Penguin Classics

Handsome, ambitious Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble provincial origins. Soon realizing that success can only be achieved by adopting the subtle code of hypocrisy by which society operates, he begins to achieve advancement through deceit and self-interest. His triumphant career takes him into the heart of glamorous Parisian society, along the way conquering the gentle, married...

The Professor is the hero of Charlotte Brontë's first novel, where he escapes a dreary clerkship in industrial Yorkshire by taking a job as a teacher in Belgium. There, however, his entanglement with the sensuous but manipulative Zoraide Reuter complicates his affections for a penniless girl who is both teacher and pupil in Reuter's school. This landmark story is part...

The comic masterpiece that catapulted the 24-year-old Dickens to fame. The Pickwick Papers began as a literary spoof centred around sketches of stock sporting fops by caricaturist Robert Seymour. Following the success of Sketches by Boz, Dickens was recruited to compose the words which would accompany the illustrations. Dickens quickly made the project his own and created some of his...

The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens' last novel, is centred around a mystery involving a presumed crime: the murder of a nephew by his uncle. Tragically, Dickens passed away before completing the story, leaving the mystery unsolved and prompting successive generations of readers to take on the role of detective. Beyond the engrossing nature of this intriguing crime, the novel...

In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge. However, behind his success always lurks the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone...

The Man Who Was Thursday is G. K. Chesterton's surreal masterpiece, edited and with an introduction by Matthew Beaumont. Can you trust yourself when you don't know who you are? In a park in London, secret policeman Gabriel Syme strikes up a conversation with an anarchist. Sworn to do his duty, Syme uses his new acquaintance to go undercover in...

With his face swaddled in bandages, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses, and his hands covered even indoors, Griffin, the new guest at The Coach and Horses, is at first assumed to be a shy accident victim. But the true reason for his disguise is far more chilling: he has developed a process that has made him invisible and is...

A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighbouring squire, though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. But when his amorous escapades earn the disapproval of his benefactor, Tom is banished to make...

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. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry showcases the work of one of the most popular American writers of the twentieth century, a true master of the short story. This selection of tales ranges...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden party if they had ordered it. A windless, warm day greets the Sheridan family on the day of their garden party. As daughter Laura takes the reins on party preparations, the news of a neighbour's...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. The Day of the Locust explores the story of Tod Hackett, a brilliant young artist and a man in danger of losing his heart. Brought to an LA studio as a set-designer, he is soon caught up in a fantasy world where the cult of celebrity rules....

Part of a series of new editions of Henry James's most famous novels and short stories. When Chadwick Newsome, a young American favoured with fortune and independence, becomes entangled in a liaison dangereux with a Parisian temptress, his overbearing mother deploys her future husband, the elderly, amiable Strether, as an ambassador to engineer his safe return. But seduced by the...

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. When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting...

Rob Roy is Scott's invigorating tale of the battle between the English and the Scots. When young Francis Osbaldistone discovers that his vicious and scheming cousin Rashleigh has designs both on his father's business and his beloved Diana Vernon, he turns in desperation to Rob Roy for help. Chieftain of the MacGregor clan, Rob Roy is a brave and fearless...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. All children, except one, grow up. It was Friday night. Mr and Mrs Darling were dining out. Nana had been tied up in the backyard. The poor dog was barking, for she could smell danger. And she was right - this was the night that Peter Pan...

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. Clare Kendry, elegant, fair-skinned and ambitious, is married to a white man who is unaware of her African-American heritage. When she reunites with childhood friend Irene, who has not hidden her origins, both women are...

Orlando, deciding not to grow old, pursues his quest for passion, adventure, fulfilment and protracted youth. Chasing a dream through the centuries, he bounds from Elizabethan England and imperial Turkey to the modern world. Will he find happiness with the exotic Russian Princess Sasha? Or is the dashing explorer Shelmerdine the ideal man? And what form will Orlando take on...

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

Jack Kerouac's Great American Novel, now in a delightful new Clothbound Classics edition. On the Road swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat. Now recognized as a modern classic, its American Dream is nearer that of...

