Fiction

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...

The little book with a very big idea that has everyone talking Quiet, the Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller by Susan Cain, will permanently change how we see...

The juicy, funny story of the three dysfunctional rulers of Germany, Russia and Great Britain at the turn of the last century, combined with a study of the larger forces...

Selected for the BBC FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction longlist Getting a grip on the creation and ultimate fate of the universe is one of the great scientific stories...

One of a handful of great film books. Born into a theatrical family, Chaplin's father died of drink while his mother, unable to bear the poverty, suffered from bouts of...

New translation of Dante's masterpiece by acclaimed Robin Kirkpatrick In Purgatorio Dante, having described his journey into Hell, narrates his ascent of Mount Purgatory with Virgil, as he encounters penitents...

Penguin Classics relaunch A new selection of Vincent Van Gough's letters, based on an entirely new translation, revealing his religious struggles, his fascination with the French Revolution, his search for...

Tomcat Murr is a loveable, self-taught animal who has written his own autobiography. But a printer's error causes his story to be accidentally mixed and spliced with a book about...

A selection of Baudelaire's explicit and unsettling poems The poems of Charles Baudelaire are filled with explicit and unsettling imagery, depicting with intensity every day subjects ignored by French literary...

Eusebius is regarded as *the* historian of Christian antiquity Eusebius's account is the only surviving historical record of the Church during its crucial first 300 years. Bishop Eusebius, a learned...

John Carter's modern translation conveys the compelling style of the original. His extensive introduction provides an in-depth assessment of Appian as historian and places the work in context Taken from...

Lives of the Artists made Vasari one of the most influential art historians of all time, fusing literary and artistic ability In his Lives of the Artists of the Italian...

The historical account of the end of the Roman Empire Ammianus Marcellinus was the last great Roman historian, and his writings rank alongside those of Livy and Tacitus. The Later...

Ovid's poems on the experience of sexual desire This collection of Ovid's poems deals with the whole spectrum of sexual desire, ranging from deeply emotional declarations of eternal devotion to...

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...

Written four hundred years before the birth of Christ, this detailed contemporary account of the long life-and-death struggle between Athens and Sparta stands an excellent chance of fulfilling its author's...

Elizabeth Gaskell's chilling tales of the supernatural Elizabeth Gaskell's chilling Gothic tales blend the real and the supernatural to eerie, compelling effect. 'Disappearances', inspired by local legends of mysterious vanishings,...

Burke's hugely influential work - particularly in art - on the sublime and the beautiful Edmund Burke was one of the foremost philosophers of the eighteenth century and wrote widely...

Desperate Remedies was Hardy's first published work, and combines murder mystery with a powerful love story. Hardy described Desperate Remedies as a tale of 'mystery, entanglement, surprise and moral obliquity'....

The first full-length biography of a woman novelist by a woman novelist, which was almost single-handedly responsible for creating the Bronte myth Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of her close friend Charlotte...

Set at the time of the Jacobite uprising, The Master of Ballantrae tells of a family divided. James Durie, Master of Ballantrae, abandons his ancestral home to support the Scottish...

When the young nobleman Harold Transome returns to England from the colonies with a self-made fortune, he scandalizes the town of Treby Magna with his decision to stand for Parliament...

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'...

A passionately argued work on the philosophy of aesthetics No philosopher has held a higher opinion of art than Hegel, yet nor was any so profoundly pessimistic about its prospects...

A collection of Bacon's vibrant, intelligent essays covering subjects ranging from ambition to the vicissitude of things One of the major political figures of his time, Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)...

First Penguin volume Of best Japanese haiku Vivid translations Now a global poetry, the haiku was originally a Japanese verse form that flourished from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Although...

A new edition of Christina Rossetti's poetry This new selection of Rossetti's poems brings together works by one of the most significant nineteenth-century English poets. It includes an illuminating introduction,...

"I have come to have a feeling, almost a superstition, that it is a kind of obligation laid upon me to testify for Rudyard Kipling whenever the opportunity presents itself",...

Poems organised according to genre, to demonstrate the progress and variety Coleridge achieved Living in a revolutionary age, Coleridge's poetry was written in a spirit of moral and emotional inquiry...

The complete collection of Donne's poems, including his famous Holy Sonnets, 'The Flea' and 'The Sun Rising' No poet has been more wilfully contradictory than John Donne, whose works forge...

Following the hugely successful hardback, this extraordinary tale of the father of modern geology looks set to be the non fiction paperback for 2002. Hidden behind velvet curtains above a...

Scission, Tim Winton's first collection of short fiction, contains spare, jagged stories in which people struggle with change and disintegration. Scission, Tim Winton's first collection of short fiction, contains spare,...

Winner of the Miles Franklin Award and recognised as one of the greatest works of Australian literature, Cloudstreet is Tim Winton's sprawling, comic epic about luck and love, fortitude and...

One of the most popular and controversial historians of the twentieth century, who made his subject accessible to millions, A.J.P. Taylor caused a storm of outrage with this scandalous bestseller....

A murder mystery and a serious exploration of racism in the American South An elderly, proud black farmer, Lucas Beauchamp, is wrongfully arrested for the murder of a white man....

Reveals that all of us can excel at our chosen activities and offers a guide to unlocking our potential 'Anyone who wants to get better at anything should read Peak.'...

A key work of proto-feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft's readable and impassioned argument is as relevant today as it was 200 years ago. A key work of proto-feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft's readable and...

An extraordinary investigation into human nature, by one of the most eminent international human rights lawyers The inspiration behind the hit podcast THE 100 TYPES OF HUMAN with DEXTER DIAS...

The long-awaited second volume of Volker Ullrich's acclaimed biography of the F hrer, taking us through the war years - from the early triumphs of the Blitzkrieg to Hitler's suicide...

The Gene is the story of one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in our history. ** NEW YORK TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER ** The Gene is the story...

Edith Hall unpacks the mysterious and successful ancient Greek people through ten uniquely ancient Greek personality traits. They gave us democracy, philosophy, poetry, rational science, the joke. They built the...

Rosemary Sutcliff's famous and captivating novels based on the legends of King Arthur, brought together in one spellbinding trilogy. 'Traitor! Now is your death-time upon you!' You may think you...

'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is a book to be settled into fully, tomorrow be damned. Funny, heart-hammering, wise.' The New York Times WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR...

A groundbreaking synthesis of the entire science of human behaviour by 'one of the best scientist-writers of our time' (Oliver Sacks) Why do human beings behave as they do? 'Awe-inspiring......

The riveting and definitive biography of the Islamic world's most famous military hero 'Superbly researched and enormously entertaining... One of the outstanding books of the year' The Times An epic...