Classics

One of the great comic novels and a beautifully judged satire of post-war Britain, Excellent Women’s elegant prose and deliciously light tone remain as fresh today as they did nearly seventy years ago. A charming comedy of manners, social climbing and a...

'As dazzling as anything brought off by Ellery Queen or Agatha Christie'--  New York Times'Incomparable excitement' -- New York TimesDorothy meets a handsome young man with an eye for her inheritance while she is in her sophomore year. They are to be...

“Comyns’ novel is deranged in ways that shouldn’t be disclosed.” —Ben MarcusThis is the story of the Willoweed family and the English village in which they live. It begins mid-flood, ducks swimming in the drawing-room windows, “quacking their approval”...

"The nicely drawn contrast between what Irma knows and suspects and what the reader understands about her world gives Irma Voth a suspenseful charge from the first pages.” —Jane Smiley, Globe and Mail (Toronto) In a rare coming-of-age novel that blends...

The most popular anthology of Jorge Luis Borges's short stories, Fictions is a wildly original and influential collection of fantastic tales, translated from the Spanish with an afterword by Andrew Hurley in Penguin Modern Classics.Jorge Luis...

Jorge Luis Borges's Labyrinths is a collection of short stories and essays showcasing one of Latin America's most influential and imaginative writers. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is edited by Donald A. Yates and James E. Irby, with an...

'Summer was drawing to a close, and I realized that the book was monstrous.' Fantastical tales of mazes, puzzles, lost labyrinths and bookish mysteries, from the unique imagination of a literary magician. Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the...

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a...

A rich and varied array of stories and vignettes, The Pickwick Papers is based around the investigations of the Corresponding Society of the Pickwick Club, consisting of its founder Mr Samuel Pickwick and Messrs Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass and...

With an Introduction and Notes by David Ellis, University of Kent at Canterbury. With Illustrations by R.Seymour, R.W. Buss and Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). The Pickwick Papers is Dickens' first novel and widely regarded as one of the major classics of comic...

'One of the best books I've ever read' -- Richard Osman'Tender and elegant' -- Guardian'Unlike anything else in modern English literature' -- D.J. Taylor, SpectatorA damaged survivor of the First World War, Tom Birkin finds refuge in the quiet village...

The erotically charged tale of an illicit affair between the wife of a paralysed grandee and his earthy gamekeeper, Lawrence’s notorious and widely lauded novel has much to say about social class, sexual desire and gender politics.   Banned and...

Introduction and Notes by Dr Jeff Wallace, University of Glamorgan. Lawrence's finest, most mature novel initially met with disgust and incomprehension. In the love affairs of two sisters, Ursula with Rupert, and Gudrun with Gerald, critics could only...

From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG!Now a musical on Broadway and streaming on Netflix!Matilda is a sweet, exceptional young girl, but her parents think she's just a nuisance. She expects school to be different...

THE SILVER SWORD by Ian Serraillier is an unforgettable World War II survival story.Although the silver sword was only a paper knife, it became the symbol of hope and courage which kept the Balicki children and their orphan friend Jan alive through the...

(Available after 3-20 days) 'It was a puzzle with no solution. But he did not lose heart.' In a rocky cove in the bay of Hakata, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Stood in the coast's wind and cold, the police see nothing to...

“A novel that portrays with devastating immensity how those on the dark fringes of society can be consumed by the darkness of their own hearts.”—Yoko Ogawa, author of The Memory PoliceThis second half of Lady Joker, by Kaoru Takamura, the Grand Dame of...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSBORO BOOKS GLASS BELL AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION DEBUT CROWN   ‘A gothic gem of intrigue and atmosphere’ -- HWA Debut Crown Judges England, 1917 Reeling from the death of her fiancé, Stella Marcham...

(Available after 3-20 days)This colourful, perceptive portrayal of English country life reverberates with the voices of the village inhabitants, from the reminiscences of survivors of the Great War evoking days gone by, to the concerns of a younger...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE TED HUGHES PRIZE 2015Tabard Inn to Canterb'ry Cathedral,Poet pilgrims competing for free picks,Chaucer Tales, track by track, it's the remixFrom below-the-belt base to the topnotch;I won't stop all the clocks with a stopwatchwhen the...