Launching a major new paperback series: Penguin English Library The Penguin English Library Edition of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 'A parish child - the orphan of a workhouse - the humble, half-starved drudge - to be cuffed and buffeted through the world, despised by all, and pitied by none' Dark, mysterious and mordantly funny, Oliver Twist features some of...

A stunning clothbound edition of William S. Burroughs's cult classic and undoubted masterpiece. A cultural landmark and the most shocking novel in the English language, Naked Lunch is an exhilarating ride into the darkest recesses of the human psyche. An unnerving tale of an addict unmoored in New York, Tangier, and ultimately a nightmarish wasteland known as Interzone, Naked Lunch's...

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...

Launching a major new paperback series - Penguin English Library. The Penguin English Library Edition of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. 'The frail gunwales bent in, collapsed, and snapped, as both jaws, like an enormous shears, sliding further aft, bit the craft completely in twain...' Moby-Dick is one of the most expansive feats of imagination in the whole of literature -...

A tale of inheritance and destiny, this is the story Dickens considered his best. The greed of his family has led wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit to become suspicious and misanthropic, leaving his grandson and namesake to make his own way in the world. And so young Martin sets out from the Wiltshire home of his supposed champion, the scheming architect...

Madame Bovary tells the story of Emma Bovary, a beautiful and bored woman trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, voracious spending, and eventually, in adultery. However, even her affairs bring her disappointment,...

When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, he takes a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother's seamstress, and in the affairs of Amy's father, William Dorrit, a man of shabby grandeur, long imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea. As Arthur soon discovers, the dark shadow of the prison stretches far beyond its walls to affect the...

Yayoi Kusama, one of Japan's most celebrated visual artists, illustrates one of the world's most beloved works of literature. Since childhood, Kusama has been afflicted with a condition that makes her see spots, which means she sees the world in a surreal, almost hallucinogenic way that sits very well with the Wonderland of Alice. She is fascinated by childhood and...

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. Set in a frozen world that is gradually being devastated by ever-encroaching ice, Anna Kavan's masterwork follows one man's pursuit of a mysterious silver-haired girl to the ends of the earth; to the end of everything.

Hard Times is set in the industrial town of Coketown, where life revolves around hard facts and rigid philosophies. The town is dominated by Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, a school headmaster and embodiment of Utilitarian principles, who feeds both his pupils and family with facts while banning fancy and wonder from young minds. As a consequence of this education, his obedient...

Launching a major new paperback series - Penguin English Library The Penguin English Library Edition of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens "What do you think that is?" she asked me, again pointing with her stick; "that, where those cobwebs are?" "I can't guess what it is, ma'am." "It's a great cake. A bride-cake. Mine!" Great Expectations, Dickens's funny, frightening and...

An unforgettable portrait of a woman bravely confronting loneliness and despair in her quest for self-determination, from the author of Wide Sargasso Sea. Jean Rhys was a talent before her time, with an impressive ability to express the anguish of young, single women. In Good Morning, Midnight, Rhys created the powerfully modern portrait of Sophia Jansen, whose emancipation is far...

Far from the Madding Crowd is Hardy's first Wessex novel, presented 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. Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take...

Dombey and Son is both a firm and a family, and the ambiguous connection between public and private life lies at the heart of Dickens' novel. Paul Dombey is a man who runs his domestic affairs as he runs his business: calculatingly, callously, coldly, and commercially. Through his dysfunctional relationships with his son, his two wives, and his neglected daughter...

Chichikov, a mysterious stranger, arrives in the provincial town of N', visiting a succession of landowners and making each a strange offer. He proposes to buy the names of dead serfs still registered on the census, saving their owners from paying tax on them, and to use these souls as collateral to re-invent himself as a gentleman. In this ebullient...

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens is a great coming-of-age novel, now available in a beautiful new clothbound edition. This is the novel Dickens regarded as his 'favourite child' and is considered his most autobiographical. As David recounts his experiences from childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist, Dickens draws openly and revealingly on his own life....

