Best Sellers - Individual titles

'Like Gandhi and Nehru, Tagore devised a toolkit with which to fashion the modern Indian self' Sunil Khilnani, Independent Poet, novelist, painter and musician, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is the grand...

Penguin Classics relaunch Written by Europe's first professional woman writer, The Treasure of the City of Ladies offers advice and guidance to women of all ages and from all levels...

A revised edition of Dante's early poems, inspired by his love for Beatrice A unique treatise by a poet, written for poets, on the art of poetry, LA VITA NUOVA...

The paperback publication of the third volume of our new, substantially complete translation of one of the best-known and most influential classics of world literature Every night for three years...

First time in Penguin Classics for one of the most popular of the Icelandic sagas- an epic story of heroism and hubris. Composed at the end of the fourteenth century...

First edition in Penguin Classics for two powerful prose sagas, and part of a new series of eight Icelandic Sagas These sagas recount fierce feuds in which honour is fought...

A new edition of one of the most popular Icelandic sagas and a masterpiece of Scandinavian literature: a powerful tale of love, hatred and the bonds of friendship. Egil's Saga...

Melmoth the Wanderer is an archetypal Gothic romance Created by an Irish clergyman, Melmoth is one of the most fiendish characters in literature. In a satanic bargain, Melmoth exchanges his...

A collection of writings on the early history of the Christian Church This selection of writings from the sixth and seventh century AD provides a powerful insight into the early...

Before publishing the sensuous and scandalous poems of Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire (1821-67) had already earned respect as a forthright and witty critic of art and literature. This...

This abridged edition, translated by Alastair Hannay, clearly reveals the compelling development of Kierkegaard's thought, while detailed notes and individual introductions to each section provide a detailed consideration of his...

The first modern novel of France, and a tale of unrequited love Set towards the end of the reign of Henry II of France, The Princesse de Cl ves (1678)...

Alphonse, a young Walloon officer, is travelling to join his regiment in Madrid in 1739. But he soon finds himself mysteriously detained at a highway inn in the strange and...

Written in AD 731, Bede's work opens with a background sketch of Roman Britain's geography and history. It goes on to tell of the kings and bishops, monks and nuns...

A fierce and moving account of the genocide practised by the Spanish colonialists Bartolome de Las Casas was the first and fiercest critic of Spanish colonialism in the New World....

A masterly new translation of Rabelais' great scatological comedy - a fantasy set in a land of giants The dazzling and exuberant moral stories of Rabelais (c. 1471-1553) expose human...

In his introduction, Stephen Matterson discusses Melville's literary career, the role of the trickster in American literature, and themes of satire and religious allegory in this unusual novel Onboard the...

Penguin Classics relaunch On 15 August 778, Charlemagne's army was returning from a successful expedition against Saracen Spain when its rearguard was ambushed in a remote Pyrenean pass. Out of...

This one-volume edition of the two most influential pre-Shakespearean tragedies in English. "Gorboduc" (1561) has claims to be the earliest English tragedy and was written jointly by Thomas Norton and...

A collection of Thomas Paine's outstanding works on political revolution This major collection demonstrates the extent to which Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was an inspiration to the Americans in their struggle...

Penguin Classics relaunch Written at a time when furious arguments were raging about the best way to govern America, The Federalist Papers had the immediate pratical aim of persuading New...

A life of one of the most known and engaging Saints Founding father of the famous monastery on the island of Iona, a site of pilgrimage ever since his death...

Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome (27 BC-AD 14), brought peace and prosperity to his city after decades of savage civil war. This selection from Cassius Dio's Roman History...

A beautiful, intimate memoir from the time of the Ch'ing Dynasty in China Six Records of a Floating Life (1809) is an extraordinary blend of autobiography, love story and social...

Gerald of Wales was among the most dynamic and fascinating churchmen of the twelfth century. A member of one of the leading Norman families involved in the invasion of Ireland,...

A collection of Hoffmann's tales, which are at the forefront of surrealism and horror writing This selection of Hoffmann's finest short stories vividly demonstrates his intense imagination and preoccupation with...

Anatole France's tale of the French Revolution is strangely prophetic of twentieth century terror It is April 1793 and the final power struggle of the French Revolution is taking hold:...

A fascinating insight into medieval Welsh life Scholar, churchman, diplomat and theologian, Gerald of Wales was one of the most fascinating figures of the Middle Ages and The Journey Through...

As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams is a unique autobiography in which the anonymous writer known as Lady Sarashina intersperses personal reflections, anecdotes and lyrical poems with accounts of...

Arthur Cooper's translations are accompanied by an introduction in which he discusses the lives and times of Li Po and Tu Fu, and the spiritual, social and aesthetic background to...

This compelling Icelandic history describes the life of King Harald Hardradi, from his battles across Europe and Russia to his final assault on England in 1066, less than three weeks...

Arthur Waley's humorous and energetic translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing the story's background in history and legend, its elements of anti-bureaucratic satire and the allegorical nature of its...

One of the great romance stories from the Middle Ages: a tale of love and deceit One of the great romances of the Middle Ages, Tristan, written in the early...

One of the earliest and finest of Balzac's works, exploring the tragedy that comes with obsession. In a gloomy house in provincial Saumur lives the miser Grandet with his wife...

Penguin Classics relaunch. One of Bernard Shaw's most glittering comedies, Arms and the Man is a burlesque of Victorian attitudes to heroism, war and empire. In the contrast between Bluntschli,...

With new introduction by Margery Morgan Andrew Undershaft, a millionaire armaments manufacturer, loves money and despises poverty. His estranged daughter Barbara, on the other hand, shows her love for the...

An edition of Sterne's gloriously warm-hearted pastiche of travel-writing When Yorick, the roving narrator of Sterne's innovative final novel, sets off for France on a whim, he produces no ordinary...

The first life of a black woman to be published in Britain The History of Mary Prince (1831) was the first narrative of a black woman to be published in...

Scott's bestselling first novel: a tale of the wild Scottish highlands and loyalty to Bonnie Prince Charley The first romantic historical novel and international bestseller, Waverley (1814) tells the story...

Part of the series of Waverley Novels published by Penguin based on the acclaimed scholarship of the Edinburgh Editions. In the court of Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester,...

Returning home to tend her widowed father Dr Marjoribanks, Lucilla soon launches herself into Carlingford society, aiming to raise the tone with her select Thursday evening parties. Optimistic, resourceful and...

This volume contains a generous selection from the essays Johnson published twice weekly as 'The Rambler' in the early 1750s. It was here that he first created the literary character...

A powerful human drama complete with many exciting events and stirring battle scenes, THE SAGA OF KING HROLF KRAKI ranks among the masterworks of the Middle Ages. Composed in medieval...

Deeply influential since the dawn of Romanticism, New Science is a monument to an isolated but true genius. Barely acknowledged in his lifetime, the New Science of Giambattista Vico (1668-1744)...

Hardy's tale of love and the slow disappearance of rural life The arrival of two newcomers in the quiet village of Mellstock arouses a bitter feud and leaves a convoluted...

In this compelling tale of love and deceit, in which Hardy drew upon his own experiences When Elfrise Swanston meets Stephen Smith she is attracted to his handsome face, gentle...

One of the key works in the nineteenth-century battle between science and Scripture, Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology (1830-33) sought to explain the geological state of the modern Earth by...

Mr Peacocke, a Classical scholar, has come to Broughtonshire with his beautiful American wife to live as a schoolmaster. But when the blackmailing brother of her first husband - a...