Must Read Classics

The most ambitious narrative of nineteenth-century realism, Middlemarch tells the story of an entire town in the years leading up to the Reform Bill of 1832, a time when modern methods were starting to challenge old orthodoxies. Eliot's sophisticated and...

'It was as if the sea, breaking down the wall protecting all the homes of the town, had sent a wave over her head'One of Conrad's most powerful, gripping storiesIntroducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black...

'It would be a dull world if we all thought alike.'After seven years of marriage, the beautiful Lady Brenda Last is bored with life at Hetton Abbey, the Gothic mansion that is the pride and joy of her husband, Tony. She drifts into an affair with the...

An impoverished member of the privileged high society of old New York, Lily Bart is beautiful and socially agreeable, but she is almost thirty and still unmarried. Now she is keen to secure a wealthy husband to confirm her status, but the debts she...

Toole’s posthumous cult classic has developed a formidable – and thoroughly well-deserved - reputation for picaresque wit and lively character portraits. The rambling, hilarious saga of Ignatius J. Reilly and his battle against modernity and...

Immerse yourself in Middle-earth with Tolkien's classic masterpiece, telling the complete story of Bilbo Baggins and the Hobbits' epic encounters with Gandalf, Gollum, dragons and monsters, in the quest to destroy the One Ring. When they were first...

An autobiographical work that describes firsthand the great tectonic shifts in English society following the First World War, Robert Graves's Goodbye to All That is a matchless evocation of the Great War's haunting legacy, published in Penguin...

The perfect companion to The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch , both published in Alma Classics' Evergreens series, Silas Marner portrays a changing society with realism.Having been accused of theft and hounded out of a religious community many years...

Jude Fawley, an intelligent and sensitive young Wessex schoolboy, dreams of studying at the famous university in Christminster, Hardy's fictional representation of Oxford. He embarks on years of private study, but his plans are thrown into disarray when...

Bathsheba Everdene is a headstrong young woman who attracts the attentions of a succession of ill-matched suitors: a quiet sheep farmer, a handsome soldier and an older, wealthy landowner. As the men vie for her affections, she struggles to retain her...

Set in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev during the chaotic winter of 1918-19, The White Guard, Bulgakov's first full-length novel, tells the story of a Russian-speaking family trapped in circumstances that threaten to destroy them. As in Tolstoy's War and...

A splendid new translation of an extraordinary work of modern literature—featuring facing-page commentary by Kafka’s acclaimed biographerIn 1917 and 1918, Franz Kafka wrote a set of more than 100 aphorisms, known as the Zürau aphorisms,...

Thomas Hardy's last novel, Jude the Obscure is a fearless exploration of the hypocrisy of Victorian society, edited with an introduction by Dennis Taylor in Penguin Classics.Jude Fawley's hopes of an education at Christminster university are...

Steinbeck's first major critical and commercial success, TORTILLA FLAT is also his funniest novel. Danny is a paisano, descended from the original Spanish settlers who arrived in Monterey, California, centuries before. He values friendship above money...

Sun Tzu was one of the greatest army generals who ever lived. He wrote The Art of War in the fifth century BC and yet his words are still resoundingly relevant to our modern lives.His writings on aspects of warfare from the laying of plans to the tactics...

Roald Dahl fans will rejoice at the opportunity to bring their favorite books and characters to life. Five of Dahl’s hugely popular, beloved books have been adapted into winning plays for children. With useful tips on staging, props, and costumes,...

The revolutionary literary vision that sowed the seeds of Objectivism, Ayn Rand's groundbreaking philosophy, and brought her immediate worldwide acclaim.This modern classic is the story of intransigent young architect Howard Roark, whose integrity...

The perfect edition for any Orwell enthusiasts' collection, discover Orwell's personal account of life on the streets beautifully reimagined by renowned street artist Shepard FaireyTo be poor and destitute in 1920s Paris and London was to experience life...

'Orwell was the great moral force of his age' SpectatorYou can live on a shilling a day in Paris if you know how. But it is a complicated business.When he was a struggling writer in his twenties, George Orwell lived as a down-and-out among the poorest...

Elizabeth Gaskell's chilling Gothic tales blend the real and the supernatural to eerie, compelling effect. 'Disappearances', inspired by local legends of mysterious vanishings, mixes gossip and fact; 'Lois the Witch', a novella based on an account of the...