Penguin Classics

A landmark collection of verse from one of the twentieth century's supreme writers. These masterly poems span the decades of Nabokov's career, from Music, written in 1914, to the short, playful To Vera, composed in 1974. The University Poem, one of Nabokov's major poetic works, is here in English for the first time. This extraordinary autobiographical poem looks back at...

The complete collection of Kingsley Amis's poems, as witty, scabrous and bracing as his celebrated novels. Although best known for his comic novels, Kingsley Amis wrote poetry throughout his career. Collected Poems spans subjects from nature and cricket to love, ageing and literature, brimming with his characteristic wit and irreverence, yet full of compassion. 'The Last War' brings home the...

A classic of postwar literature, a small masterpiece of humour, humanity and heroism from one of the best Czech writers. For gauche young apprentice Milos Hrma, life at the small but strategic railway station in Bohemia in 1945 is full of complex preoccupations. There is the exacting business of dispatching German troop trains to and from the toppling Eastern front;...

The race is on to find a German agent, hiding somewhere in the maze of wartime Cairo. January 1942. Rommel's seemingly invincible Afrika Korps is at the gates of Egypt – perhaps soon to threaten Cairo itself. And Rommel has a spy in the city – a source so well-informed that the German commander knows in advance every movement of...

The first part in a trilogy of novels, Cities of the Red Night satirises modern society in a shocking story of sex, drugs, disease, and adventure. An opium addict is lost in the jungle; young men wage war against an empire of mutants; a handsome young pirate faces his execution; and the world's population is infected with a radioactive epidemic....

New to Penguin Modern Classics, to tie in with the release of the Steven Spielberg film, and with a new introduction by Brian Aldiss. Matthew's parents are worried. At eleven, he's much too old to have an imaginary friend, yet they find him talking to and arguing with a presence that even he admits is not physically there. This presence...

The dreamlike story of a single mother and her estranged 11-year-old daughter by Yuko Tsushima, the 'archaeologist of the female psyche'. Child of Fortune is deceptively gentle and dreamlike, teetering on the edge of tragedy. It covers a year in the life of a single mother with an eleven-year-old daughter, combining a complex interior world with memorably visual imagery. The...

The final novel featuring Bernard Samson, one of Deighton's most enduring characters, who must return to Berlin for one last case. Bernard Samson returns to Berlin in the final novel in the classic spy trilogy, Faith, Hope and Charity. Bernard continues to chip away at the mystery of his sister-in-law Tessa Kosinski's death in Berlin on the crucial night when...

A magisterial history of the Second World War by best-selling novelist and former RAF pilot Len Deighton. This unflinching history of the darkest days of the Second World War covers the entire world stage, from the Battle of the Atlantic to Pearl Harbor. Rooted in the personal accounts of the soldiers themselves, Blood, Tears and Folly is a sweeping, moving...

A foundational work of Black Radical critical theory, now to be widely available here for the first time. Any struggle must be fought on a people's own terms, argues Cedric Robinson's landmark account of Black radicalism. Marxism is a Western construction, and therefore inadequate to describe the significance of Black communities as agents of change against 'racial capitalism'. Tracing the...

From the American master of historical fiction, an award-winning coming-of-age story set amidst the gangster underworld of Depression-era New York City. It's 1930s New York and Billy Bathgate, a fifteen-year-old high-school dropout, has captured the attention of the infamous gangster Dutch Schultz. The product of an East Bronx upbringing by a dysfunctional Catholic mother and an absent Jewish father, Billy...

The final spy novel featuring the unnamed hero of The IPCRESS File series finds him up against a Texan billionaire with an all-powerful computer. Texan billionaire General Midwinter will stop at nothing to bring down the USSR—even if it puts the whole world at risk. The fourth and final novel featuring the cynical, insolent narrator of The IPCRESS File sees...

One of the first bestsellers in Germany after the Second World War, Berlin Finale is a breathtaking novel of the most dramatic period of upheaval in modern history. April 1945, the last days of the Nazi regime. While bombs are falling on Berlin, the Gestapo are still searching for traitors, resistance fighters, and deserters. People mistrust each other more than...

A widely revered collection from the Nobel prize-winning poet, publishing in Penguin Modern Classics for the first time. This startlingly original reworking of the Persephone myth takes us to the icy shores of Averno, the crater lake regarded by the ancient Romans as the entrance to the underworld. Here, the consolations of rebirth and renewal are eclipsed by the immediacy...

