Essays, Anthologies, Letters & Prose

It's time to diversify your reading list. This richly illustrated and vastly inclusive collection uplifts the works of authors who are often underrepresented in the literary world. Using their keen...

A witty introduction to the mind of Goethe, a classic in a new translation for the first time in 150 years Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was the world's most celebrated...

A brilliantly wide-ranging essay collection from the author of My Struggle, spanning literature, philosophy, art and how our daily and creative lives intertwine. A brilliantly wide-ranging essay collection from the...

Since the 1980s Judith Brett has been helping to shape Australians' conversations about politics, bringing a historian's eye to contemporary issues and probing the psychology of our prime ministers. Her...

Maggie Nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in America today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation - Olivia Laing A Guardian Book...

Packed with wit, wisdom and comfort, this is a whopping celebration of the late, great Nora Ephron, the iconic writer whose work continues to entertain and inspire millions. A revised...

A bold and expansive history that traces the changing and contested project of Australia's national story. You will think about this country differently after reading this book. 'Clark brings a...

Thoughts and advice on the creative writing process from an international master of literature. Words have power. Yet that power must be rooted in truth and justice. Words must never...

Describing the surreal hallucinations, insomnia and nightmarish visions he experienced while consuming daily large amounts of laudanum, Thomas De Quincey's legendary account of the pleasures and pains of opium forged...

One of the masterpieces of classical literature, the Histories describes how a small and quarrelsome band of Greek city states united to repel the might of the Persian empire. But...

A revised edition of a classic translation, with completely new editorial material Taking the form of a dialogue between Socrates, Gorgias, Polus and Callicles, GORGIAS debates perennial questions about the...

A completely revised edition of a respected & much-loved translation by Betty Radice The story of Abelard and Heloise remains one of the world's most celebrated and tragic love affairs....

New edition of one of the most powerful of the Icelandic prose sagas Written in the thirteenth century, Njal's Saga is a story that explores perennial human problems-from failed marriages...

Unique to this edition is a translation of Tocqueville's other American writings-Two Weeks in the Wilderness and The Excursion to Lake Oneida. In 1831 Tocqueville set out from post-revolutionary France...

Cicero's reflections upon the way to a live a good life For the great Roman orator and statesman Cicero, 'the good life' was at once a life of contentment and...

Stories, essays and speeches from one of Australia's foremost writers and thinkers David Marr is the rarest of breeds- one of Australia's most unflinching, forensic reporters of political controversy, and...

Drawn from more than two decades of pathbreaking writing, the iconic and bestselling David Graeber's most important essays and interviews. \"The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it...

Though best known in the English speaking world for his short fictions and poems, Borges is revered in Latin America equally as an immensely prolific and beguiling writer of non-fiction...

One of the most inspiring thinkers of our age transforms the way we think about the world with his reflections on science, history and humanity One of our most beloved...

In these groundbreaking studies, Sontag strips away the myths that surround the two most stigmatized diseases of our time Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor in 1978, while suffering from breast...

A curated collection of essays that shaped Australia's culture and society Since the 1940s, Meanjin essays have set the national cultural agenda. Arthur Phillips' idea of 'cultural cringe' has become...

Susan Sontag's second collection of groundbreaking essays, new to Penguin Modern Classics This collection of essays contains some of the most important pieces of criticism of the twentieth century, including...

Truman Capote began writing when he was eight and became one of America's most versatile and gifted authors.A Capote Readercontains much of his published work- his dazzling fiction, includingBreakfast at...

These essays, reviews and articles illuminate the life and work of one of the most individual writers of this century - a man who created a unique literary manner from...

One of the greatest theological works, and is one of the most influential Christian documents. St Augustine, bishop of Hippo, was one of the central figures in the history of...

Still used as a guide to classical Greece even today this remains one of the most influential travel books ever written. Written in the second century AD by a Greek...

Reissue First and foremost an outcry against injustice and inhumanity, Unto this Last is also a closely argued assault on the science of political economy, which dominated the Victorian period....

A collection of the finest essays by the 'Best of the Booker' winner, following on from his much-acclaimed STEP ACROSS THIS LINE From 'Best of the Booker' winner Salman Rushdie,...

New to Penguin Modern Classics for Sontag's exploration of the most important artists of our time Susan Sontag's third essay collection brings together her most important critical writing from 1972...

An insight into the splendour, squalor and energy of everday Roman life Perhaps more than any other writer, Juvenal (c. AD 55-138) captures the splendour, the squalor and the sheer...

A fascinating view of how the world was perceived in the first century Pliny's Natural History is an astonishingly ambitious work that ranges from astronomy to art and from geography...

Goethe's famous account of his time and travels in Italy In 1786, when he was already the acknowledged leader of the Sturm und Drang literary movement, Goethe set out on...

The dazzling essays of the beloved, subversive Chinese writer Wang Xiaobo, a continual bestseller in China, now in English for the first time Wang Xiaobo made his name as a...

A series of provocative discussions on everything from individual authors to contemporary religious thinking Against Interpretation was Susan Sontag's first collection of essays and is a modern classic. Originally published...

Dorothy Parker, more than any of her contemporaries, captured the spirit of her age in her writing. The decadent 1920S and 1930s in New York were a time of great...

The great German poem on the completion of the story of the Holy Grail Composed in the early thirteenth century, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival is the re-creation and completion of...

The fourth volume of Livy's history of the Roman Empire In The War with Hannibal, Livy (59 BC-AD 17) chronicles the events of the Second Punic War between Rome and...

A thrilling travelogue of the year Dickens spent in Italy in the mid 1840s, published at a time when interest in his more marginal work is constantly increasing. In 1844,...

An intimate conversation about music and creativity, between the internationally bestselling writer Haruki Murakami and world-class conductor, Seiji Ozawa. An intimate conversation about music and creativity, between the internationally bestselling...

Dazzling collection of personal essays from internationally acclaimed First Nations Canadian writer Billy-Ray Belcourt, who mines his own personal history to reconcile the world he was born into with the...

Dazzling, essential, unlike anything else published today - a memoir on modern womanhood, smashing through social expectations and making the case for thrilling, transformative freedom What does it mean to...

A collection of Orwell's major essays, in a stunning new cover look for his great works These essays, reviews and articles illuminate the life and work of one of the...

The Sunday Times bestselling tour-de-force from the author of The Lost Words and The Old Ways - an unmissable journey into the hidden worlds beneath our feet 'Into the underland...

Stendhal's intensely personal and yet universal work on Love In 1818, when he was in his mid-thirties, Stendhal met and fell passionately in love with the beautiful Mathilde Dembowski. She,...

A collection of political speeches from the greatest orator of Rome Amid the corruption and power struggles of the collapse of the Roman Republic, Cicero (106-43BC) produced some of the...

Caesar's own account of his struggle with Pompey over leadership of Republican Rome A military leader of legendary genius, Caesar was also a great writer, recording the events of his...

A fascinating historical account of Greece at a point of crisis Xenophon's History recounts nearly fifty turbulent years of warfare in Greece between 411 and 362 BC. Continuing the story...

New selection with introduction, suggestions for further reading, and full explanatory notes Selection includes The Portrait of Mr W.H., Wilde's defence of Dorian Gray, reviews, and the writings from 'Intentions'...