Classic General Fiction

The most ambitious narrative of nineteenth-century realism, Middlemarch tells the story of an entire town in the years leading up to the Reform Bill of 1832, a time when modern methods were starting to challenge old orthodoxies. Eliot’s sophisticated and acute characterization gives rich expression to every nuance of feeling, and vividly brings to life the town’s inhabitants – including...

I am a sick man...I am a wicked man. With this sentence, Dostoevsky began a work which marks the frontier not only between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, but between two centuries' visions of the self. For the unnamed narrator of Notes From Underground is a multiplicity of selves, each at war with the others—all at war with everything else. A...

One of the most influential works of philosophy ever written—a crucial exposition of existentialist thought, now available in a stand-alone edition. One of the most influential works of this century, The Myth of Sisyphus—featured here in a stand-alone edition—is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought. Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin...

Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality...

A brilliant new translation by Christine Donougher of Victor Hugo's thrilling masterpiece, with an introduction by Robert Tombs. Les Misérables is Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism, and love. It follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. However, his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly...

Published for the very first time in its own volume, Tolkien’s remarkable tale about a painter whose obsession with detail prevents him from finishing his great work. Leaf by Niggle is the story of Niggle, a painter. Not a very successful one, partly because he has so many other things to do. For some time, he has been obsessed with...

One of literature's most renowned stories of decadence and betrayal is now available in an affordable softcover edition, featuring striking hand-painted cover art from Laci Fowler and distinctive interior design elements, making it ideal for classic fiction lovers, readers in high-school or college literature courses, and fans of annual reading challenges and "Required Reading" lists. Beloved by fans across the...

A VIVID, SWEEPING SAGA OF QUEER LOVE AND POLITICS IN ANCIENT GREECE, FROM THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTION'Renault's eye for intimacy is amazing' DOUGLAS STUART'Arresting and beautiful and moving . . . decades ahead of its time' LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKSYour love made me. Do not take it away; for without love I am a temple forsaken by its god...

DISCOVER THE DU MAURIER DARK ROMANCE COLLECTION Rebecca has woven its way into the fabric of our culture with all the troubling power of myth or dream. A stunning book – SARAH WATERS It's the book every writer wishes they'd written – CLARE MACKINTOSH The greatest psychological thriller of all time – ERIN KELLY * He did not belong to...

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is now available in an affordable softcover edition, featuring striking hand-painted cover art from Laci Fowler and distinctive interior design elements, making it ideal for classic fiction lovers, readers in high-school or college literature courses, and fans of annual reading challenges and "Required Reading" lists. The Harper Muse Classics--Painted Softcover Edition of Little Women is...

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is now available in an affordable softcover edition, featuring striking hand-painted cover art from Laci Fowler and distinctive interior design elements. It is ideal for classic fiction lovers, readers in high-school or college literature courses, and fans of annual reading challenges and "Required Reading" lists. Considered one of the greatest romance novels of all time, Jane...

'With its sharply witty prose, Aphrodite perfectly captures the charm and chaos of the Greek gods' Rosie Hewlett From the author of Herc, Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award 2024 and Waterstones Best Book of the Year 2023 'A joyful exploration of one woman's quest for home, power, identity and ultimately, freedom from fate. A genuine pleasure to read!' Clare...

New edition of this classic novel, edited by Philip Horne and Ruth Yeazell. This story of the alliance between Italian aristocracy and American millionaires is "a work unique among all James's novels—it is his only novel in which things come out right for his characters... he had finally resolved the questions, curious and passionate, that had kept him at his...

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a profound and evocative tale that captures the journey of the Joad family as they traverse the harsh landscapes of America during the Great Depression. As drought and economic hardship ravage their farming homeland in Oklahoma, the resilient Joads are driven from their beloved home and journey westward in a desperate bid...

Nicholas Nickleby is relaunched as part of Penguin Classics, showcasing the work of a young novelist at the height of his powers. This book is truly one of the touchstones of the English comic novel. At the heart of the story is Nicholas Nickleby and the misfortunes of his family, around which Dickens created a cast of some of his...

