Fiction

'Envy remained hidden in her heart, like a plague germ which may come to life and devastate a city' Poor, plain spinster Bette is compelled to survive on the condescending...

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...

Penguin Classics relaunch The son of a pagan father and a Christian mother, Saint Augustine spent his early years torn between conflicting faiths and world views. His Confessions, written when...

Penguin Classics relaunch Aeschylus (525-456 BC) brought a new grandeur and epic sweep to the drama of classical Athens, raising it to the status of high art. In Prometheus Bound...

'The most moving lines literature has achieved' Jorge Luis Borges In Paradise, having plunged to the uttermost depths of Hell and climbed the Mount of Purgatory, Dante ascends to Heaven,...

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...

Tacitus' Annals of Imperial Rome recount the major historical events from the years shortly before the death of Augustus up to the death of Nero in AD 68. With clarity...

'The most moving lines literature has achieved' Jorge Luis Borges Beginning with Dante's liberation from Hell, Purgatory relates his ascent, accompanied by Virgil, of the Mount of Purgatory - a...

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...

Dante's descent into the Underworld to find his lost love. Guided by the poet Virgil, Dante plunges to the very depths of Hell and embarks on his arduous journey towards...

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...

Charles Dickens's final, unfinished novel, and one that has puzzled readers and inspired writers since its publication, The Mystery of Edwin Drood is edited with an introduction by David Paroissien...

The story in which Watson meets Holmes, and the famous partnership is formed Convalescing in London after a disastrous experience of war in Afghanistan, Dr John Watson finds himself sharing...

With new introduction by Cynthia Wall, chronology further reading, glossary, and explanatory notes. In 1665 the plague swept through London, claiming over 97,000 lives. Daniel Defoe was just five at...

Completes the set of six 'Palliser' novels available in Penguin Classics. In the fourth of the 'Palliser' stories, Trollope follows Phineas Finn's return to the dangerous world of Westminster politics....

First time in Penguin Classics This was the most popular novel of Radcliffe's time and Radcliffe's portrayal of her heroine's inner life raised the Gothic romance to a new level....

A new edition of the last volume in Trollope's most popular series of novels When Reverend Josiah Crawley, the impoverished curate of Hogglestock, is accused of theft it causes a...

This edition is based on the first one-volume publication of Barnaby Rudge, reproducing all the original illustrations. Appendices include a map of London at the time of the Gordon Riots...

A selection of Browning's finest works, including the chilling 'My Last Duchess' and the popular 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' Robert Browning was one of the greatest of English poets,...

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...

A new edition of Henry Fielding's exuberant satire, chronicling the life, loves and fortunes of Tom Jones. A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr Allworthy on his country...

A tale of inheritance and destiny, this is the story Dickens considered his best The greed of his family has led wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit to become suspicious and misanthropic,...

The Comic masterpiece that catapulted the 24 year old Dickens to fame THE PICKWICK PAPERS began as a literary spoof centred around sketches of stock sporting fops by caricaturist Robert...

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...

Scott's invigorating tale of Rob Roy and the battle between the English and the Scotts When young Francis Osbaldistone discovers that his vicious and scheming cousin Rashleigh has designs both...

Penguin Classics relaunch When country-girl Grace Melbury returns home from her middle-class school she feels she has risen above her suitor, the simple woodsman Giles Winterborne. Though marriage had been...

Returns to the text of the first volume edition of 1848. Dombey and Son is both a firm and a family and the ambiguous connection between public and private life...

Penguin Classics relaunch. THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE was written towards the beginning of Hardy's career as a novelist and can be considered one of his most representative works. In...

Dickens' last completed novel portraying a dark, macabre London Our Mutual Friend centres on an inheritance - Old Harmon's profitable dust heaps - and its legatees, young John Harmon, presumed...

George Eliot's last novel is a richly textured portrait of British society and the Jewish experience within it As Daniel Deronda opens, Gwendolen Harleth is poised at the roulette-table, prepared...

A gripping melodrama from Wilkie Collins When the elderly Allan Armadale makes a terrible confession on his death-bed, he has little idea of the repercussions to come, for the secret...

A radical exploration of the dangers associated with speculative capitalism, this is a fascinating satire about a society on the verge of moral bankruptcy. Augustus Melmotte is a fraudulent foreign...

Influential writings on the possibility of synthesising Greek thought and Christian faith Composed during a critical time in the evolution of European intellectual life, the works of Meister Eckhart (c....

A compelling argument for the necessity of art in life. A compelling argument for the necessity for art in life, Nietzsche's first book is fuelled by his enthusiasms for Greek...

This is the fifth volume of Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire Engaged to the ambitious and self-serving Adolphus Crosbie, Lily Dale is devastated when he jilts her for the aristocratic Lady...

Penguin Classics relaunch The hero of Charlotte Bronte's first novel escapes a dreary clerkship in industrial Yorkshire by taking a job as a teacher in Belgium. There, however, his entanglement...

A collection of three of the sharpest Restoration comedies The three plays collected in this volume demonstrate Sheridan's unerring ability to create unrivalled comedy out of ingenious plots, witty repartee,...

Trollope's story of political advancement, debt, and family pride Mark Robarts is a clergyman with ambitions beyond his small country parish of Framley. In a naive attempt to mix in...

Anne Bronte's first novel, offering a compelling insight into the world of the Victorian governess When her family becomes impoverished after a disastrous financial speculation, Agnes Grey determines to find...

Introduction by Gertrude Himmelfarb 'Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.' To this 'one very simple principle' the whole of Mill's essay On Liberty is...

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...

Samuel Richardson's Pamela is a captivating story of one young woman's rebellion against the social order, edited by Peter Sabor with an introduction by Margaret A. Doody in Penguin Classics....

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...

Dickens' experimental and thrilling short stories This witty and amusing collection of short pieces shows Dickens liberated from the more formal and sustained demands of the novel and experimenting with...

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...

A wonderful collection of Housman's much-loved poetry, new to Penguin Classics A. E. Housman was one of the best-loved poets of his day, whose poems conjure up a potent and...