The incredible memoir of Elaine Brown - the first female leader of the Black Panthers. "I have all the guns and all the money. I can withstand challenge from without and from within. Am I right, Comrade?" So said Elaine Brown on becoming the first female leader of the Black Panther Party in 1974. By that time, the group had...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, one of the most influential social scientists of the twentieth century examines the meaning of the asylum, the 'total institution'. Asylums presents four interlinked essays that explore life in the 'total institutions'—the closed systems of prisons, boarding schools, nursing homes and, most importantly, mental institutions. Focusing on the relationship between an inmate and the institution...

An unnamed spy is entangled in Paris's seedy underworld in a rollercoaster Cold War thriller. An Expensive Place to Die transports readers to Paris in the 1960s, a city that caters to every taste, especially at the private 'clinic' run by the enigmatic Monsieur Datt on Avenue Foch. This clinic supplies psychedelic drugs and sexual favours to the city's elite,...

A novel of tremendous political relevance, A Most Wanted Man was adapted into a critically-acclaimed film starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and is new to Penguin Modern Classics. A half-starved young Russian man in a long black overcoat is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse round his neck. He...

New to Modern Classics Amadeus by Peter Shaffer presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a genius, the most brilliant musician the world will ever see. However, the court of eighteenth-century Vienna fails to recognise his talents—only Antonio Salieri, the Court Composer, does, and he is tortured by what he hears. Seething with rage at the genius of this flippant buffoon and...

All My Sons brought Miller his first major success, and continues to be a bestseller today. In Joe and Kate Keller's family garden, an apple tree—a memorial to their son Larry, lost in the Second World War—has been torn down by a storm. But his loss is not the only part of the family's past they can't put behind them....

A new selection of foundational works from the influential philosopher who developed the theory of mimetic desire. René Girard eludes easy categories, bridging the fields of literary criticism, anthropology, sociology, history, religion, and theology. Influencing such writers as J. M. Coetzee and Milan Kundera, his insight into contagious violence looks ever more prophetic and relevant seven years after his death....

A high-octane story from the great Eric Ambler, of a journalist on the run in the south of France. Lucia Bernardi was last seen driving a car at top speed away from a villa—and the body of her murdered Iraqi lover—in Switzerland. Now, disgraced journalist Piet Maas has been sent to find her in the south of France. When he...

Runciman's great Crusades trilogy reissued in Penguin Modern Classics 'The whole tale is one of faith and folly, courage and greed, hope and delusion' The triumph of the First Crusade transformed the eastern Mediterranean, creating a series of European-ruled states along the coast and in Armenia. But the region's Muslim rulers were far from defeated, and the major cities of...

A breathtaking international bestselling novel about family secrets, and Javier Marías's masterpiece. In the middle of a family lunch, Teresa, just married, goes to the bathroom, unbuttons her blouse and shoots herself in the heart. What made her kill herself immediately after her honeymoon? Years later, this mystery fascinates the young newlywed Juan, whose father was married to Teresa before...

A brilliant hybrid of myth, history and fantasy from Sylvia Townsend Warner, one of the twentieth century's great novelists. Don Juan, that notorious libertine, has disappeared. Has he been dragged down to hell by demons, as rumoured - or has he escaped? Dona Ana, the woman he tried to seduce, will stop at nothing to discover the truth. Set in...

Depicting a young woman's life in Nazi Germany, this is the masterpiece from the author of Child of All Nations. Nineteen-year-old Sanna just wants to drink her beer in peace, but that's difficult when Hitler has come to town and his motorcade is blocking the streets of Frankfurt. What's more, her best friend Gerti is in love with a Jewish...

A new translation of this novel set in a tranquil town on the Dutch coast, part of the Maigret series. A Crime in Holland presents a scene reminiscent of a picture-book town, with everything in its place, like ornaments on the mantlepiece of a careful housewife. 'Just take a look,' Duclos said in an undertone, pointing to the scene all...

The story of two friends whose dubious relationship spans West Berlin in the 1960s through the Cold War to the age of present-day terrorism is new to Penguin Modern Classics. The friends of the title are Ted Mundy, a British soldier's son born in 1947 in a newly independent Pakistan, and Sasha, the refugee son of an East German Lutheran...