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..." In Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier weaves a suspenseful and atmospheric tale that captures the reader from its very first line. As a young and inexperienced lady's companion, the unnamed heroine's life is marked by yearning and meekness. Her mundane existence takes an unexpected turn on a trip to the South of...

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...

John Grady Cole is the last bewildered survivor of long generations of Texas ranchers. Finding himself cut off from the only life he has ever wanted, he sets out for Mexico with his friend Lacey Rawlins. Befriending a third boy on the way, they find a country beyond their imagining: barren and beautiful, rugged yet cruelly civilized; a place where...

The final instalment of The Darkwar series from the acclaimed best-selling author of Magician, Raymond Feist, Wrath of a Mad God plunges readers into the gripping climax of one of fantasy literature's most beloved universes. This book is a must-read for fans who have journeyed through the myriad of adventures on Kelewan and Midkemia, witnessing the rise of heroes, the...

Frankenstein, the frightening classic tale, is now available in an affordable softcover edition. It features striking hand-painted cover art from Laci Fowler and distinctive interior design elements, making it ideal for classic fiction lovers, readers in high-school or college literature courses, and fans of annual reading challenges and "Required Reading" lists. Beloved by horror fans across the globe, Frankenstein explores...

Little Clothbound Classics - irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Sam Selvon is now widely considered to be one of the greatest chroniclers of the West Indian emigrant experience. His evocation of voice, of place, of longing, defined for many the experience of a generation. Describing...

Augustus tells the story of Octavian, a shy and scholarly youth of nineteen who, on the death of his great-uncle, Julius Caesar, suddenly finds himself heir to the vast power of the Roman Empire. He is destined to rule that world astonishingly well, given the odds and intrigues against him. He would later be known as Augustus Caesar (63 B.C....

This series of war novels from Vintage Classics presents eight powerful stories about the horror and waste of war—each a passionate plea to prevent its repetition. All Quiet on the Western Front is the most famous anti-war novel ever written. In 1914, a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to...

This was the most popular novel of Radcliffe's time, and Radcliffe's portrayal of her heroine's inner life raised the Gothic romance to a new level. The atmosphere of fear and the gripping plot continue to thrill today. This is the story of the orphaned Emily St Aubert, who finds herself separated from the man she loves and confined within the...

Launching a major new paperback series - Penguin English Library The Penguin English Library Edition of The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton “It was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions” A searing, shocking tale of women as consumer items in a man's world, The House of Mirth...

Peter Carson's new translation of Turgenev's vivid and honest tale of generational conflict. When Arkady Petrovich comes home from college, his father finds his eager, naive son changed almost beyond recognition, for the impressionable Arkady has fallen under the powerful influence of the friend he has brought with him. A self-proclaimed nihilist, the ardent young Bazarov shocks Arkady's father by...

Berlin Alexanderplatz is the great novel of 1920s Berlin life, in a superb translation by Michael Hofmann. The subject of this book is the life of the former cement-worker and haulier Franz Biberkopf in Berlin. As our story begins, he has just been released from prison, where he did time for some stupid stuff, and now he is back in...

"Nothing but the darkness, and all around them destruction, and before them nothing but the fire—a bastard people, far from God, singing and crying in the wilderness!" First published in 1953, Go Tell it on the Mountain is Baldwin's first novel, offering a short but intense, semi-autobiographical exploration of the troubled life of the Grimes family in Harlem during the...

Animal Farm by George Orwell is a compelling and satirical allegory that delves into the dynamics of power, corruption, and politics within a seemingly utopian environment. Set on Manor Farm, the story begins with the animals growing increasingly dissatisfied with their neglectful and inebriated owner, Farmer Jones. Inspired by a visionary and idealistic boar named Old Major, the animals dream...

