We talk about sex more and more, but are we more liberated?The first part of Michel Foucault's landmark account of our evolving attitudes in the west shows how the nineteenth century, far from suppres
THE INSPIRATION FOR THE NEW NETFLIX SERIES DEBUTING THIS HALLOWE'EN The best-known of Shirley Jackson's novels and a major inspiration for writers like Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, The Haunting of Hi
This box set of the 50 books in the new Penguin Modern series celebrates the pioneering spirit of the Penguin Modern Classics list and its iconic authors. Including avant-garde essays, radical polemic
'As you are well aware, we never loved each other in your lifetime. Both of us pretended.' Simenon explores the complexity of parent child relationships and the bitterness of things left unsaid in thi
Zuleika Dobson, great beauty and second-rate conjurer, leaves a trail of broken hearts behind her wherever she goes. When she arrives at Oxford to stay with her grandfather, the Warden of Judas Colleg
Saved, rescued, fished-up, half-drowned, out of the deep, dark river, dry clothes, hair shampooed and set... Set in a 1930s Paris of shabby hotel rooms, seedy bars and drunken encounters, Jean Rhys's
The Help is the phenomenal international bestseller (that inspired the Oscar nominated film) by Kathryn Stockett, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time Enter a vanished and unjust world:
'The train ran on without a driver, on and on, like some mindless, unseeing beast...' One of Zola's darkest and most violent works - a tense thriller of political corruption and a graphic exploration
'He said that Shamil had ordered Hadji Murat to be taken dead or alive....' In 1851, at the age of twenty-two, Tolstoy joined the Russian army and travelled to the Caucasus as a soldier. The four year
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I h
'She bared her poor curst arm'A jealous lover's curse and an ingenious party trick feature in these two suspenseful stories set in Hardy's imaginary Wessex. One of 46 new books in the bestselling Li
'We are bought and sold like apes or monkeys, to be the sport of women, fools, and cowards, and the support of rogues . . .' Spy, traveller and pioneering female writer Aphra Benn's story of an Africa
'A ghastly groan and a shudder..'From the pioneer of horror fiction, this tale of a clergyman tormented by a demonic creature is one of the greatest Victorian ghost stories. One of 46 new books in t
'Reader, if you're ready, so am I.' These witty vignettes, set in Charlotte Brontë's imaginary world of Angria, feature debauched aristocrats, high-society courtesans and the rakish, brooding hero Zam
'We have nothing left in the world but what we can win with our swords.' The remarkable account of Hannibal crossing the Alps with his elephants and winning the Battle of the Trebbia. One of 46 new bo
A special edition of le Carré's first post-Cold War novel, to tie in with the new major BBC series starring Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston, with a new afterword by the author At the start of it all, J
The Penguin English Library Edition of Bleak House by Charles Dickens 'Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among t
The Penguin English Library Edition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett 'What is the society of London, that I should be tempted, for its sake, to mortify my senses, and compound with such uncleanne
Lady Chatterley's Lover is both one of the most beautiful and notorious love stories in modern fiction. The summation of D.H. Lawrence's artistic achievement, it sharply illustrates his belief that te
The Bhagavad Gita, a scintillating jewel embedded in the great Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, is a dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna set against the background of war. At the beginning of the poem, we l
Crime flourished in eighteenth-century England, thanks to the conspicuous wealth of the upper classes and the lack of any kind of police force. Many people, bound by a life of exhausting poverty, saw
With an Introduction and Notes by Merry M. Pawlowski, Professor and Chair, Department of English, California State University,Bakersfield.Virginia Woolf's singular technique in Mrs Dalloway heralds a
Focuses on the concept of 'precious print', as embodied by Penguin Classics and Fantastic Man. This title explores the myriad advantages of the printed word and image: beautiful typography, high dwell
Pozdnyshev and his wife have a turbulent relationship. When her beauty blossoms after the birth of their children, men begin to flock around her, and he becomes increasingly jealous. Convinced his wif
In the communal world of the compound in which he lives, Omovo has many friends and some enemies, but most important of all there is Ifeyiwa, a beautiful young married woman who he loves with an almos
Part of the Penguin Classics campaign celebrating 100 years of Albert Camus, 'A Sea Close By' reveals the writer as a sensual witness of landscapes, the sea and sailing. It is a light, summery day-dre
The Penguin English Library Edition of Washington Square by James Hardy "Why, you must take me or leave me ... You can't please your father and me both; you must choose between us" When timid and plai
The Penguin English Library Edition of Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding 'Kissing, Joseph, is but a prologue to a Play. Can I believe a young fellow of your Age and Complexion will be content with Kiss
She was waiting, but she didn't know for what. She was aware only of her solitude, and of the penetrating cold, and of a greater weight in the region of her heart. The author's writing confronts the g
A brand new series of five of Woolf's major works, in beautifully designed hardback editions. In this, her most autobiographical novel, Virginia Woolf captures the intensity of childhood longing and d
Featuring a long-form interview with a notable book fanatic, this title explores one classic work of literature from an array of surprising and invigorating angles.
One of India's greatest epics, the Ramayana pervades the country's moral and cultural consciousness. Believed to have been composed by Valmiki sometime between the eighth and sixth centuries BC, the R
The most popular of Virginia Woolf's novels during her lifetime, The Years is a savage indictment of British society at the turn of the century, edited with an introduction and notes by Jeri Johnson i
Lord Copper, newspaper magnate and proprietor of the Daily Beast, has always prided himself on his intuitive flair for spotting ace reporters. That is not to say he has not made the odd blunder, howev
Brings the small proportion of the author's works such as "Metamorphosis", an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation, "Meditation", a collection of studies, "The Aeroplanes at Brescia",
Exploring issues of colonialism, faith and the limits of comprehension, E.M. Forster's A Passage to India is edited by Oliver Stallybrass, with an introduction by Pankaj Mishra. When Adela Quested and
Here, for the first time in one volume, are George Orwell's complete writings on the Spanish Civil War, an experience which had a profound effect on his life and work.Homage to Catalonia, his passiona
Wu Ch'eng-en wrote "Monkey" in the middle of the 16th century, adding to an ancient Chinese legend his own touches of delicacy and humour. The result is a jumble of the absurd and the profound, of rel
Considered by many to the greatest novel ever written, Tolstoy's masterpiece is a story of family life set against the backdrop of war. The novel begins in 1805 in the crowded and gossip-filled rooms