Part novel, part Pop artwork, a is an electrifying slice of Factory life. A knowing response to James Joyce's Ulysses, a gives us twenty-four hours in the life of Ondine, an actor and Warhol superstar. The book is transcribed from tapes between Warhol and Ondine, reproduced exactly as-is. As in his visual art, Warhol has used spontaneous performance and an...

46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. The pleasure is twice as sweet When you cheat a cheat. The World is Full of Foolish Men by Jean de la Fontaine captures the essence of these timeless words, enticing readers into a world of wit and wisdom.

46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946 And when I shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars.

46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. A Terrible Beauty Is Born features the powerful lines: 'But I, being poor, have only my dreams; / I have spread my dreams under your feet...' By turns joyful and despairing, this collection presents some of the twentieth century's greatest verse,...

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. Recently widowed, the unscrupulous and beautiful Lady Susan Vernon is determined to scheme her way through high society in the hope of a profitable new match – all while trying to marry off her unfortunate...

First time published individually in Modern Classics, alongside Claudius the God. Despised for his weakness and regarded by his family as little more than a stammering fool, the nobleman Claudius quietly survives the intrigues, bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the imperial Roman dynasties. In I, Claudius, he watches from the sidelines to record the reigns of its emperors—from the...

A phenomenal bestselling author meets the most magical stories ever told, now in a beautiful clothbound classics edition. In this stunningly designed book of classic fairy tales, award-winning author Philip Pullman has chosen his fifty favourite stories from the Brothers Grimm and presents them in a 'clear as water' retelling, in his unique and brilliant voice. These new versions show...

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, fastidious college professor. He also likes little girls. And none more so than Lolita, who he'll do anything to possess. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? Or is he all of these?

New to Penguin Clothbound Classics, Gaston Leroux's classic tale of Gothic horror and tragic romance. Rumours that a ghost stalks the dark passages and cellars of the Paris Opera House, wreaking havoc, have long been rife among staff and performers. This Phantom also haunts the imagination of the beautiful and talented singer Christine Daae, appearing to her as the 'Angel...

Part of the authoritative and acclaimed Penguin Shakespeare series, now rejacketed in the celebrated Penguin Classics livery. A vivacious woman and a high-spirited man both claim that they are determined never to marry. But when their friends trick them into believing that each harbours secret feelings for the other, they begin to question whether their witty banter and sharp-tongued repartee...

A masterly work of art, which rearranges language and plays in the gaps between reality and fiction. In Agua Viva, Clarice Lispector aims to 'capture the present'. Her direct, confessional, and unfiltered meditations on everything from life and time to perfume and sleep are strange and hypnotic in their emotional power. This remarkable work has been a huge influence on...

Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons' hilarious comic novel of rural life, is new to Penguin Modern Classics. When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders — cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness;...

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is Shirley Jackson's masterpiece— a deliciously dark and funny story of Merricat, a tomboy teenager, beloved sister, and possible mass murderer. Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since Constance was...

A new anthology of 100 years of artists', filmmakers', and architects' manifestos. In this remarkable collection of 100 manifestos from the last 100 years, Alex Danchev presents the cacophony of voices of such diverse movements as Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Feminism, Communism, Destructivism, Vorticism, Stridentism, Cannibalism, and Stuckism, taking in along the way film, architecture, fashion, and cookery. Artists' manifestos are...

Beautifully designed, clothbound edition 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 colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Charlotte Brontë's first published novel, Jane Eyre, was immediately recognised as a work of genius when it appeared in 1847. Orphaned into the household...

A perfectly plotted, cosy detective story from Seicho Matsumoto, Japan's master of mystery. In a rocky cove in the bay of Hakata, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Standing in the coast's wind and cold, the police see nothing to investigate—the flush of the couple's cheeks speaks clearly of cyanide, of a lovers' suicide. But in...

Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo—a menagerie of savage animals. Tended to recovery by their keeper, Montgomery, who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood, Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer...

In her magnificent novel, Marguerite Yourcenar recreates the life and death of one of the great rulers of the ancient world. The Emperor Hadrian, aware his demise is imminent, writes a long valedictory letter to Marcus Aurelius, his future successor. The Emperor meditates on his past, describing his accession, military triumphs, love of poetry and music, and the philosophy that...