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. Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino presents twelve enchanting and fantastical stories about the evolution of the universe. This collection, penned by the giant of Italian literature, features characters—whether human, dinosaur, or mollusc—who disport themselves among galaxies, experience the...

Young, attractive and very ambitious, George Duroy, known to his friends as Bel-Ami, is offered a job as a journalist on La Vie française and soon makes a great success of his new career. But he also comes face to face with the realities of the corrupt society in which he lives—the sleazy colleagues, the manipulative mistresses, and wily financiers—and...

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the aging Dr Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. A Tale of Two Cities is 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...

A new translation of this ever-popular adventure story, featuring an introduction by Brian Aldiss. One night in the Reform Club, Phileas Fogg bets his companions that he can travel across the globe in just eighty days. Breaking the well-established routine of his daily life, he immediately sets off for Dover with his astonished valet Passepartout. Passing through exotic lands and...

When her family becomes impoverished after a disastrous financial speculation, Agnes Grey determines to find work as a governess in order to contribute to their meagre income and assert her independence. But Agnes's enthusiasm is swiftly extinguished as she struggles first with the unmanageable Bloomfield children and then with the painful disdain of the haughty Murray family. The only kindness...

A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens brings together Dickens's delightful Christmas writings in a gorgeous new hardback edition. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, this collection is 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. After reading A...

'Envy remained hidden in her heart, like a plague germ which may come to life and devastate a city.' Poor, plain spinster Bette is compelled to survive on the condescending patronage of her socially superior relatives in Paris—her beautiful, saintly cousin Adeline, the philandering Baron Hulot, and their daughter Hortense. Already deeply resentful of their wealth, when Bette learns that...

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. The Cossacks follows Dmitry Andreich Olenin, who, in the hope of escaping the hollowness of his privilege, joins the army and heads to the Caucasus. There among the foothills, he will meet the Cossacks—a people he considers...

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. Today, George Orwell is perhaps most famous for his iconic novels — Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm — but in his own time, it was his remarkable nonfiction writing which drew most attention. Kind-hearted, intelligent,...

A new translation by Tony Briggs of Tolstoy's last major novel. Resurrection (1899) tells the story of a nobleman's attempt to redeem the suffering his youthful philandering inflicted on a peasant girl who ends up a prisoner in Siberia. Tolstoy's vision of redemption achieved through loving forgiveness, and his condemnation of violence, dominate the novel. An intimate, psychological tale of...

All of Orwell's brilliant writing on England and Englishness collected in a single volume. Much of George Orwell's best writing, brought together in this comprehensive collection, is concerned with England, a country that he found both endearing and frustrating. In the brilliantly perceptive The English People, he lists the national characteristics as 'suspicion of foreigners, sentimentality about animals, hypocrisy, exaggerated...

An expansive collection of George Orwell's writing on the down and out. The vivid, impassioned writings collected together in this powerful volume chronicle Orwell's first-hand experiences of life among the underclass of the 'two nations' of rich and poor. Down and Out in Paris and London is the young Orwell's memoir of his time as a struggling, often penniless writer,...

The collected poems of Lewis Carroll, newly edited by Gillian Beer and published in a beautiful clothbound edition. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe...' wrote Lewis Carroll in his wonderfully playful poem of nonsense verse, Jabberwocky. This new edition collects together the marvellous range of Carroll's poetry, including nonsense verse, parodies, burlesques,...

A superb new translation by Judson Rosengrant of Tolstoy's semi-autobiographical trilogy. Leo Tolstoy began his trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, in his early twenties. Although he would in his old age famously dismiss it as an 'awkward mixture of fact and fiction', generations of readers have not agreed. Readers find the novel to be a charming and insightful portrait of inner...

On an ordinary summer's afternoon, Alice tumbles down a hole and an extraordinary adventure begins. In a strange world with even stranger characters, she meets a grinning cat and a rabbit with a pocket watch, joins a mad tea-party, and plays croquet with the Queen! Lost in this fantasy land, Alice finds herself growing more and more curious by the...

