Best Sellers - Individual titles

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...

Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire compresses thirteen turbulent centuries into an epic narrative shot through with insight, irony and incisive character analysis. Sceptical about Christianity, sympathetic...

First time in Penguin Classics for this engaging and anecdotal self-portrait by one of the most influential figures in the history of science The Autobiographies of Charles Darwin (1809-82) provide...

Penguin Classics relaunch SHAMELA is a brilliant parody of Samuel Richardson's PAMELA, in which a virtuous servant girl long resists her master's advances and is eventually 'rewarded' with marriage. Fielding's...

Newman's theological autobiography, explaining his reasons and thoughts on his conversion from Protestantism to Catholicism John Henry Newman, one of the towering figures of the early Victorian Church of England,...

In her introduction, Kate Lilley places these writings in the context of Margaret Cavendish's extraordinary life and discusses the roles of women in these texts Flamboyant, theatrical and ambitious, Margaret...

The culmination of a life, this collection of poetry is an examination of the self, and the growth of a man First published in July 1850, shortly after Wordsworth's death,...

A novel of social, sexual and domestic politics, The Prime Minister questions whether a moral man can cope in government Plantaganet Palliser, Prime Minister of England - a man of...

Although best remembered today for his novels, Thomas Hardy thought of himself as a poet forced by circumstance to write fiction for a living. This generous selection of nearly two...

The revolutionary treatise for the history of art, exploring the use of perspective in painting Artist, architect, poet and philosopher, Leon Battista Alberti revolutionized the history of art with his...

Fascinating and influential, these works formed the foundation of the empirical movement that led directly to the thought of John Stuart Mill, and the later Linguistic Phenomenalism of A. J....

In these two closely linked works - a travel book and a biography of its author - we witness a moving encounter between two of the most daring and original...

In his introduction, Derek Brewer discusses the novel's themes of wealth and poverty, delicacy and vulgarity, beauty and horror, its similarities to works by Turgenev and Dickens, and James's depiction...

A fully updated edition of Barry Windeatt's landmark translation of the remarkable life of Margery Kempe The story of the eventful and controversial life of Margery Kempe - wife, mother,...

A unique combination of sensuality and erotica Forced by the death of her parents to seek her fortune in London, Fanny Hill is duped into prostitution by an old procuress....

Book by Samuel Johnson, published in 1775. The Journey was the result of a three-month trip to Scotland that Johnson took with James Boswell in 1773. It contains Johnson's descriptions...

Part of the Barsetshire series, this is one of Trollope's most vivid and comic novels After the death of old Dr Grantly, a bitter struggle begins over who will succeed...

Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82) was a writer of breathtaking range and learning, whose works demonstrate a warm and humorous view of human nature. Religio Medici is a fascinating, witty and...

In his introduction, J. B. Steane explores the relationship between Nashe and other writers of his age and considers his dedication to the power of language. Written in the late...

Britain in the early eighteenth century: an introduction that is both informative and imaginative, reliable and entertaining. To the tradition of travel writing Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime's experience as...

Twain's later work, exploring race and identity in the Deep South Determined that her baby son Tom shall not share her fate and remain in slavery, Roxy secretly exchanges him...

After the restoration of King Charles II to the British throne in 1660, dramatists experienced new freedom in an age that broke from the strict morality of puritan rule and...

New to Black Classics from 20th C. (0141181001) 'Poetry, always foremost of the arts in traditional Africa, has continued to compete for primacy against the newer forms of prose fiction...

First time in Black Classics for this celebrated and critically-acclaimed anthology This ambitious and revelatory collection turns the traditional chronology of anthologies on its head, listing poems according to their...

This edition contains the original poems in French, with elegant prose translations by William Rees This collection illuminates the uniquely fascinating era between 1820 and 1950 in French poetry -...

A unique collection of the finest poems and songs from the Scottish Bard This selection gives equal weight to the two aspects of Robert Burns's reputation, as a lyricist and...

A comprehensive new selection of the great satirist's prose and poetic works, edited by Leo Damrosch Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was the greatest English poet of his age, whose acerbic insights...