that the world is steeped in false piety and infected with a 'slave morality'. With wit and subversive energy, Nietzsche demands that the individual impose their own 'will to power' upon the world. One of the most iconoclastic philosophers of all time, Nietzsche dramatically rejected notions of good and evil, truth and God. Beyond Good...

Freud's epoch-making insights revolutionised our perception of who we are, forming the foundation for psychoanalysis. In Civilization and Its Discontents, he considers the incompatibility of civilization and individual happiness. Focusing on what he perceives to be one of society's greatest dangers, 'civilised' sexual morality, he asks: does repression compromise our chances of happiness? Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 and...

Pocket Hardbacks - the new non-fiction series that combines the collectability of Clothbound Classics with the popular spirit of Great Ideas. A Room of One's Own, Woolf's blazing polemic on female creativity, the role of the writer, and the silent fate of Shakespeare's imaginary sister, remains a powerful reminder of a woman's need for financial independence and intellectual freedom.

New to the Penguin Pocket Hardbacks series - books that have changed the history of thought, in sumptuous, clothbound editions. Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had brought revolution to America and France, Mary Wollstonecraft produced her own declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate and forthright, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman...

Seen as the original Existentialist, Kierkegaard transformed philosophy with his conviction that we must all create our own nature. Fear and Trembling, his great work of religious anxiety portraying Abraham's sacrifice of his son Isaac, argues that true understanding can only be attained by making a personal 'leap of faith'. In Fear and Trembling, Søren Kierkegaard's infamous and controversial work...

New to the Penguin Pocket Hardbacks series - books that have changed the history of thought, in sumptuous, clothbound editions. In Utopia, Thomas More gives us a traveller's account of a newly discovered island where the inhabitants enjoy a social order based on natural reason and justice, and human fulfilment is open to all. As the traveller, Raphael, describes the...

New to the Penguin Pocket Hardbacks series - books that have changed the history of thought, in sumptuous, clothbound editions. In his perfectly crafted haiku poems, Basho described the natural world with great simplicity and delicacy of feeling. When he composed The Narrow Road to the Deep North he was a serious student of Zen Buddhism, setting off on a...

Schopenhauer believed that human action is determined not by reason but by will—the blind and irrational desire for physical existence. These writings depict individuals struggling in a Godless world, in which art, morality, and self-awareness are our only salvation. One of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, Schopenhauer (1788-1860) believed that human action is governed by will rather than...

A beautiful edition of the great Stoic philosopher's writings, designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith and new to the Penguin Pocket Hardbacks series. I must die. But must I die bawling? Epictetus, a Greek Stoic and freed slave, ran a thriving philosophy school in Nicopolis in the early second century CE. His animated discussions were celebrated for their rhetorical wizardry and were...