Classics

Welcome to the Best of the Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction.When Edward Prendick is shipwrecked on a tropical island, he is surprised to find he has company in the form of Dr Moreau.Driven out of Britain in disgrace, Dr Moreau...

If you can only read one true crime in your life, make it this one. With an intricately woven plot, a deft touch for detail, and enthralling characters, Truman Capote's masterclass of narrative nonfiction has all the story components of a page-turning...

Colleen McCullough's sweeping saga of dreams, struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback has enthralled readers the world over. This is the chronicle of three generations of Clearys, ranchers carving lives from a beautiful,...

Nightmarish and fiercely funny, William Burroughs' virtuoso, taboo-breaking masterpiece Naked Lunch follows Bill Lee through Interzone: a surreal, orgiastic wasteland of drugs, depravity, political plots, paranoia, sadistic medical experiments...

Open a door and enter a magical world. Four adventurers step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia – a world enslaved by the power of the White Witch. When almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great...

New York Times bestseller. “A thrill . . . Beowulf was Tolkien’s lodestar. Everything he did led up to or away from it.” —New Yorker J.R.R. Tolkien completed his translation of Beowulf in 1926: he returned...

First published in 1859, Oblomov is an indisputable classic of Russian literature, comparable in its stature to such masterpieces as Gogol's Dead Souls, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. The book centres on the figure of Ilya...

An illustrated journey into the artistic possibilities of modern design, by the enfant terrible of Italian art and design for most of the twentieth centuryA Penguin ClassicBruno Munari was among the most inspirational designers of all time,...

A New York Times Notable Book of 2007From Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa comes The Bad Girl, a "...splendid, suspenseful, and irresistible [novel]. . . A contemporary love story that explores the mores of the urban...

Beautiful Emma Rouault yearns for the life of wealth, passion and romance she has encountered in popular sentimental fiction, and when her doctor, the well-meaning but awkward and unremarkable Charles Bovary, begins to pay her attention, she imagines...

Josephus’ account of a war marked by treachery and atrocity is a superbly detailed and evocative record of the Jewish rebellion against Rome between AD 66 and 70. Originally a rebel leader, Josephus changed sides after he was captured to become a...

The timeless collection that introduced Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and the Headless HorsemanPerhaps the marker of a true mythos is when the stories themselves overshadow their creator. Originally published under a pseudonym as The Sketch Book of...

Every artist is an unhappy lover. And unhappy lovers want to tell their story.''A source of wonders and delight' SpectatorEx-tax collector and author of two unpopular novels, Bradley Pearson wishes to devote his retirement to writing a masterpiece...

“Hansel and Gretel astonishes from start to finish . . .” —The New York TimesBestselling author Neil Gaiman and fine artist Lorenzo Mattotti join forces to create Has capture the terror and longing found in the classic Brothers...

Wang Wei, one of Chinese literature's greatest poets, divided his time between the court and his country estate, where he drew inspiration from the mountains and solitude. His poetry affirms his belief in a whole natural order, and his delicately...

A charming new pocket edition of one of Tolkien’s major pieces of short fiction, and his only finished work dating from after publication of The Lord of the Rings. What began as a preface to The Golden Key by George MacDonald eventually grew into...

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 his...

A collection of some of Tolstoy's most powerful powerful stories.The violent spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life that inspired his last period of creativity produced the stories in this compelling and startling collection. They portray the multifaceted...

Here are some of Tolstoy's extraordinary short stories, from "The Death of Ivan Ilyich." in a masterly new translation, to "The Raid," "The Wood-felling," "Three Deaths," "Polikushka," "After the Ball," and "The Forged Coupon," all gripping and eloquent...

Tolstoy's powerful semiautobiographical stories based on his time spent in the Russian army, part of our series of fresh new Tolstoy translationsIn 1851, at the age of twenty-two, Tolstoy joined the Russian army. The four years he spent as a soldier were...