The iconic study of the Haitian revolution by one of the founding fathers of Caribbean scholarship, now in Modern Classics for the first time. In 1791, inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution, the slaves of San Domingo rose in revolt. Despite invasion by a series of British, Spanish and Napoleonic armies, their twelve-year struggle led to the creation...

A new edition of the book that has been more widely read than any book in English except the Bible. Bunyan wrote the first part of The Pilgrim's Progress when he was in prison for conducting unauthorised Baptist religious services outside of the Church of England. It was published in 1678; the second part was published in 1684. In Bunyan's...

A masterfully rendered volume of Chekhov's stories from famed translators Pevear and Volokhonsky. Chekhov's genius left an indelible impact on every literary form in which he wrote, but none more so than short fiction. Now renowned translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky give us their superb renderings of fifty-two Chekhov stories. These stories, which span the full arc of his...

The Waves, Woolf's innovative modernist novel, is now available in a new Black Classics edition. Tracing the lives of a group of friends, this novel follows their development from childhood to middle age. While social events, individual achievements, and disappointments form its narrative, the novel is most remarkable for the rich poetic language that expresses the inner life of its...

In A Murder of Quality by John le Carré, readers are drawn into a gripping mystery that reveals the dark underbelly of a prestigious British public school. When Stella Rode, the wife of a respected teacher at the exclusive Carne School, is brutally murdered, George Smiley is called upon to investigate. What appears to be a straightforward case soon unravels...

The Rise And Fall of Athens by Plutarch traces the fortunes of Athens through nine lives - from Theseus, its founder, to Lysander, its Spartan conqueror - in this seminal work. What makes a leader? How does their character affect the fate of their people? Plutarch illustrates the rise and fall of Athens through nine lives, from the legendary days...

The third and final novel of John le Carré's acclaimed 'Karla Trilogy', Smiley's People, published in Penguin Modern Classics for the first time, transports readers into the intricate world of espionage and Cold War intrigue. When a former agent is found murdered, George Smiley, retired but ever-observant, finds himself pulled back into the shadowy operations of the Secret Service. Despite...

Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich is a profound and haunting exploration of the catastrophic nuclear disaster that took place on 26 April 1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine. On that fateful day, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred, releasing vast quantities of radioactive materials and contaminating up to three-quarters of Europe. Drawing upon meticulous research and poignant interviews, Alexievich pieces...

The Will to Power is a profound and influential collection of Friedrich Nietzsche's thoughts, detailing some of his most crucial and radical reflections on philosophy. The text delves deep into the recesses of nihilism, metaphysics, the philosophy of morality, and the future of Europe, alongside Nietzsche’s enduring concept of the 'will to power'. The idea proposes that the main driving...

One of the most influential philosophical classics of all time, The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle remains a cornerstone of Western ethical thought. Composed as a series of lectures given by Aristotle in ancient Greece, this seminal work delves deep into the nature of human goodness, exploring what it means to lead a virtuous life. The discourse ranges widely over core...

Delve into the revolutionary thinking of one of the 20th century's most provocative and influential philosophers with The Foucault Reader. This essential compilation offers a comprehensive introduction to Michel Foucault’s pioneering work, meticulously curated to provide readers with insightful access to his seminal texts and theories. The Foucault Reader features detailed excerpts from Foucault's richly textured historical studies, including his...

The ground-breaking history of civil rights and inequality by legendary political activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race & Class, offers a comprehensive examination of the pivotal role of African American women in the evolution of civil rights and feminist movements. Davis meticulously maps out the collective struggles and intersectionalities of race, gender, and class, framing these interwoven threads...

Over the past 75 years, a new canon of environmental literature has taken shape as visionary thinkers worldwide have raised their voices to defend Earth from the brink of collapse. This Can't Be Happening by George Monbiot is a powerful addition to this indispensable body of work. In this collection of galvanising speeches and essays, Monbiot implores humanity to confront...

The final, previously unpublished volume of one of the twentieth century's seminal works. Foucault's The History of Sexuality changed the way we think about power, selfhood, and sexuality. In this fourth and final volume, he turns his attention to early Christianity, exploring how ancient ideas of pleasure were modified into the Christian notion of the 'flesh' - a transformation that...

The Eclogues by Virgil is an exquisite collection of ten pastoral poems that masterfully blend a Greek literary form with vivid depictions of contemporary Roman life. These poems traverse the tranquil landscapes of rural Italy, where shepherds converse and sing, grappling with the various emotional and socio-political upheavals of their time. Filled with idyllic imagery and poignant emotion, the Eclogues...

