Classics

The Ladies' Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the spectacular development of the modern department store in late nineteenth century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family; it is emblematic of...

A fascinating discovery, Kawabata’s unfinished final novel Dandelions is a great master’s last word   A fascinating discovery, Dandelions is Kawabata's final novel, left incomplete when he committed suicide in 1972...

A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha.Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by...

'War is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to our will'Writing at the time of Napoleon's greatest campaigns, Prussian soldier and writer Carl von Clausewitz created this landmark treatise on the art of warfare, which presented war as part...

Nineteen Eighty-Four tells the story of Winston Smith, an ordinary man struggling against the overwhelming power of a totalitarian state. Although he enjoys brief moments of love and freedom, Smith is doomed to fail in his battle with the torturer...

E-Myth \ 'e-, 'mith\ n 1: the entrepreneurial myth: the myth that most people who start small businesses are entrepreneurs 2: the fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of a business can successfully run a business that...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, the seminal work of gay literature that sparked an infamous legal trial for obscenity and went on to become a bestseller. The Well of Loneliness tells the story of tomboyish Stephen, who hunts, wears trousers and cuts her...

A pioneering work of young adult fiction, The Outsiders charts the entanglements two rival gangs in 1960s Oklahoma. A searing story of loyalty, trust, friendship and betrayal, Hinton’s remarkable, rebellious novel – written when she was only 17 –...

One of the most influential and well-loved books of Christianity, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis appears here in Penguin Classics in a new translation by Robert Jeffery, with an introduction by Max Von Habsburg, notes, a chronology and...

With an Introduction and Notes by David Herd, Lecturer in English and American Literature at the University of Kent at Canterbury and co-editor of 'Poetry Review'.Moby Dick is the story of Captain Ahab's quest to avenge the whale that 'reaped' his leg...

As his tale begins, Orlando is a passionate young nobleman whose days are spent in rowdy revelry, filled with the colourful delights of Queen Elizabeth's court. By the close, he will have transformed into a modern, 36-year-old woman and three centuries...

When O-lan, a servant girl, marries the peasant Wang Lung, she toils tirelessly through four pregnancies for their family's survival. Reward at first is meagre, but there is sustenance in the land - until the famine comes.Half-starved, the family joins...

Accompanied by Stevenson’s other stories brimming with Gothic unease, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is chilling slice of Victorian psychological horror, mining a rich seam of split personality, remorse and the nature of evil. His...

'The Alices are the greatest nonsense ever written, and far greater, in my view, than most sense.' - Philip Pullman Collecting Alice's complete adventures, a source of delight to children and adults alike for generations, the Penguin Classics edition of...

John Milton's celebrated epic poem exploring the cosmological, moral and spiritual origins of man's existenceA Penguin ClassicIn Paradise Lost Milton produced poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge...

With his trademark dry wit, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle is an inventive science fiction satire that preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon - and, worse still, surviving it. Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding 'fathers' of the atomic...

(Available after 3-20 days)Netochka Nezvanova - a 'Nameless Nobody' - tells the story of a childhood dominated by her stepfather, Efimov, a failed musician who believes he is a neglected genius. The young girl is strangely drawn to this drunken ruin of a...

‘Poisoning of aged iniquitous anglicised Levantine millionaire. Nicely characterised family of suspects. Delicious red herrings. Infinite suspense and shocking surprise finish make up for slight looseness of texture.’ - Maurice Richardson, The Observer,...

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth has it ALL and in a super cool instagrammable/TikTokable cover! Yes, it’s got the goods to back up your next favorite social media book! Multiple heroines to root for, scary, macabre and a twinkle of...

A wheelchair-bound Poirot returns to Styles, the venue of his first investigation, where he knows another murder is going to take place... The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings; there was his own daughter Judith, an...