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When a society becomes more affluent, does it lose other values? Are the skills that education and literacy gave millions wasted on consuming pop culture? Do the media coerce us into a world of the su

Includes three plays - "Suddenly Last Summer", "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore", and "Small Craft Warnings".

Describing the surreal hallucinations, insomnia and nightmarish visions he experienced while consuming daily large amounts of laudanum, Thomas De Quincey's legendary account of the pleasures and pains

William James's strong beliefs in a pragmatic theory of truth - that truth is only as relevant as its effect on us - lead to these absorbing essays on fact and belief. Within them is a fascinating the

An irresistible invitation to reject the work ethic and enjoy life's simple pleasures (such as laughing, drinking and lying in the open air), Robert Louis Stevenson's witty and seminal essay on the jo

John Berger broke new ground with his penetrating writings on life, art and how we see the world around us. Here he explores how the ancient relationship between man and nature has been broken in the

Fundamental to Chinese philosophy and religion, the Tao Te Ching is a simple guidebook for virtue, encouraging peace, understanding and humility. Ranging from political advice to common wisdom, it has

In Utopia Thomas More painted a fantastical picture of a distant island where society is perfected and people live in harmony, yet its title means 'no place', and More's hugely influential work was ul

A fascinating examination of ethics, religion and psychology, this selection of Schopenhauer's works contains scathing attack on the nature and logic of religion, and an essay on ethics that ranges fr

These are unique stories of timeless wisdom and understanding from the Zen Masters. With rich and fascinating tales of swords, tigers, tea, flowers and dogs, the writings of the Masters challenge ever

Blending intellectual speculation with anecdote and personal reflection, the Renaissance thinker and writer Montaigne pioneered the modern essay. This selection contains his idiosyncratic and timeless

Immanuel Kant was one of the most influential philosophers in the whole of Europe, who changed Western thought with his examinations of reason and the nature of reality. In these writings he investiga

In these timeless and witty essays George Orwell explores the English love of reading about a good murder in the papers (and laments the passing of the heyday of the 'perfect' murder involving class,

It was the war to end all wars, the global struggle that would finally make the world safe for democracy - at any cost. But one American soldier has paid a price beyond measure. And within the disfigu

A collection of essays that contains some of the important pieces of criticism of the twentieth century, including the classics "The Aesthetics of Silence", an account of language, thought and conscio

Josef Vadassy, a Hungarian refugee and language teacher living in France, is enjoying his first break for years in a small hotel on the Riviera. But when he takes his holiday photographs to be develop

1940. Mr Graham, an engineer and arms expert enters a nightmarish world where friend and foe are indistinguishable.

Sets out the author's ideas about visual, graphic and industrial design and the role it plays in the objects we use everyday.

Fading southern belle Blanche Dubois depends on the kindness of strangers and is adrift in the modern world. When she arrives to stay with her sister Stella in a crowded, boisterous corner of New Orle

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

Francois Besson listens to a tape recording of a girl contemplating suicide. Drifting through the days in a provincial city, he thoughtlessly starts a fire in his apartment, attends confession, and ex

The most graceful English translation of this masterpiece of world literature - prepared with the participation of the Dalai Lama and eminent contemporary masters of this tradition appointed by the Da

Mystery and excitement abound in this lively collection of fairy tales, folklore and legends, which celebrate Scotland's enormously rich oral tradition and offers a carefully chosen combination of old

"We read The Three Musketeers to experience a sense of romance and for the sheer excitement of the story," reflected Clifton Fadiman. "In these violent pages all is action, intrigue, su

★ 改變一整個世代觀看方式的藝術經典★ BBC同名節目改編，跨越影像與文字的思想之作★ 一句話顛覆藝術理解：「觀看，先於語言」在我們還不會說話之前，就已經開始「看」。但你是否曾想過，我們看到的，真的只是眼前的事物嗎？《觀看的方式》從最日常的視覺經驗出發，帶領讀者重新思考：我們如何看畫、看影像、看世界。約翰．伯格以敏銳而直白的語言，拆解藝術長久以來被包裝的權威與距離，揭示觀看其實深受文化、權力與歷史影響。當我們看一幅畫時，同時也在看見自己的位置與價值。本書發想自BBC經典節目，出版後迅速成為影響深遠的思想之作，不只改變藝術理解方式，更重新定義「觀看」本身。這不只是一本藝術書，而是一場關於視覺、權力與意識的革命。Based on the BBC television series, John Berger's Ways of Seeing is a unique look at the way we view art, published as part of the Penguin on Design series in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.''But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words.It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.' John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 19

Taking its inspiration from Shakespeare’s idea of the “seven ages” of a human life, this new anthology brings together the best-loved poems in English to inspire, comfort and delight readers for a lif

Influencing philosophers such as Sartre and Camus, and still strikingly modern in its psychological insights, Kierkegaard’s The Sickness Unto Death explores the concept of ‘despair’ as a symptom of th

John Ruskin overturned Victorian society’s ideas about art and architecture, arguing that ancient buildings must be conserved for their deep, mystical links with the past and that creative design is e

Describing Tolstoy's crisis of depression and estrangement from the world, A Confession is an autobiographical work of exceptional emotional honesty. It describes his search for 'a practical religion

Visionary English Socialist and pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris argued that all work should be a source of pride and satisfaction, and that everyone should be entitled to beaut

In these inspiring essays about why we read, Proust explores all the pleasures and trials that we take from books, as well as explaining the beauty of Ruskin and his work, and the joys of losing yours

This investigation of religion by greatest psychoanalyst of the twentieth-century explores the role faith can take in the life of man, what it can mean to us and why as a species we are inclined towar

A daring critique of communism and how it had gone wrong behind the Iron Curtain, Camus’ essay examines the revolutions in France and Russia, and argues that since they were both guilty of producing t

Foucault’s writings on power and control in social institutions have made him one of the modern era’s most influential thinkers. Here he argues that punishment has gone from being mere spectacle to be

Created by the seventeenth-century philosopher and mathematician Pascal, the essays contained in Human Happiness are a curiously optimistic look at whether humans can ever find satisfaction and real j

Written at a time when most of Europe supported the French Revolution, Edmund Burke’s prescient and, at the time, controversial denunciation of its mob rule predicted the Terror, began the modern cons

Adam Smith’s landmark treatise on the free market paved the way for modern capitalism, arguing that competition is the engine of a productive society, and that self-interest will eventually come to en

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

Hermann Hesse's moving and inspirational chronicle of spiritual evolution, Siddhartha, includes a new introduction by bestselling author Paulo Coehlo in Penguin Classics. Siddhartha is perhaps the mos