Classics

Set amidst the snobbery and society of the interwar British aristocracy, The Pursuit of Love mines Nancy Mitford’s own larger-than-life experiences for an exquisitely funny comedy of manners and frothy coming-of-age tale. One of the funniest,...

'Fiercely intelligent, very funny and unlike anything else I've ever read' -- MARK HADDON'Original...witty...playful...a wonderfully funny book' -- JAMES WOOD'A triumph - a genuinely new story, a genuinely new form' -- A. S. BYATTEleven-year-old Ludo is...

A witty introduction to the mind of Goethe, in a new translation for the first time in 150 yearsA Penguin ClassicBy the end of the nineteenth century, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was the world's most celebrated poet, novelist, critic and thinker. Today...

From Daphne du Maurier—the beloved author of the timeless classic Rebecca—comes this haunting novel of secrets and suspense. The coachman tried to warn young Mary Yellan away from the ruined, forbidding place on the rainswept Cornish...

One of the finest novels of the 20th century, Lampedusa’s tour de force documents the collapse of an old order and the emergence of the new. Set in 1860 and detailing the explosion of revolutionary troops into the opulent world of the Sicilian...

Collecting the inspirational, lyrical poetry of the iconic Persian mystic, this superbly curated volume showcases Rumi's towering love poetry alongside his verse on spirituality and the natural world.   The essential poems of the inspirational...

Guy de Maupassant's scandalous tale of an opportunistic young man corrupted by the allure of power, Bel-Ami is translated with an introduction by Douglas Parmee in Penguin Classics.Young, attractive and very ambitious, George Duroy, known to his admirers...

The paperback edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s final writings on the lands, inhabitants, and metaphysics of Middle-earth, perfect for those who have read and enjoyed The Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings, Unfinished Tales, and The History of Middle-earth,...

The famous tale by the trailblazing subject of major new film ColetteGIGI TRANSLATED BY ROGER SENHOUSE, THE CAT TRANSLATED BY ANTONIA WHITEGigi's days are filled with cigars, lobster, lace and superstitions: the education of a future courtesan. Bored and...

Framed as a letter from the Roman Emperor Hadrian to his successor, Marcus Aurelius, Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian is translated from the French by Grace Frick with an introduction by Paul Bailey in Penguin Modern Classics.In her magnificent...

An official tie-in edition of Philip K. Dick's dazzling speculative novel to accompany the new TV series, executive produced by Ridley Scott.Philip K. Dick's acclaimed cult novel gives us a horrifying glimpse of an alternative world - one where the...

The second volume of a political treatise that changed the worldA vital cornerstone to Marx’s overall theory of economics, the second volume of Capital considers in depth the nature of commodity and the market-place bourgeois society. This immensely...

In what remains one of his most seminal papers, Freud considers the incompatibility of civilisation and individual happiness, and the tensions between the claims of society and the individual. We all know that living in civilised groups means sacrificing...

'Intense sexual desire is the greatest thing in the world' A tale of art, sex, blood, junkies and whores in New York's underground, from cult literary icon Kathy Acker. Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic...

A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers’s best stories, including her beloved novella “The Ballad of the Sad Café.” Glowingly impressive, informed with feeling and...

The brilliant tale of Anais Nin's true love affair with Henry Miller, and her ambiguous, charged relationship with his wife, June. Drawn from the journals of a single momentous year in Paris, Henry and June provides a wildly lyrical account of...

First published in 1939, a few years before his most influential works in theatre and philosophy, The Wall was Sartre’s first and only collection of short fiction. The title piece tells the story of a prisoner during the Spanish Civil War, on the...

The definitive cult, post-modern novel – a shocking blend of violence, transgression and eroticism – reissued with an introduction from Zadie Smith. After being bombarded endlessly by road-safety propaganda it was almost a relief to find...

In Nobel Prize-winning author Peter Handke’s The Left-Handed Woman, a young woman faces loneliness and alienation on a journey to find her own life outside of being a wife and mother.One evening, when Marianne and her husband, Bruno, are dining out...

Handsome would-be poet Lucien Chardon is poor and naïve, but highly ambitious. Failing to make his name in his dull provincial hometown, he is taken up by a patroness, the captivating married woman Madame de Bargeton, and prepares to forge his way...