Classics

"Few, very few books have made my heart thud with excitement. H.M.S. Surprise managed it." —Helen Lucy Burke, Irish Press   In H.M.S. Surprise, British naval officer Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin face near-death...

The classic first novel of the epic Aubrey/Maturin series, widely considered “the best historical novels ever written” (Richard Snow, New York Times).   Ardent, gregarious British naval officer Jack Aubrey is elated to be given his...

Hornblower is captured by the French and faces execution in a Paris prison in this "most satisfying" chapter (Times Literary Supplement) in C. S. Forester's beloved naval adventure series.Forced to surrender his ship, the Sutherland, after a long...

June 1808, somewhere west of Nicaragua, a site suitable for spectacular sea battles. The Admiralty has ordered Captain Horatio Hornblower, now in command of the thirty-six-gun HMS Lydia, to form an alliance against the Spanish colonial government with an...

Hornblower's reconnaissance mission quickly turns to warfare in this installment of the beloved series of naval adventures by C. S. Forester, "a master of the genre" (New York Times).April 1803. The Peace of Amiens is breaking down. Napoleon is building...

Hornblower gets his first independent command in this installment of C. S. Forester's beloved series, "the most popular modern saga of the days when ships were wood and men were iron" (New York Times Book Review).In this gripping tale of turmoil and...

Hornblower leads his first ship of the line into enemy waters in this installment of C. S. Forester's beloved adventure series, called "exciting, realistic, packed with grand naval action" by the New Yorker.May 1810, seventeen years deep into the...

With the same electrical intensity of language and insight that he brought to Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M. Coetzee reinvents the story of Robinson Crusoe—and in so doing, directs our attention to the seduction and tyranny of storytelling...

Dive into this collection of exquisite, classic horror stories—just make sure to have the lights on and the doors locked!   First published in 1904, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary contains eight tales of supernatural horror by genre...

Robert Graves's classic retelling of the Greek Myths is definitive, comprehensive and unparalleled - and available now in the Penguin Classics Deluxe series, featuring a new introduction from Rick Riordan (bestselling author of the Percy...

A witty, inspiring reckoning with the ancient Greek and Roman myths and their legacy, from what they can illuminate about #MeToo to the radical imagery of Beyoncé.The picture of classical antiquity most of us learned in school is framed in...

Cheri and The Last Of Cheri involve a tragic/comic love affair. Colette (1873-1954) is the pseudonym for Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. She is best known in English speaking countries for her novel Gigi, which was later the source for the Lerner & Loewe...

Mr Palomar is a delightful eccentric whose chief activity is looking at things. He is seeking knowledge; 'it is only after you have come to know the surface of things that you can venture to seek what is underneath'. Whether contemplating a fine cheese,...

A spine-tinglingly beautiful hardback collection of some of Japan's scariest yet still compelling classic ghost storiesEnter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told and retold across the centuries.From...

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation"In 1845 Henry David Thoreau left his home town of Concord, Massachusetts to begin a new life alone, in a rough hut he built himself a mile and a half away on the north-west shore of Walden Pond. Walden is...

The definitive collection of Tolkien’s classic “fairie” tales, in the vein of The Hobbit, illustrated by Oscar winner Alan Lee.The book is the perfect opportunity for fans of Middle-earth to enjoy some of Tolkien’s often...

In Britain’s land beyond the seasThe wind blows ever through the trees;in Britain’s land beyond the wavesare stony shores and stony caves. So begins The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, an early but seminal work that grew, along with...

“Shows how Finnish mythology and folk tales were instrumental to how Tolkien created his own legendarium.”—Boston Globe Kullervo, son of Kalervo, is perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters...

The second volume, completing the definitive collection of Conan stories, featuring the most distinctive and well-known fantasy hero of all timeConan the Cimmerian: he rose from boy-thief and mercenary to become king of Aquilonia. Neither supernatural...

The definitive collection of Conan stories, featuring the most distinctive and well known fantasy hero of all timeConan the Cimmerian: he rose from boy-thief and mercenary to become king of Aquilonia. Neither supernatural fiends nor demonic sorcery could...