Essays, Anthologies, Letters & Prose

The essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it...

A collection that includes three of Camus's most personal and lyrical books- The Right Side and the Wrong Side, Nuptials and Summer This volume contains some of Camus' most intimate...

A new translation of Calvino's influential last work Italo Calvino was due to deliver the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard in 1985-86, but they were left unfinished at his...

Intriguing and uplifting stories of the world's oldest plants, from the revered botanist and indigenous teacher Robin Wall Kimmerer Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a...

The critically acclaimed exploration of mounting racial aggressions in 21st century daily life and in the media In this moving, critical and fiercely intelligent collection of prose poems, Claudia Rankine...

One of the strongest and earliest arguments for the importance of female equality Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had brought revolution to America...

An extraordinary collection of Nabokov's little-known published material from across his life - from student essays to his last interviews The last major collection of Nabokov's published material, Think, Write,...

A collection of controversial and galvanizing essays on literature, culture and politics from Matthew Arnold, one of the greatest Victorian thinkers 'One has often wondered whether upon the whole earth...

Calvino's fascinating and cerebral collection of essays celebrating all aspects of the visual, translated for the first time and new to Penguin Modern Classics Italo Calvino claimed that 'the brain...

New to Penguin Classics, these two Japanese texts are timeless reflections on Buddhism, nature and the value of being idle These two works on life's fleeting pleasures are by Buddhist...

A landmark collection of Orwell's writings, with a new Introduction by Jeremy Paxman 'Shooting an Elephant' is Orwell's searing and painfully honest account of his experience as a police officer...

A searing account of George Orwell's observations of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1930s, The Road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant...

In 1926 de Saint-Exupery began flying for the pioneering airline Lateco re - later known as Aeropostale - opening up the first mail routes across the Sahara and the Andes....

New translation of One of Plato's major dialogues, popular because of its subject-matter- love Phaedrus is widely recognized as one of Plato's most profound and beautiful works. It takes the...

First complete translation into English of 'Maximem und Reflexionen' Throughout his long, hectic and astonishingly varied life, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) would jot down his passing thoughts on theatre...

New translation of a compelling work which stands alongside The Cloud of Unknowing and Langland's Piers Plowman as a classic from this golden age of literature. Coming from a society...

Tolstoy's controversial treatise on the purpose of Art During his decades of world fame as a novelist, Tolstoy also wrote prolifically in a series of essays and polemics on issues...

Penguin Classics relaunch A penetrating account of Greek tragedy, it demonstrates how the elements of plot, character and spectacle combine to produce 'pity and fear' - and why we derive...

A selection of Montaigne's highly original essays on a variety of subjects - from coaches to cannibals To overcome a crisis of melancholy after the death of his father, Montaigne...

Xenophon's fascinating defence of Socratic thought After the execution of Socrates in 399 BC, a number of his followers wrote dialogues featuring him as the protagonist and, in so doing,...

The searingly honest, spiritual autobiography of Rossia's greatest novelist, written during a period of emotional crisis Describing Tolstoy's crisis of depression and estrangement from the world, A Confession (1879) is...

Penguin Classics relaunch Between 58 and 50BC Caesar conquered most of the area now covered by France, Belgium and Switzerland, and twice invaded Britain. This is the record of his...

A fascinating account of the time of the Vikings and the feuds of the Orkney Isles Written around AD 1200 by an unnamed Icelandic author, the Orkneyinga Saga is an...

An intriguing document giving insight into the founders of the Roman republic These nine biographies illuminate the careers, personalities and military campaigns of some of Rome's greatest statesmen, whose lives...

Penguin Classics relaunch Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary and subversive thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra remains his most famous and influential work. It describes how...

A selection of Cicero's speeches and letters, which have had a profound effect on the Western liberal tradition of political thought Lawyer, philosopher, statesman and defender of Rome's Republic, Cicero...

Rousseau's autobiography, giving a unique insight into the mind and life of one of the greatest thinkers of the Enlightenment Widely regarded as the first modern autobiography, The Confessions is...

A new selection of the powerful and moving letters and poems Wilde wrote in prison, edited with an introduction by Colm T ibin At the start of 1895, Oscar Wilde...

A new selection of Swift's witty, acerbic and polemical prose The political dilemma of Ireland; the state of faith in England; the charms of the Beggar's Opera; the importance of...

Spinoza's greatest philosophical work. Published shortly after his death, the Ethics is undoubtedly Spinoza's greatest work - an elegant, fully cohesive philosophical system that strives to provide a coherent picture...

Burke's seminal work on the French Revolution, and a fine example of conservative political thought Burke's seminal work was written during the early months of the French Revolution, and it...

In his introduction Richard Mabey discusses the popularity of The Natural History of Selborne and Gilbert White's life and writing More than any other writer Gilbert White (1720-93) has shaped...

A richly enthralling and evocative account of King Arthur Volume two of Le Morte D'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory's powerful and elegaic version of the Arthurian legend, recounts the adventures of...

A richly enthralling and evocative account of King Arthur Le Morte D'Arthur is Sir Thomas Malory's richly evocative and enthralling version of the Arthurian legend. Recounting Arthur's birth, his ascendancy...

Reflections by the creator of the essay form display the humane, skeptical, humorous, and honest views of Montaigne, revealing his thoughts on sexuality, religion, cannibals, intellectuals, and other unexpected themes....

From the bestselling author of H is for Hawk comes a transcendent collection of essays about the natural world **THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** 'Thrilling dispatches from a vanishing world' Observer...

Hemingway's journal of a month on safari in East Africa. This is Hemingway's East African safari journal. 'All I wanted to do was get back to Africa' Green Hills of...

How do we take in the beauty of our planet while processing the losses? What trees can survive in the city? Which animals can survive in the wild? How do...

'One swallow does not make a summer; neither does one day. Similarly neither can one day, or a brief space of time, make a man blessed and happy' How can...

When the last fire goes out, time too will be finished Taken from his Collection of Sand, these marvelous essays are not great ideas in themselves but commentaries on great...

'Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life' The Decay of Lying includes two of Wilde's most comprehensive - and witty - explorations of his aesthetic philosphy- 'The Decay...

Basho's beautifully-written and closely observed descriptions of his travels in Japan In his perfectly crafted haiku poems, Basho described the natural world with great simplicity and delicacy of feeling. When...

A powerful meditation on ageing and familial love, I Remain in Darkness recounts Annie Ernaux's attempts to help her mother recover from Alzheimer's disease, and then, when that proves futile,...

The Use of Photographyrecounts a passionate love affair between Annie Ernaux and the journalist and author Marc Marie, after the two met in January 2003. Ernaux had been receiving intensive...

Sheila Heti kept a record of her thoughts over a ten-year period, then arranged the sentences from A to Z. In the vein of Joe Brainard's I Remember and Edouard...

A Very Easy Death has long been considered one of Simone de Beauvoir's masterpieces. The profoundly moving, day-by-day recounting of her mother's death 'shows the power of compassion when it...

Searingly political, extravagantly stylish dispatches from the margins by a queer Latin American icon, in English for the first time'When everyone who has treated him like dirt is lost in...

In his timely new book, Mikhail Shishkin, argues that Russia is not a 'riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma': we just don't know enough about it. So what...