Jane Austen's masterworks in a single beautiful Penguin English Library volume. Few novelists have conveyed the subtleties and nuances of their own social milieu with the wit and insight of Jane Austen. Here in one volume are her seven great novels—Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Lady Susan. Through her vivacious and spirited...

One of the most beloved translations of all time returns to Penguin Classics — Scott Moncrieff's masterful version of Proust. Remembrance of Things Past: Volume 2 is one of the seminal works of the twentieth century, recording its narrator's experiences as he grows up, falls in love, and lives through the First World War. A profound reflection on art, time,...

A sparkling literary satire and an Austen favourite, in a beautiful 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. During an eventful season at Bath, young, naive Catherine Morland experiences the joys of...

Love and Freindship by Jane Austen offers readers a glimpse into the author’s brilliant, hilarious, and often outrageous early stories, sketches, and pieces of nonsense, newly compiled for Penguin Classics. Jane Austen's earliest writings date back to when she was just eleven years old, already showcasing the hallmarks of her mature work. However, these works are also products of the...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books On the fields of Troy, war is raging. At its centre is Achilles—godlike, swift-footed, the greatest champion of the Greeks. But when his pride is wounded and he refuses to fight, the thread of fate begins to spin... From frenzied rampages to intimate moments of grief, this selection from Homer's Iliad...

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...

A selection of Seneca's most powerful and macabre plays. Based on the legends used in Greek drama, Seneca's plays are notable for the exuberant ruthlessness with which disastrous events are foretold and then pursued to their tragic and often bloodthirsty ends. Thyestes depicts the menace of an ancestral curse hanging over two feuding brothers, while Phaedra portrays a woman tormented...

Penguin Classics relaunch Mary Barton, the daughter of disillusioned trade unionist, rejects her working-class lover Jem Wilson in the hope of marrying Henry Carson, the mill owner's son, and making a better life for herself and her father. But when Henry is shot down in the street and Jem becomes the main suspect, Mary finds herself painfully torn between the...

Written in 1857, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands is the autobiography of a Jamaican woman whose fame rivalled Florence Nightingale's during the Crimean War. Seacole's offer to volunteer as a nurse in the war met with racism and refusal. Undaunted, Seacole set out independently to the Crimea, where she acted as doctor and 'mother' to wounded soldiers...

An astonishing memoir of the Holocaust through the eyes of a child, and an exquisite meditation on memory and trauma. The Story of a Life by Aharon Appelfeld chronicles his experiences as the beloved only child of middle-class Jewish parents living in what is now Ukraine at the outbreak of World War Two. Their peaceful life is upended when soldiers...

The Letters of the Younger Pliny provide a series of fascinating views on imperial Rome. A prominent lawyer and administrator, Pliny (c. AD 61-113) was also a prolific letter-writer, who numbered among his correspondents such eminent figures as Tacitus, Suetonius, and the Emperor Trajan, as well as a wide circle of friends and family. His lively and very personal letters...

A compelling narrative of the life of the greatest conqueror of all time—Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), who led the Macedonian army to victory in Egypt, Syria, Persia, and India, was perhaps the most successful conqueror the world has ever seen. Yet although no other individual has attracted so much speculation across the centuries, Alexander himself remains...

Lives of the Artists made Vasari one of the most influential art historians of all time, fusing literary and artistic ability. In his Lives of the Artists of the Italian Renaissance, Vasari demonstrated a literary talent that outshone even his outstanding abilities as a painter and architect. Through character sketches and anecdotes, he depicts Piero di Cosimo shut away in...

A major writer and a leading figure in the public life of Rome, Seneca (c. 4 BC - AD 65) ranks among the most eloquent and influential masters of Latin prose. This selection explores his thoughts on philosophy and the trials of life. In the Consolation to Helvia, he strives to offer solace to his mother following his exile in...

The essential writings of the 20th century's most influential economist, collected in one volume. John Maynard Keynes was the most influential economist, and one of the most influential thinkers, of the twentieth century. He overturned the orthodoxy that markets were optimally self-regulating, and instead argued for state intervention to ensure full employment and economic stability. The Essential Keynes is the...

