Penguin Modern Classics

A classic novel exploring loneliness and the nature of connection, from the bestselling author of Bad Behaviour Dorothy Never - fat - lives alone in New York, spending her days...

The much-loved masterpiece from one of the key figures of twentieth-century Italian literature In the sweltering summer of 1938, with Lisbon in the grip of Portugal's dictatorship of Ant nio...

Maigret has a visitor who admits his intentions to commit murder but when he goes missing Maigret worries that he himself has become the victim Inspector Maigret is followed home...

The acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, reissued with a new PMC jacket Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer- this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets as a child,...

A Kafaesque marvel and a biting satire of bureaucracy, medicine and modern life In Tokyo, in the middle of the night, an uncalled-for ambulance arrives to spirit away a man's...

The third volume of Foucault's pioneering analysis of sexuality and power relations, now reissued in Penguin Modern Classics In the third volume of his acclaimed examination of sexuality in modern...

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...

Maigret gets tangled up with some notorious American Gangsters in this new translation Maigret was less angry in fact than he seemed. Pozzo was a tough customer, but he didn't...

'It is the American dream turning into the American nightmare ... By juxtaposing and dovetailing the lives and values of the Clutters and those of the killers, Capote produces a...

A witty, incisive classic of road-trip literature, from one of the great champions and critics of the American identity 'Delightful. This is a book to be read slowly for its...

A classic work of social science from 'the twentieth century's most prophetic critic of capitalism' Prospect 'One of the most powerful books in social sciences ever written. ... A must-read'...

An introduction to the work of Michel Foucault, including detailed excerpts from all of his major works The Foucault Reader is the ideal introduction to one the most stimulating and...

Witty and nihilistic essays from one of Central Europe's most remarkable philosophers A Short History of Decay (1949) is E. M. Cioran's nihilistic and witty collection of aphoristic essays concerning...

'The latest Penguin Proust is a triumph, and will bring this inexhaustible artwork to new audiences throughout the English-speaking world.' Sunday Telegraph Since the original, prewar translation there has been...

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...

Arendt's influential essay examining the relationship between violence, power, war and politics now in Penguin Modern Classics for the first time Written in 1970, with the Holocaust and Hiroshima still...

Foucault's seminal work on torture, punishment, discipline and the prison system, now reissued in Penguin Modern Classics for the first time In the Middle Ages there were gaols and dungeons,...

Originally published at the zenith of Nazi Germany's power, Steinbeck's fable THE MOON IS DOWN explores the effects of invasion on both the conquered and the conquerors. Occupied by enemy...

Selby Jr's controversial cult classic, new to Penguin Modern Classics Few novels have caused as much controversy as Hubert Selby Jr.'s notorious masterpiece. Described by various reviewers as hellish and...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, the seminal work of gay literature that sparked a notorious legal trial The Well of Loneliness tells the story of tomboyish Stephen, who hunts, wears...

The book that shocked a generation and introduced Kathy Acker as the enfant terrible of the 1980s literary underground This is a book about feminism, capitalism, sex, punk, youth, the...

One of the first bestsellers in Germany after the Second World War, Berlin Finale is a breathtaking novel of the most dramatic period of upheaval in modern history April 1945,...

New to Modern Classics, published alongside The Ballad of Peckham Rye Lise has been driven to distraction by working in the same accountants' office for sixteen years. So she leaves...

A remarkable retelling of Hindu mythology, from one of Europe's greatest literary figures In Ka, Roberto Calasso delves into the corpus of classical Sanskrit literature recreating and re-imagining the enchanting...

Sylvia Townsend Warner's tale of a Victorian woman's love for her husband's mistress is an extraordinary re-imagining of historical fiction The story of a young English aristocrat, who - cut...

Major new collection of Clarice Lispector's short stories for the first time in English The publication of Clarice Lispector's Complete Stories, eighty-five in all, is a major literary event. Now,...

Baldwin's fourth novel recounts a lifetime of grappling with love, loss and identity 'Everyone wishes to be loved, but in the event, nearly no one can bear it' At the...

A heartbreaking nonfiction classic from a renowed child psychologist In 1964, renowned psychotherapist Virginia M. Axline visited a New York school. There she encountered a little boy apart from teachers...

A stunning new series look for one of the greatest writers of the 20th century in Penguin Modern Classics In the din and stink that is Cannery Row a colourful...

Published in 1962, this is an emotionally intense novel of love, hatred, race and liberal America in the 1960s. Set in Greenwhich Village, Harlem and France, ANOTHER COUNTRY tells the...

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...

Maigret investigates the circumstances surrounding the attempted suicide of a countess and the death of a multi millionaire, both seemingly strangers but staying in the same hotel. When multi-millionaire David...

New to Penguin Classics, the international bestseller by one of Europe's pre-eminent literary figures The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony is a masterful retelling of the ancient myths and fables...

'A stunningly inventive fantasy about cosmic travel' - The New York Times 'There were two kinds of landscape characteristic of the inner planets of the Sun- the purposeful and the...

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...

'I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked' Beat movement icon and visionary poet, Allen Ginsberg broke boundaries with his fearless, pyrotechnic verse. This...

Inspector Maigret investigates an attack on a Parisian tramp When a tramp is recovered from the Seine, after being badly beaten, Maigret must delve into the man's personal circumstances to...

Maigret grapples with the American justice system on a trip to Arizona The FBI man was convinced, in short, that Maigret was a big shot in his own country but...

A new translation in the Penguin Maigret series- Madame Maigret takes the lead in this disturbing investigation. When he got to his door, he was surprised not to hear any...

Maigret struggles to accept an old case whose conclusion still haunts him At a dinner party, Maigret recounts an old case in which Adrien Josset is found guilty and executed...

From the author of Cider With Rosie, this is a moving, lyrical portrait of the landscape of Laurie Lee's world 'Living in our valley was like broad beans in a...

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...

Javier Marias's darkly humorous Oxford novel, new to Penguin Modern Classics The pretty young tutor Clare Bayes attracts many eyes at an Oxford college dinner, not least those of a...

A brilliant, yet brutal, portrait of a woman struggling to retrieve both life and love For six months, Julia has lived alone in a drab Parisian hotel on an allowance...

Brilliant reception for the hardcover edition Since the original, prewar translation there has been no completely new rendering of the French original into English. This translation brings to the fore...

In Monterey, on the California Coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that's just naturally bad. Returning to the...

The long-awaited Autobiography arrives. Steven Patrick Morrissey was born in Manchester on May 22nd 1959. Singer-songwriter and co-founder of the Smiths (1982-1987), Morrissey has been a solo artist for twenty-six...

A homeless loner haunted by his past is found murdered in this murky tale When a socially isolated vagrant is found dead in the condemned building where he had been...