Fiction

Rediscover H.G. Wells - what does he mean to you? Mr Polly is an ordinary middle-aged man who is tired of his wife's nagging and his dreary job as the...

A 75th anniversary edition of Steinbeck's undisputed masterpiece, a panoramic vision of the betrayal of the American dream 'I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags, I...

The extraordinarily powerful story of an Untouchable in India's caste system, with a new introduction by Ramachandra Guha, author of Gandhi Before India Bakha is a proud and attractive young...

An unsettling story of a teenage girl's self-destruction from the author of The Lottery Natalie Waite, daughter of a mediocre writer and a neurotic housewife, is increasingly unsure of her...

Fans of Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House will enjoy this disquieting tale of people awaiting the end of the world in a large, isolated house Mrs Halloran has inherited...

A critically acclaimed tale of abuse and betrayal in America's deep South Carolina in the 1950s, and Bone - christened Ruth Anna Boatwright - lives a happy life, in and...

A breathtaking international bestselling novel about family secrets, and Javier Marias's masterpiece In the middle of a family lunch Teresa, just married, goes to the bathroom, unbuttons her blouse and...

Kerouac's stunningly vivid and gritty second novel, new to Penguin Modern Classics In 1960 Jack Kerouac was near breaking point. Driven mad by constant press attention in the wake of...

Fully restored edition of Anthony Burgess' original text Edited by Andrew Biswell With a Foreword by Martin Amis Fifteen-year-old Alex likes lashings of ultraviolence. He and his gang of friends...

Le Carre shows espionage at its best and worst in this novel, new to Penguin Modern Classics When the Department - faded since the war and busy only with bureaucratic...

Le Carre's ingenious mysery, featuring his most famous recurring character, George Smiley Stella Rode has twice disturbed the ancient cloisters of Carne School- firstly by being the wrong sort, with...

The final novel featuring Smiley, Le Carre's most enduring character, and a gripping feat of narrative brilliance The Cold War is over and Ned has been demoted to the training...

A spy story, a love story, and a fable for our time Barley Blair is not a Service man- he is a small-time publisher, a self-destructive soul whose only loves...

A tale of wasted love, and beauty, by Japan's literary master Shimamura is tired of the bustling city. He takes the train through the snow to the mountains of the...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, as part of our Achebe relaunch Ezeulu, headstrong chief priest of the god Ulu, is worshipped by the six villages of Umuaro. But he is...

G. K. Chesterton's surreal masterpiece, edited and with an introduction by Matthew Beaumont Can you trust yourself when you don't know who you are? In a park in London, secret...

Bawdy and moving, hilarious and reflective - these stories offer the very best of Boccaccio's Decameron in a brilliant, playful new translation This hugely enjoyable volume collects the best stories...

The definitive 25th-anniversary edition of Burroughs's legendary second novel Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, Queer is an enigma - both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a...

At long last William S. Burroughs's cult classic and undoubted masterpiece enters Penguin Modern Classics A cultural landmark and the most shocking novel in the English language, Naked Lunch is...

New to Penguin Modern Classics Florentino Ariza has never forgotten his first love. He has waited nearly a lifetime in silence since his beloved Fermina married another man. No woman...

First time in Penguin Modern Classics In Ponyboy's world there are two types of people. There are the Socs, the rich society kids who get away with anything. Then there...

Ayn Rand's most famous and controversial novel comes to Penguin for the first time Ayn Rand's story of Howard Roark, a brilliant architect who dares to stand alone against the...

First new translation since publication of Albert Camus's story collection The stories of Exile and the Kingdom explore the dilemma of being an outsider - even in one's own country...

'He's a writer who, once you read him, makes you want to read everything he's done' Martin Amis, Sunday Times Prosperous, good-looking and empty inside, 28-year-old advertising executive David Bell...

At long last Ken Kesey's 1962 cult classic novel has entered Modern Classics series. Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the seminal...

Hartley's classic novel of innocence lost, now reissued with a new jacket When one long, hot summer, young Leo is staying with a school friend at Brandham Hall, he begins...

Reissuing in Penguin Modern Classics as part of our Paul Bowles relaunch, with a new introduction by Paul Theroux 'The Sheltering Sky is a book about people on the edge...

Arguably Achebe's most important novel, Things Fall Apart has sold over 10 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than fifty languages Okonkwo is the greatest warrior alive, famous...

Steinbeck's last great novel focuses on the theme of success and what motivates men towards it. Reflecting back on his New England family's past fortune, and his father's loss of...

Nabokov's suspenseful whodunit and one of his most acclaimed works The American poet John Shade is dead; murdered. His last poem, Pale Fire, is put into a book, together with...

'She has examined the heart of man with an understanding ... that no other writer can hope to surpass' Tennessee Williams Carson McCullers' prodigious first novel was published to instant...

A stunning new series look for one of the greatest writers of the 20th century in Penguin Modern Classics Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's...

Famously associated with the term 'magical realism', Marquez is probably South America's most famous literary export An acknowledged masterpiece, this is the story of seven generations of the Buendia family...

With prose that is every bit as raw, intense and bitingly honest as the world it depicts, Barry Hines's A Kestrel for a Knave contains a new afterword by the...

In her magnificent novel, Marguerite Yourcenar recreates the life and death of one of the great rulers of the ancient world. The Emperor Hadrian, aware his demise is imminent, writes...

Another addition to Penguin Modern Classics' key Kerouac holdings. THE DHARMA BUMS appeared just one year after the author's explosive ON THE ROAD had put the Beat Generation on the...

"Bellow is one of the giants of the twentieth-century novel. Read Seize the Day and see why" San Francisco Examiner Fading charmer Tommy Wilhelm has reached his day of reckoning...

Jorge Luis Borges was a literary spellbinder whose tales of magic, mystery and murder are shot through with deep philosophical paradoxes. This collection brings together many of his stories, including...

A superb portrait of a generation of black Americans, this novel established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the twentieth century Ralph Ellison's blistering and impassioned first...

Taking its title from T.S. Eliot's modernist poem The Waste Land, Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust is a chronicle of Britain's decadence and social disintegration between the First and...

The most popular anthology of Jorge Luis Borges's short stories, Fictions is a wildly original and influential collection of fantastic tales, translated from the Spanish with an afterword by Andrew...

Hilarious, intelligent and moving, Pnin is the tale of a generation irrevocably severed from its past Professor Timofey Pnin, previously of Tsarist Russia, is now precariously positioned at the heart...

An extraordinary novel of passion and discovery from Anais Nin, the master of erotic fiction Beautiful, bored and bourgeoise, Sabina leads a double life inspired by her relentless desire for...

'Brilliant ... a panorama of a remarkable talent ... McCullers's finest stories' The New York Times A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers's...

Anais Nin's classic exploration of love and sex in 1930s Paris The brilliant tale of Anais Nin's true love affair with Henry Miller, and her ambiguous, charged relationship with his...

The Bright Young Things of 1920s Mayfair, with their paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercise their inventive minds and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade, whether it...

The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged as well. Ignatius ignores them as he heaves his vast bulk through the city's fleshpots in a noble...

'Rarely has emotional turbulence been so delicately conveyed' The New York Times With delicacy of perception and memory, humour and pathos, Carson McCullers spreads before us the three phases of...