The first book in the epic and bestselling series that has gripped millions. A hero will be forged from this broken land. The Last Kingdom, as seen on Netflix and BBC around the world. In a land torn apart by conflict, an orphan boy has come of age. Raised by the Vikings, deadly enemies of his own Saxon people, Uhtred...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics – irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Regarded as one of world literature's foremost novelists, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's short stories are also some of the best ever written. White Nights tells of love and loss on the streets of St. Petersburg. A Nasty...

In Albert Camus’s world-renowned fable of fear and courage, The Plague, the serene town of Oran on the Algerian coast is unexpectedly torn by the outbreak of a deadly disease. Panic spreads as death infiltrates their daily lives, forcing the townspeople into a harsh quarantine. The once bustling town descends into isolation and despair, as its inhabitants grapple with the...

From the imagination of two of fantasy’s greatest names comes a magnificent epic of heroic and dynastic struggle. In Daughter of the Empire, Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts weave an intricate tale of survival, politics, and resilience set in the richly detailed world of Kelewan. At age seventeen, Mara's life is irrevocably changed when she is interrupted during her...

In the age of AI, this classic tale of technology gone wrong is a must-read collectible in this handsome faux-leather hardcover edition. The combination of fantastical elements and scientific exploration makes this Mary Shelley novel one of the first true models of science fiction. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus pioneered the deeply explored battle between monster and man. Follow three...

Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. In 1950s London, novelist Anna Wulf struggles with writer’s block. Divorced with a young child, and fearful of going mad, Anna records her experiences in four...

The new paperback series - Penguin English Library The Penguin English Library Edition of Dracula by Bram Stoker 'Alone with the dead! I dare not go out, for I can hear the low howl of the wolf through the broken window' A chilling masterpiece of the horror genre, Dracula also illuminated dark corners of Victorian sexuality. When Jonathan Harker visits...

Obsessed by creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life by electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living...

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. When Basil Hallward paints the portrait of young, handsome Dorian Gray, he falls prey to his dazzling beauty. Afraid that his youth and looks will waste away, Dorian expresses a wish that his portrait,...

With an introduction and notes by Terence Brown Dubliners, Joyce's first major work, was written when he was only twenty-five, bringing his city to the world for the first time. His stories are rooted in the rich detail of Dublin life, portraying ordinary, often defeated lives with unflinching realism. He writes of social decline, sexual desire and exploitation, corruption, and...

A collection of some of Dostoyevsky's finest short stories. With their penetrating psychological insight and their emphasis on human dignity, respect, and forgiveness, Dostoyevsky's early short stories contain the seeds of the themes that came to his major novels. Poor Folk, the author's first great literary triumph, is the story of a tragic relationship between an impoverished copy clerk and...

Discover the fate of the original black Magician, Pug, as prophecy becomes truth in the last book of the Riftwar Cycle. The Final Volume in the Epic Riftwar Cycle. The dragons are calling… Civil war is tearing apart the Kingdom of the Isles, for the throne lies empty and rivals are converging. Having spirited his beloved Princess Stephané safely out...

Compulsively readable Daily Telegraph The Sunday Times No. 1 Bestseller Discover the dystopian novel that started a phenomenon. Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford - her assigned name, Offred, means 'of Fred'. She has only one function: to breed. If Offred refuses to enter into sexual...

Pale Fire is a novel constructed around the last great poem of a fictional American poet, John Shade, and an account of his death. The poem appears in full, and the narrative develops through the lengthy, and increasingly eccentric, notes by his posthumous editor.

Beautiful Star is the novel Yukio Mishima considered to be one of his best works— a tale of family, nuclear war, love, and UFOs. The Osugi family have come to a realization. Each of them hails from a different planet: Father from Mars, Mother from Jupiter, Son from Mercury, and Daughter from Venus. Already seen as oddballs in their small...

50th anniversary of Catch-22's publication. Yossarian lives! Explosive, subversive, wild and funny, 50 years on the novel's strength is undiminished. Reading Joseph Heller's classic satire is nothing less than 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...

The magic of L.M. Montgomery’s treasured classic is reimagined in a whimsically illustrated graphic novel adaptation, perfect for newcomers and kindred spirits alike. When Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert decide to adopt an orphan who can help manage their family farm, they have no idea what delightful trouble awaits them. With flame-red hair and an unstoppable imagination, 11-year-old Anne Shirley takes...

