Must Read Classics

Discover our collectable Puffin Clothbound Classic edition of David Copperfield. Puffin Clothbound Classics are stunning collectable gift editions of some of the best-loved classics in the world - including this irresistible 175th anniversary edition of...

Considered by many to be Dickens' finest novel, Great Expectations traces the growth of the book's narrator, Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character. From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish...

Kafka's gripping work of psychological horror.A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K, an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once...

The novel that put the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments on the literary map. The Booker Prize winner's first novel is both a scathingly funny satire of consumerism and a heady exploration of emotional cannibalism...

The ancient Chinese military classic that is widely admired today by both military and business strategists—in a new translation, with new notes and commentary.For more than two thousand years, The Art of War has provided leaders with essential...

A Contemporary Classics hardcover edition of Virginia Woolf's fantastical novel about an Elizabethan nobleman who lives for three centuries and transitions into a woman. With a new introduction by Jeanette Winterson.Woolf’s most lighthearted novel...

Into the 'autobiography' of Clau-Clau-Claudius, the pitiful stammerer who was destined to become Emperor in spite of himself, Graves packs the everlasting intrigues, the depravity, the bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the reigns of Augustus and...

Brideshead Revisited is Evelyn Waugh's stunning novel of duty and desire set amongst the decadent, faded glory of the English aristocracy in the run-up to the Second World War. The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead...

Introduction and Notes by John S. Whitley, University of Sussex. Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father.After Mr Earnshaw's...

The magical Peter Pan comes to the night nursery of the Darling children, Wendy, John and Michael. He teaches them to fly, then takes them through the sky to Never-Never Land, where they find Red Indians, Wolves, Mermaids and... Pirates.The leader of the...

The return of the beautiful Countess Olenska into the rigidly conventional society of New York sends reverberations throughout the upper reaches of society. Newland Archer, an eligible young man of the establishment is about to announce his engagement to...

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...

One of the best-loved of Nabokov’s novels, Pnin features his funniest and most heart-rending character.  Serialized in The New Yorker and published in book form in 1957, Pnin brought Nabokov both his first...

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...

With an Introduction by Dr Pamela Knights, Department of English Studies, Durham University. With this intensely moving short novel, Edith Wharton set out 'to draw life as it really was' in the lonely villages and desolate farms of the harsh New England...

In 1943, there was an urgent need for Animal Farm. The Soviet Union had become Britain's ally in the war against Nazi Germany, and criticism of Stalin's brutal regime was either censored or discouraged. In any case, many intellectuals on the left still...

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turnsdriven time and again off course, once he had plunderedthe hallowed heights of Troy.So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey.If the Iliad is the world's...

Dating from around the 8th century BC, The Iliad is a prime example of an epic narrative poem and is one of Western literature's oldest works. It tells the story of the weeks during the Trojan war when King Agamemnon and the hero warrior Achilles were at...

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...

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...