Classics

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet is the literary debut of the world's most famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, introduced by Iain Sinclair with notes by Ed Glinert in Penguin Classics.Convalescing in London after a disastrous...

Charles Dickens's powerful black comedy of of hypocrisy and greed The greed of his family has led wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit to become suspicious and misanthropic, leaving his grandson and namesake to make his own way in the world. And so young Martin...

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...

'His rise testifies to the decline of a whole society.' Jean-Paul Sartre Maupassant's second novel, Bel-Ami (1885) is the story of a ruthlessly ambitious young man (Georges Duroy, christened 'Bel-Ami' by his female admirers) making it to the top in...

Edited and with an Introduction and Notes by Dr Keith Carabine. University of Kent at Canterbury. Uncle Tom's Cabin is the most popular, influential and controversial book written by an American. Stowe's rich, panoramic novel passionately dramatises why...

(Available after 3-20 days)The novel that changed the course of American historyPublished in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel was a powerful indictment of slavery in America. Describing the many trials and eventual escape to freedom of the...

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his "charming" friend...

'Still remarkably vivid. It is easier to read this for pure pleasure than just about any other ancient text' -- Nicholas Lezard, GuardianOvid's sensuous and witty poem begins with the creation of the world and brings together a dazzling array of...

(Available after 3-20 days)The groundbreaking Harlem Renaissance novel about prejudice within the black communityEmma Lou Morgan's skin is black - 'too black', as the narrator writes at the beginning of The Blacker the Berry. Tired of the scorn and...

In the summer of 1348, as the Black Death ravages their city, ten young Florentines take refuge in the countryside...Taken from the Greek, meaning 'ten-day event', Boccaccio's Decameron sees his characters amuse themselves by each telling a story a day,...

When Hidden Tragedies Surface On Their Own... Ethan Frome is set in the fictional New England town of Starkfield, where a visiting engineer tells the story of his encounter with Ethan Frome, a man with a history of thwarted dreams and desires. The...

With an Introduction and Notes by Peter Preston, University of Nottingham. Illustrations by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) and George Cruickshank. The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41), with its combination of the sentimental, the grotesque and the socially...

'Dickens's finest work in the genre of the detective story was his last' -- The TimesEdwin Drood is contracted to marry orphan Rosa when he comes of age, but when they find that duty has gradually replaced affection, they agree to break off the...

(Available after 3-20 days)THE THREE MUSKETEERS has proved enduringly popular for more than a century and a half. Inspiration for many a movie and TV adaptation, this swashbuckling epic of chivalry, honour and derring-do, set in France during the 1620s,...

Leif Enger’s debut novel, Peace Like A River, was launched to critical acclaim in 2001 and went on to sell over one million copies. Now a perennial, best-selling American classic, it is at once a heroic quest, a tragedy, and a love story, in which “there...

Part of the Penguin Orange Collection, a limited-run series of twelve influential and beloved American classics in a bold series design offering a modern take on the iconic Penguin paperbackWinner of the 2016 AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books 50 Covers...

Endpaper art: The garden of the magician Klingsor, from the Parzival cycle, Great Music Room (mural) by Christian Jank; Schloss Neuschwanstein, Bavaria, Germany/De Agostini Picture Library/A. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman ImagesThe Merry Adventures of Robin...

(Available after 3-20 days)Tales of Greek mythology have entertained countless generations of young readers with their accounts of brave heroes and heroines and the marvels and monsters that they encounter. This edition of Greek Myths: A Wonder Book for...

Camelot awaits! From the sword in the stone and the founding of Camelot to the famed Knights of the Round Table and the Lake of Enchantment, the legend of King Arthur endures. All the classic stories—including King Arthur’s marriage to Guinevere and...

A Treasury of Irish Fairy and Folk Tales collect more than 200 stories from the rich folk legacy of the Emerald Isle. Its pages are animated with colorful tales of the fairy folk in all their many guises: the changeling, the banshee, the headless...