Classics of Literature

A delicate boy growing up in Paris, Jerome Palissier spends many summers at his uncle's house in the Normandy countryside, where the whole world seems 'steeped in azure'. There he...

A mysterious woman stands and smiles at Monroe Stahr, the last of the great Hollywood princes. Enchanted by one another, they begin a passionate but hopeless love affair.

While fulfilling his dead father's dream of creating a prosperous farm in California, Joseph Wayne comes to believe that a magnificent tree on the farm embodies his father's spirit. His...

Probably the greatest twentieth-century writer never to win the Nobel prize for literature. The art of writing is mysterious; the opinions we hold are ephemeral. In these eleven short stories...

A portrait of New York City, drawn by describing the interconnected lives of dozens of people - bankers, chefs, bums, cabdrivers and others. Written in an impressionistic style, with vivid...

'A masterpiece . . . as mature and finished as Henry James's The Turn of the Screw' Time Set on a Southern army base in the 1930s, Reflections in a...

The more startling for the economy of its prose and plot, this novel's story, set among the manicured lawns and euphemisms of Whispering Glades Memorial Park in Hollywood, satirizes the...

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, an intrepid and eccentric adventurer, transferred his passion for flying to the written word by writing several classics of aviation literature, including Southern Mail and Night Flight....

The spectacular debut novel by one of the century's great cult novelists, and author of the best-selling ON THE ROAD. 'It is the sum of myself, as far as the...

With a new introduction by Richard Mabey Flora Thompson's immortal trilogy, containing LARK RISE, OVER TO CANDLEFORD and CANDLEFORD GREEN, is a heartwarming portrayal of country life at the close...

The epic battle between man and monster reaches its greatest pitch in the famous story of "Frankenstein". In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond...

Born and abandoned in Newgate Prison, Moll Flanders is forced to make her own way in life. She duly embarks on a career that includes husband-hunting, incest, bigamy, prostitution and...

Goncharov's powerful - and frequently very funny - novelistic denunciation of Russian serfdom. Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is a member of Russia's dying aristocracy - a man so lazy that he...

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...

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)...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

new to Modern Classics A party of English people are aboard the Euphrosyne, bound for South America. Among them is Rachel Vinrace, a young girl, innocent and wholly ignorant of...

'Impeccable ... The most impressive of her novels' Atlantic Monthly In this thoughtful and moving novel, four men find themselves inextricably bound together by their past histories. The aged Judge...

Under the feckless husbandry of Mr Jones, the Manor Farm has fallen into disrepair. Pushed into hardship, the animals decide to stage a revolt, and, led by two young pigs,...

Ravaged by years of war and civil conflict, Britain has changed its name to Airstrip One and become part of Oceania - one of the three totalitarian blocks dominating the...

Through a series of connected monologues, The Waves tells the story of six very different friends - Bernard, Louis, Neville, Jinny, Susan and Rhoda - as they progress from childhood...

While holidaying at a villa on the French Riviera, Dick and Nicole Diver, a wealthy American couple, meet the young film star Rosemary Hoyt. Her arrival causes a stir in...

Only edition in print Found in the Codex Atlanticus of Leonardo da Vinci's writings and drawings, 'The Prophecies' are a collection of enigmatic divinatory pronouncements, some punning and playful, others...

James Joyce's first published book, which he wrote when he was still in his twenties, Dubliners is far removed from the bold experimentalism of his later work, but is essential...

Against the backdrop of growing discontent in Paris, Doctor Manette is released from the Bastille after eighteen years of unjust imprisonment and begins a new life in England with his...

Unique collection of short stories A murderer is forced to reveal his crime by the sound of a beating heart, a mysterious figure wreaks havoc among a party of noblemen...