Penguin Modern Classics

Potent and vividly emotional, Simone de Beauvoir's captivating novel questions freedom and individual responsibility in the face of brutality 'These carefree faces, on which we allowed our smiles to spread,...

A singular journey through the visionary world of Kafka and its captivating mysteries, now in Penguin Modern Classics What are Kafka's stories about? Are they dreams? Allegories? Symbols? Things that...

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...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, the very first selection of stories featuring the irrepressible Rumpole Horace Rumpole, the old boy committed to defending the apparently indefensible, trusting of a jury,...

A complex, psychological novel about familial loyalty, new to Penguin Modern Classics A corporate lawyer from the House of Single & Single is shot dead in cold blood on a...

Considered a masterpiece of the genre, le Carre's preeminent spy novel is new to Penguin Modern Classics Magnus Pym, ranking diplomat, has vanished, believed defected. The chase is on- for...

The latest title from the bestselling author John le Carre to come into Penguin Modern Classics Harry Pendel is the charismatic proprietor of Pendel and Braithwaite Limitada of Panama, through...

Volume one of Javier Marias's acclaimed and evocative 'novel in parts' Recently divorced, Jacques Deza moves from Madrid to London to start anew. At a party held by retired don,...

A new translation of Calvino's influential last work Italo Calvino was due to deliver the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard in 1985-86, but they were left unfinished at his...

An enlightening anthology of George Orwell's journalism and non-fiction writing Famous for his novels and essays, Orwell remains one of our very best journalists and commentators. Confronting social, political and...

One of 'the best artistic jokes of the century', this is both madcap cookbook and Futurist manifesto Part manifesto, part artistic joke, Fillippo Marinetti's Futurist Cookbook is a provocative work...

A drama of decay in Southern America, this depiction of patriarchy, power and repression is one of Williams' landmark works 'Big Daddy' Pollitt, the richest cotton planter in the Mississippi...

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...

In what remains one of his most seminal papers, Freud considers the incompatibility of civilisation and individual happiness, and the tensions between the claims of society and the individual. We...

Maigret's integrity is called into question when a childhood grudge conflicts with a new case Charged with the protection of wealthy butcher, Fumal, Maigret is torn between his sense of...

Maigret is drawn into the sorry tale of a man unable to escape from the dullness of daily life Were these yellow shoes part of the reason Maigret was so...

A new translation of this gripping novel set in an insular fishing community, part of the new Maigret series It was indeed a photo, a picture of a woman. But...

Li ge, the city of Simenon's youth, comes to life in this disturbing Maigret novel A vast emptiness. The room, in the darkness, seemed big as a cathedral. Warm currents...

A charming, mind-bending and anarchic book of imagined civilizations 'Most cosmic civilizations long for things, in the depths of their souls, they would never openly admit to...' Trurl and Klapaucius...

The most beautiful and powerful of Milosz's poems from across his writing life This selection brings together the most beautiful and powerful of Czeslaw Milosz's poems, spanning his writing life....

First time in Modern Classics Claudia Hampton, a beautiful, famous writer, lies dying in hospital. But, as the nurses tend to her with quiet condescension, she is plotting her greatest...

The great writer's brilliant, blistering essay collection, chronicling how America--so great, so accomplished, so magical--began destroying its soul "Sentence by sentence, page by page, Bellow is simply the best writer...

A searing coming-of-age tale by one of the greatest Spanish writers of the 20th century, set on the island of Mallorca during the Spanish Civil War. \"This is an old...

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...

A darkly comic dystopian odyssey, from one of Russia's leading contemporary novelists Garin, a country doctor, is desperately trying to reach the village of Dolgoye, where a mysterious epidemic is...

Henry Miller's landmark travel book, ready to be stuffed into any backpack In 1939 Miller left Paris and headed out with his friend Lawrence Durrell to explore the Grecian countryside,...

A new translation of this novel set in the demi-monde of the sun-soaked Riviera, part of the Maigret series Half an hour later, he was in Cannes ... White everywhere!...

Jean Rhys's unique prequel to Jane Eyre, a masterpiece of twentieth century literature Jean Rhys's late, literary masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea was inspired by Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and is...

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...

A comedy thriller about three New York con artists whose biggest heist goes awry The three confidence tricksters had a style that earned them millions. Silas was the leader, slick...

Townsend Warner's best-loved and most famous novel, telling the story of a middle-aged woman who gloriously becomes a witch Lolly Willowes, always so gentle and accommodating, suddenly announces that she...

A devastating novel set in wartime Italy from the great twentieth-century writer, in a new translation by Tim Parks Shortlisted for The Society of Authors Translation Award 2022 June, 1943....

A stirring novel of idealist loyalty and sibling love, by one of East Germany's most important writers 1960. The border between East and West Germany has closed. For Elisabeth -...

A private meeting, chance encounters and a mysterious tour of Lisbon, in this brilliant homage to Tabucchi's country, culture and people In the city of Lisbon, Requiem's narrator has an...

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...

The novel Mishima considered to be one of his best works- a tale of family, nuclear war, love and UFOs The Osugi family have come to a realization. Each of...

Sontag achieved late bestselling success with this popular novel, new to Penguin Modern Classics A historical romance, Sontag's book is based on the lives of Sir William Hamilton, his wife,...

First ever publication of Capote's complete stories A complete collection of short fiction by one of the masters of twentieth-century American literature.

Borges' stories have a deceptively simple, almost laconic style. In maddeningly ingenious stories that play with the very form of the short story, Borges returns again and again to his...

'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...

'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...

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...

Brilliant reception for the hardcover edition- '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...

Amory Blaine, intent on rebelling against his staid, Midwestern upbringing, longs to acquire the patina of Eastern sophistication. In his quest for sexual and intellectual enlightenment, he progresses through a...

Though best known in the English speaking world for his short fictions and poems, Borges is revered in Latin America equally as an immensely prolific and beguiling writer of non-fiction...

In these groundbreaking studies, Sontag strips away the myths that surround the two most stigmatized diseases of our time Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor in 1978, while suffering from breast...

One of fifteen new translations of Freud's key writings, this project, under the general editorship of celebrated psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, reimagines one the modern era's greatest writers This volume brings...

Three works of erotic prose fusing sex and spirituality, new to Penguin Modern Classics In these three works of erotic prose Georges Bataille fuses sex and spirituality in a highly...