On Suicide (1897) by Emile Durkheim is a groundbreaking book in the field of sociology. Traditionally, suicide was thought to be a matter of purely individual despair, but Durkheim recognised that the phenomenon had a social dimension. He believed that if anything can explain how individuals relate to society, then it is suicide. Why does it happen? What goes wrong?...

The provocative historical work on social economy, demography and population control. An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings is Malthus' seminal examination of human population and its dependency on food production and the environment, which was highly controversial upon its publication in 1798. He predicted what is now known as the Malthusian catastrophe, where humans would ignore...

It is in this third volume that Marx sets out his central thesis that "the basic laws of motion of the capitalist mode of production lead to explosive crises and its ultimate collapse". Here we find not only a sustained economic and social description of capitalism as a system and the bourgeoisie as a class but also a full statement...

A short, powerful memoir from one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. In this deeply personal book, Baldwin reflects on the experiences that shaped him as a writer and activist — from his childhood in Harlem to the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Exploring the visceral reality of life in the American South...

Sallust (86-c. 35 BC) is the earliest Roman historian of whom complete works survive. A senator of the Roman Republic, he was a younger contemporary of Cicero, Pompey, and Julius Caesar. His Catiline's War tells of the conspiracy in 63 BC led by L. Sergius Catilina, who plotted to assassinate numerous senators and take control of the government but was...

The fascinating story of how NASA sent humans to explore outer space, told through a treasure trove of historical documents—publishing in celebration of NASA's 60th anniversary and with a foreword by Bill Nye. "An extremely useful and thought-provoking documentary journey through the maze of space history. There is no wiser or more experienced navigator through the twists and turns and...

A new edition of Darwin's remarkable account of the connection between emotion and facial expression which grew out of The Descent of Man. Published in 1872, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals was a book at the very heart of Darwin's research interests, serving as a central pillar of his 'human' series. This book engaged some of...

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...

The essential writings of ancient Egypt, from songs to stories, newly translated. 'Man perishes; his corpse turns to dust; all his relatives pass away. But writings make him remembered.' The fascination Ancient Egypt holds in our minds has many sources, but at the heart of it lie hieroglyphics. This extraordinary writing system was for many years seen as the ultimate...

What is history and how should it be written? This important new anthology contains all the seminal texts that relate to the writing of history in the ancient world. The study of history was invented in the ancient world. Treading uncharted waters, writers such as Plutarch and Lucian grappled with big questions such as how history should be written, how...

This edition contains a revision of the existing translation, revision of chronology and genealogy, and a new introduction of 4-6000 words, new notes, and a new selection of further reading. A trusted member of the Byzantine establishment, Procopius was the Empire's official chronicler, and his History of the Wars of Justinian proclaimed the strength and wisdom of the Emperor's reign....

In writing his account of the relentless growth of the Roman Empire, the Greek statesman Polybius set out to help his fellow-countrymen understand how their world came to be dominated by Rome. Opening with the Punic War in 264 BC, he records the critical stages of Roman expansion - its campaigns throughout the Mediterranean, the temporary setbacks inflicted by Hannibal,...

The Later Roman Empire is a historical account of the end of the Roman Empire, penned by Ammianus Marcellinus, the last great Roman historian. His writings hold a prestigious place alongside those of Livy and Tacitus. This chronicle spans a period of twenty-five years during Marcellinus' lifetime, covering the reigns of Constantius, Julian, Jovian, Valentinian I, and Valens. It provides...

John Carter's modern translation conveys the compelling style of the original. His extensive introduction provides an in-depth assessment of Appian as a historian and places the work in context. Taken from Appian's Roman History, the five books collected here form the sole surviving continuous historical narrative of the era between 133-35 BC — a time of anarchy and instability for...

Books VI-X of Livy's monumental History of Rome Books VI-X of Livy's monumental work trace Rome's fortunes from its near collapse after defeat by the Gauls in 386 BC to its emergence, in a matter of decades, as the premier power in Italy, having conquered the city-state of Samnium in 293 BC. In this fascinating history, events are described not...