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you, – and full as much heart!’ Meek, measured, but determined, Jane Eyre is a child born into unfortunate circumstances. Orphaned, mistreated...

Stabbed in the backA piece of lead piping nearbyIt should be a simple case... Poirot is summoned to France, but arrives too late to save his client, whose body now lies face down in a shallow grave on a golf course. Why is the dead man wearing his son’s overcoat? And who was the intended recipient of the love-letter in...

Agatha Christie's world-famous serial killer mystery, reissued with a striking new cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers. There's a serial killer on the loose, bent on working his way through the alphabet. As a macabre calling card, he leaves beside each victim’s corpse the ABC Railway Guide open at the name...

The best prose writer in English - Gore Vidal As Cabaret returns to the West End, revisit the KitKat Club in the book that introduced Sally Bowles to the world. Set in the 1930s, Goodbye to Berlin is the novella that inspired Cabaret, evoking the glamour and sleaze, excess and repression of Berlin society. Isherwood shows the lives of people...

As the interminable case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket;...

A genuine once-in-a-generation writer. - The Times Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving. - Hilary Mantel Claire Keegan makes her moments real - and then she makes them matter. - Colm Toibin After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes...

One of the world's most popular books is now available in a glorious gift edition. Written originally as European societies became enthralled by the idea of travel and exploration, The Swiss Family Robinson has become a timeless classic, read by every generation since then. This stunning new edition features deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers, and gilded edges. The...

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true, and we could live in them? An endearing tale of hardship, love, and sisterhood during the American Civil War, Little Women tells the story of the March family. Newly impoverished, Meg, Jo,...

A sharp, witty and hugely entertaining debut novel, The Devil Wears Prada is The Nanny Diaries set in the world of high fashion. Welcome to the dollhouse, baby! When Andrea first sets foot in the plush Manhattan offices of Runway, she knows nothing. She's never heard of the world's most fashionable magazine, or its feared and fawned-over editor, Miranda Priestly....

This selection of Poe's critical writings, short fiction, and poetry demonstrates an intense interest in aesthetic issues and the astonishing power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind. The Fall of the House of Usher describes the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the legacy of the past. In The Tell...

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip. An orphan destined for a life of misery and poverty, Pip...

A superb comic masterpiece and fierce parable of the Russian Revolution by the author of The Master and Margarita. WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY ANDREY KURKOV A rich, successful Moscow professor befriends a stray dog and attempts a scientific first by transplanting into it the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man. A distinctly worryingly human animal is...

The acclaimed new translation of Dostoyevsky's masterpiece for Penguin Classics. 'Will I really - I mean, really - actually take an axe, start bashing her on the head, smash her skull to pieces? . . . Will I really slip in sticky, warm blood, force the lock, steal, tremble, hide, all soaked in blood . . . axe in hand?...

Powerful, gripping, and haunting — Nevil Shute's most remarkable and influential novel. After the war is over, a radioactive cloud begins to sweep southwards on the winds, gradually poisoning everything in its path. An American submarine captain is among the survivors left sheltering in Australia, preparing with the locals for the inevitable. Despite his memories of his wife, he becomes...

Immerse yourself in the epic world of Midkemia with Raymond E. Feist's Flight of the Night Hawks, the first enthralling entry in the Darkwar series. As the exalted author of Magician, Feist returns with a masterful tale filled with suspense, political intrigue, and dark magic. The clandestine organisation known as the Conclave of Shadows faces unprecedented challenges. The malevolent magician...

On the day of his wedding, Conrad, heir to the house of Otranto, is killed in mysterious circumstances. His calculating father, Manfred, fears that his dynasty will now come to an end and determines to marry his son's bride himself, despite the fact he is already married. But a series of terrifying supernatural omens soon threaten this unlawful union, as...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. Mrs Dalloway beautifully encapsulates the essence of life, echoing in its opening with the sentiment: 'She always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day'. On a June morning in 1923, Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for a party and remembering her...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Fabien tonight was wandering over the vast splendour of a sea of clouds, but below him lay eternity. Inspired by his career as an aviator, Saint-Exupéry's soaring novel follows the journeys of three pilots delivering mail overnight. The author's beautiful, weightless prose is as haunting as his own disappearance in flight,...

