Beginning with a dilemma about whether he spends more money on reading or smoking, George Orwell’s entertaining and uncompromising essays go on to explore everything from the perils of second-hand boo
The Sun is about to go Nova. Earth and Moon have ceased their axial rotation and present one face continuously to the sun. The bright side of Earth is covered with carnivorous forest. This is the Age
Thomas Hardy is one of the sacred figures in English writing, a novelist with a world reputation, but above all a great poet. This work is a selection of Hardy's love poems.
Described as 'a metaphysical shocker' at the time of its release, Muriel Sparks' The Driver's Seat is a taut psychological thriller, published with an introduction by John Lanchester in Penguin Modern
The novel tells the story of Lyman Ward, a retired professor of history and author of books about the Western frontier, who returns to his ancestral home in the Sierra Nevada. Wheelchair-bound with a
Here are the essential ideas of psychoanalytic theory, including Freud's explanations of such concepts as the Id, Ego and Super-Ego, the Death Instinct and Pleasure Principle, along with classic case
Inspired by the trial of a bureaucrat who helped cause the Holocaust, this radical work on the banality of evil stunned the world with its exploration of a regime's moral blindness and one man's insis
When the recently widowed Mrs. Emmeline Lucas (Lucia to her friends) desires a change of scene she determines on the picturesque seaside town of Tilling for an extended break. There, with her ever-fai
The thirteenth-century Persian philosopher, mystic, scholar and founder of the order of the Whirling Dervishes, Rumi was also a poet of transcendental power. His verse speaks with the universal voice
George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four is perhaps the most pervasively influential book of the twentieth century, published with an introduction by Ben Pimlott in Penguin Modern C
In this second part of John Galworthy's trilogy of love, power, money and family feuding, a new generation has arrived to divide the Forsyte clan with society scandals and conflicting passions
With his distinctive dark wit, Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall is a masterful social satire sending up the social mores of 1920s England, edited with an introduction by David Bradshaw in Penguin Moder
Fictionalising his experience of service during the Second World War, Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour is the complete one-volume edition of his masterful trilogy, edited with an introduction by Angus C
The first volume in his Roads to Freedom trilogy, Jean-Paul Sartre's The Age of Reason is a philosophical novel exploring existentialist notions of freedom, translated by Eric Sutton with an introduct
Framed as a letter from the Roman Emperor Hadrian to his successor, Marcus Aurelius, Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian is translated from the French by Grace Frick with an introduction by Paul
Brought to life with startling autobiographical detail, Jean Rhys's Good Morning Midnight is a poignant portrait of a woman fighting to retain her integrity after being set adrift in a foreign country
Her grand attempt to tell what she felt was the story of Jane Eyre's 'madwoman in the attic', Bertha Rochester, Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea is edited with an introduction and notes by Angela Smith i
A formally innovative work of modernist fiction, Virginia Woolf's The Waves is edited with an introduction by Kate Flint in Penguin Modern Classics. More than any of Virginia Woolf's other novels, The
The core of Nadja is Breton's complex relationship with an unpredictable and unconventional young woman, 'the extreme limit of the Surrealist aspiration'. Combining autobiographical fact with memory a
Channelling a razor-sharp satire through the everyday mishaps of the immortal comic character Mr Pooter, George and Weedon Grossmith's The Diary of a Nobody is edited with an introduction and notes by
Isak Dinesen takes up the absorbing story of her life in Kenya begun in the unforgettable Out of Africa, which she published under the name of Karen Blixen. With warmth and humanity these four stories
Presents the diary of a teenage girl, who along with her family in Amsterdam, in the summer of 1942 was forced into hiding by Nazis. This title presents an intimate record of tension and struggle, ado
This now-classic work challenges what Ryle calls philosophy's "official theory," the Cartesian "myth" of the separation of mind and matter. With plain language and his essentially simple purpose placi
Cal has very few choices in life. He can continue working at the abattoir that sickens him, or join the ranks of the unemployed. He can brood on his past or try to plan a future with Marcella. Cal is
Nikolai Gogol was one of the great geniuses of nineteenth century Russian literature, with a command of the irrational unmatched by any writer before or since. His strange tales, though often read as
From one of the most daring mountaineers of modern times, Walter Bonatti's The Mountains of My Life is an account of years spent conquering the most intimidating peaks on Earth, translated and with a
Written during Chekhov's late twenties and early thirties, these stories are the work of a young writer in dialogue with his masters: Tolstoy, Gogol, and Furgenes. The stories-"The Steppe," "Panpipes,
Travelling on horseback through southern England in the early 19th century, William Cobbett provides evocative and accurate descriptions of the countryside, colourful accounts of his encounters with l
Winston Churchill's superlative account of the prelude to and events of the First World War is a defining work of twentieth-century history. With personal insights, this book serves as a testament to
'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate . . .' Shakespeare's 154 sonnets contain some of the most exquisite and haunting poetry ever written, dealing with eter
Includes essays that consider how flying has altered not only how we move about the earth, but also how we view our world and our place in it. With descriptions of excitement of flight, this title dis
Explores how the physical sensations we experience can be as strong as feelings of love or hate, with their power to bring chaos to our lives. This title features tales such as "The Day that Beaumont
Lev Ganin is a young officer sharing a boarding house in Berlin with a host of Russian emigres. Alone in his room, he dreams of his first love, Mary. Awash with memories of youth and idyllic scenes of
The delightful, gossipy diaries of James Lees-Milne describe his encounters with the owners of country houses - from eccentric lords and oil millionaires to raffish socialists - as he travelled over E
Includes three plays - "Sweet Bird of Youth", "Period of Adjustment", and "Period of Adjustment". In "Sweet Bird of Youth", Chance Wayne returns to his home town with an ageing movie actress in search
Abandoned by her husband, Amanda Wingfield comforts herself with recollections of her earlier, life in Blue Mountain when she was pursued by 'gentleman callers'. Her son Tom, a poet with a job in a wa
Quentin is a successful lawyer in New York, but inside his head he is struggling with his own sense of guilt and the shadows of his past relationships. One of these an ill-fated marriage to the charmi
A reticent personnel manager living with his mother, Mr Newman shares the prejudices of his times and of his neighbours - and neither a Hispanic woman abused outside his window nor the persecution of
