Penguin Modern Classics

A breakthrough work of social and cultural criticism from one of the foremost intellectuals of his era Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his...

Maigret investigates the murder of a criminal he had known for twenty years Maigret finds himself back on the Rue des Acacias just ten days after cracking another case there....

An old acquaintance of Maigret's reappears on the streets of Paris and the inspector finds himself caught up in her fate once more Maigret's attitude came as a surprise to...

Maigret investigates the murder of an esteemed official Maigret is called to the home of Armand de Saint-Hilaire, a highly respected official who has been found shot dead in his...

When a man is found dead at home Maigret must look past the seemingly good intentions of the victim's family to figure out just who the culprit is A retired...

It is the Day of the Dead. The fiesta in full swing. In the shadow of Popocatepeti ragged children beg coins to buy skulls made of chocolate...and the ugly pariah...

The revolutionary account of working-class culture and ideals, reissued as a Penguin Modern Classic to mark the 50th anniversary of its publication This brilliant account of working-class society in its...

Virginia Woolf's playful mock 'biography' of a chameleonic historical figure, written for her intimate friend Vita Sackville-West Orlando has always been an outsider... His longing for passion, adventure and fulfilment...

For the first time, the phenomenal bestselling literary memoir will be published in Penguin Modern Classics Every Thursday morning in a living room in Iran, over tea and pastries, eight...

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...

The autobiography of one of the world's most talented and intriguing writers, reissuing in Penguin Modern Classics 'Speak, memory', said Vladimir Nabokov. And immediately there came flooding back to him...

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...

New to Penguin Modern Classics- a captivating exploration of the work of one of Italy's most influential - and least understood - painters Throughout his masterpiece, In Search of Lost...

'A Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age' The New York Times 'On one side of the ducats was stamped the radiant profile of Archithorius, on the other - an...

The last novel in Simenon's celebrated series When an elegant but nervous woman appears in Inspector Maigret's office and reports her rich and successful husband missing, Maigret and Lapointe find...

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...

A new translation of this novel set in a tranquil town on the dutch coast, part of the Maigret series 'Just take a look,' Duclos said in an undertone, pointing...

Author: Italo Calvino Format: Paperback Number of Pages: 96 First time in Penguin Modern Classics A couple on an epicurean journey across Mexico are excited by the idea of a...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, a timeless tale of divided generations and enduring friendship Following a baseball game that nearly became a religious war, two Jewish boys become friends. Danny...

The most glamorous, witty and revealing writings charting the last eleven years of Warhol's life. Andy Warhol kept these diaries faithfully from November 1976 right up to his final week,...

New to Penguin Classics, this is the funny and deeply moving story of the apocalypse - as seen from one small village in England Self-important and more or less friendless,...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, Calvino's first novel Pin is a bawdy, adolescent cobbler's assistant, both arrogant and insecure who - while the Second World War rages - sings songs...

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...

The great novel of 1920s Berlin life, in a superb translation by Michael Hofmann The subject of this book is the life of the former cement-worker and haulier Franz Biberkopf...

An extraordinary collection of essays arguing for literature's complicity with evil, new to Penguin Modern Classics 'Literature is not innocent,' stated Georges Bataille in this extraordinary 1957 collection of essays,...

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 new anthology of 100 years of artists', film makers' and architects' manifestos In this remarkable collection of 100 manifestos from the last 100 years, Alex Danchev presents the cacophony...

Nabokov's 'other' great love story, following an extraordinary relationship across decades and continents Written in mischievous and magically flowing prose, Ada or Ardor is a romance that follows Ada from...

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...

First paperback publication of Italo Calvino's phenomenally funny account of the universe as a cosmic joke Enchanting stories about the evolution of the universe, with characters that are fashioned from...

Iris Origo's most famous book, her classic study of the life and times of a medieval Italian merchant In 1870 an astonishing cache, containing some 150,000 letters and great numbers...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Mesmerizing, haunting stories from the Soviet-Afghan War collected by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature From 1979 to 1989 Soviet troops engaged in a devastating war in Afghanistan...

A gem of a book about the aggravations and great joys of cats from a literary master In the autumn of 1965, flush with the unexpected success of his first...

A riveting history of the Nazi conquest of Western Europe This is the story of the Nazi conquest of western Europe, from Hitler's rise to power and 'lightning-fast war', to...

Sagan's stylish, shimmering and amoral tale of adolescence and betrayal on the French Riviera Published when she was only eighteen, Fran oise Sagan's astonishing first novel Bonjour Tristesse became an...

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...

Thirteen strangely wrought stories make up Nabokov's baker's dozen. In some of these stories shadowy people pass through, cooped up by life, mangled by it, with nowhere to escape to....

An impromptu visit to an old school friend in the Vendee draws Maigret into a disturbing local investigation The mood of the town was still jittery. It was all very...

A collection that includes three of Camus's most personal and lyrical books- The Right Side and the Wrong Side, Nuptials and Summer This volume contains some of Camus' most intimate...

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...

When a colleague is injured in an undercover operation Maigret takes over and becomes embroiled in the dark underbelly of the Parisian art scene During an undercover case Inspector Lognon...

A gripping, vivid novel which brings to life Europe in the Middle Ages, in all its beauty and horror One of Hermann Hesse's greatest novels, Narcissus and Goldmund is an...

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...