The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka's 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation, became a worldwide classic and remains, a century later, one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of travelling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. This hugely influential work inspired George...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books It demands great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater miracle of perception and charity not to teach your child to hate Told in the form of two intensely personal 'letters', The Fire Next Time is an excoriating condemnation of the...

Stefan Zweig's classic novella of obsession, madness and chess. In 1941, a cruise ship is heading to Buenos Aires, and on board, a group of eager passengers challenge the reigning world chess champion to a match. At first, they lose pitifully, until a kind stranger aids them by whispering instructions. He is a masterful chess player, and as they play,...

46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Matilda by Mary Shelley is a compelling and haunting tale of forbidden emotions and tragic destinies. "I gained his secret and we were both lost for ever." This evocative narrative follows the tumultuous life of Matilda, delving into themes of isolation...

A stunning new edition with deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers and gilded edges. The unabridged text is accompanied by a Glossary of Victorian and Literary terms produced for the modern reader. The lives of four teenage sisters — Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy — unfold in this treasured classic. Living in Massachusetts, the March sisters are struggling through...

Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before: of the intense passion between the foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and her betrayal of him. As Heathcliff's bitterness...

In the swoon-worthy finale of her Love on Holiday series, Christy Carlyle takes readers to the breathtaking coast of Ireland where a pretty, young countess’s secretary agrees to impersonate her mistress to help a duke appease his fortune-hunting family...until he falls for her instead. “Simply delightful!” —Julia Quinn Miss Evelyn Graves has never had a holiday. She is much too...

Frankenstein: Popular Penguins by Mary Shelley is a timeless tale of science, ambition, and the consequences of playing God. A fascinating fusion of Gothic horror and early science fiction, this gripping narrative explores the ambitious endeavours of Victor Frankenstein, a young and idealistic scientist fixated on unleashing the secrets of life. Driven by an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Victor's experiments...

Scarcely out of print since the early 1870s, For the Term of His Natural Life has provided successive generations with a vivid account of a brutal phase of colonial life. The main focus of this great convict novel is the complex interaction between those in power and those who suffer, made meaningful because of its hero's struggle against his wrongful...

In the heart of Transylvania, Count Dracula's ancient and eerie castle serves as a realm where night triumphs over day, and sinister pleasures intertwine with deep pain. The blood of the innocent is a highly esteemed treasure within these shadowy walls. Jonathan Harker, a young solicitor, ventures through the gloomy gates of this foreboding fortress entirely unaware of the horror...

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World' HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. Frankenstein ‘The rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open…’ Victor Frankenstein’s monster is stitched...

In a house haunted by memories, the past is everywhere... As darkness falls, a man caught in a snowstorm is forced to shelter at the strange, grim house Wuthering Heights. It is a place he will never forget. There he will come to learn the story of Cathy—how she was forced to choose between her well-meaning husband and the dangerous...

A Room of One's Own grew out of a lecture that Virginia Woolf had been invited to give at Girton College, Cambridge in 1928. Ranging over Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë and why neither of them could have written War and Peace, over the silent fate of Shakespeare's gifted (and imaginary) sister, over the effects of poverty and chastity on...

Investigations of a Dog by Franz Kafka presents a unique and imaginative journey into the mind of a canine philosopher. Through the eyes of a curious and introspective dog, Kafka dissects the intricacies of existence, perception, and the limits of understanding. The narrator, a dog deeply engrossed in the quest for knowledge, embarks on a thoughtful exploration of his world,...

Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protégée Harriet...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that I stood there alone, the last man left alive. When a strange, meteor-like object lands in the heart of England, the inhabitants of Earth find themselves victims of a terrible attack. A ruthless...