Monkey King, also known as Journey to the West, is one of the pinnacles of Chinese literature, brought to life in a masterful new translation by the award-winning Julia Lovell. This vibrant and imaginative tale, often attributed to Wu Cheng'en, was written during the Ming dynasty and stands as one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. The story unfolds during...

Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson is a splendidly wit-laden memoir that brings to life the humour and chaos of family existence in a rural setting. Written in 1953, Jackson artfully recounts her experiences with her husband and their four spirited children in rural Vermont. Amidst the charming yet unpredictable landscape, life's simple moments are transformed into sources of...

Childhood, Youth, Dependency, by acclaimed Danish author Tove Ditlevsen, is a poignant and gripping trilogy, now brought together in a single volume as part of the Penguin Modern Classics series. This evocative work, originally hailed as a masterpiece upon its English publication, delves into the intricate layers of Ditlevsen's life, chronicling her journey from a turbulent childhood to the complexities...

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a seminal work of dystopian fiction that has sparked imaginations and influenced numerous twentieth-century authors. Set in the distant future, the novel unfolds in OneState, a monolithic glass city where life is governed by logic and reason. Every aspect of existence is regulated by the omnipotent Benefactor, who ensures that citizens live without personal freedom,...

The Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels's revolutionary summons to the working classes, is one of the most important and influential political theories ever formulated. After four years of collaboration, the authors produced this incisive account of their idea of Communism, in which they envisage a society without classes, private property, or a state. They argue that the increasing exploitation...

Fans of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House will enjoy this disquieting tale of people awaiting the end of the world in a large, isolated house. Mrs Halloran has inherited the great Halloran house on the death of her son, much to the disgust of her daughter-in-law, the delight of her wicked granddaughter, and the confusion of the rest...

George Smiley becomes tangled in a case of suicide and espionage in le Carré's first novel. After a routine security check by George Smiley, civil servant Samuel Fennan apparently kills himself. When Smiley finds that Circus head Maston is trying to blame him for the man's death, he begins his own investigation, meeting with Fennan's widow to find out what...

In a new translation by Ronald Wilks Notes from Underground (1864) is a study of a single character, "the real man of the Russian majority," and a revelation of Dostoyevsky's own deepest beliefs. One of his best critics has said of the first part that it forms his "most utterly naked pages. Never afterwards was he so fully and openly...

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. Jorge Luis Borges remains one of the most influential short story writers of the twentieth century, whose spellbinding tales of magic, mystery, and murder are shot through with deep philosophical paradoxes. This collection brings together many of...

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is one of the most poignant and powerful autobiographical works of the 20th century. This definitive edition, presented by Penguin Black Classics, offers readers an unfiltered look into the life of a young Jewish girl during the harrowing years of World War II. As Anne and her family go into hiding...

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. Drifters in search of work, George and his childlike friend Lennie have nothing in the world except the clothes on their back—and a dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually, they...

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...

The greatest novel of the twentieth century, now in a beautiful Clothbound Classics centenary edition. Following the events of one single day in Dublin, the 16th of June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, and his wife Molly, Ulysses is a monument to the human condition. It has survived censorship, controversy, and legal action, and...

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There, he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and becomes determined not only to escape but to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible...

The paperback publication of the second volume of our new, substantially complete translation of one of the best-known and most influential classics of world literature. Every night for three years, the vengeful King Shahriyar sleeps with a different virgin, executing her the next morning. To end this brutal pattern and to save her own life, the vizier's daughter, Shahrazad, begins...

One of the great masterworks of English literature, in a gorgeous new clothbound edition. 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 colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature,...

Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was one of the outstanding figures of the declining Roman Empire. From his own account, he lived a life of sin until his conversion to Christianity at the age of 32. Twelve years later, he gave a personal account of his search for truth in The Confessions, where his analysis of the emotional side of...

The new paperback series - Penguin English Library "The more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!" Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby, she ignores her...

A sparkling new translation of the most famous travel book ever written, in a collectable clothbound edition. The Travels by Marco Polo began in 1271 with a visit to China, after which he served the Kublai Khan on numerous diplomatic missions in the Far East. His subsequent account of his travels offers a fascinating glimpse of what he encountered abroad—unfamiliar...