The Penguin English Library Edition of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë 'The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself' Passionate, poetic and revoluti
Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, frustrated college professor. In love with his landlady's twelve-year-old daughter Lolita, he'll do anything to possess her. Unable and unwilling to stop himself, he
These sumptuous new hardback editions mark the 70th anniversary of Fitzgerald's death. Between the First World War and the Wall Street Crash, the French Riviera was the stylish place for wealthy Ameri
Beautifully written yet highly controversial, An Image of Africa asserts Achebe's belief in Joseph Conrad as a 'bloody racist' and his conviction that Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness only serves to p
This is Freud's groundbreaking study of a wealthy young Russian man, subject to psychotic episodes and neuroses. Through the patient's dream of childhood wolves, Freud was able to determine his real p
Widely regarded as the father of modern Western philosophy, Descartes sought to look beyond established ideas and create a thought system based on reason. In this profound work he meditates on doubt,
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
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
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
In this deeply involved study of the German Upper Class before 1914 , Sybille Bedford has re-created a way of life in a manner that is absorbing, moving and sometimes very funny.
Since the original, prewar translation there has been no completely new rendering of the French original into English. This translation brings to the fore a more sharply engaged, comic and lucid Prous
Provides inspiration for anti-colonial movements ever since, analysing the role of class, race, national culture and violence in the struggle for freedom. In this book, the author makes clear the econ
A real-life adventure that inspired countless travellers in fact and fiction, the Penguin Classics edition of Robert Byron's The Road to Oxiana includes an introduction by Colin Thubron. In 1933 Rober
Features letters that cover the activities of Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac in the years that gave birth to the "Beat Generation". Written mostly to Ginsberg or Kerouac, this title inclu
John Healy's The Grass Arena describes with unflinching honesty his experiences of addiction, his escape through learning to play chess in prison, and his ongoing search for peace of mind. This Pengui
Andrés Caicedo's novel Liveforever is a wild celebration of youth, hedonism and the transforming power of music. María del Carmen Huerta lives a respectable middle-class life in Colombia. One day she
Written in Paris in the early 1950s, this book created controversy in its analysis of 'modern' society that had allowed itself to be hypnotized by socio-political doctrines, and to accept totalitarian
An annotated edition of "Lolita". It attempts to elaborate on the verbal textures and show how they contribute to the novel's overall meaning. It also provides observations on the novel's artifice, ga
The writing of Fernando Pessoa reveals a mind shaken by intense inner suffering. In these poems he adopted four separate personae: Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis and himself, using the
Primo Levi was among the greatest witnesses to twentieth-century atrocity. In this gripping novel, based on a true story, he reveals the extraordinary lives of the Russian, Polish and Jewish partisans
Flora Thompson's immortal trilogy, containing "Lark Rise", "Over To Candleford" and "Candleford Green", is a heartwarming portrayal of country life at the close of the 19
Presents an account of the author's childhood in Czernowitz, Ukraine. This title portrays a twilit world suspended between the dying ways of an imperial past and the terrors of the twentieth century.
At twenty-one, the passionate and headstrong Ann Veronica Stanley is determined to rule her own life. When her autocratic father forbids her, via formal letter, from attending a fashionable art-school
A book of dreams that cover themes from the mundane and ordinary - conversations with the author's friends Allen Ginsberg or Ian Sommerville, feeding his cats, procuring drugs or sex - to the erotic,
Written when Engels was only twenty-four, and inspired in particular by his time living amongst the poor in Manchester, this forceful polemic explores the staggering human cost of the Industrial Revol
A chance encounter while holidaying in Central America leads an American couple, the Slades, to befriend the charming, handsome Grove Soto and his young Cuban mistress. But as the Slades' trip becomes
A moving tragedy of political intrigue and family strife, William Shakespeare's King Lear is edited by George Hunter, with an introduction by Kiernan Ryan in Penguin Shakespeare. 'How sharper than a s
Labelled as a 'problem play' for its marriage of comic overtones to serious moral inquiry, William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure is a peerless black comedy of justice, pride and desire. This Pengu
Presenting an account of the author's childhood in Czechoslovakia, this title features the tales of the his father's battle to provide for his family both in wealthy freedom and in terrifying persecut
Introduction by Jeffrey EugenidesWritten in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde’s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the aut
My First Wife is Jakob Wassermann's intense, powerful account of a marriage - and its ruinous collapse - translated by the award-winning translator of Alone in Berlin, Michael Hofmann. It is the story
Since no one could get enough of the beautiful Penguin English Library books, created by our award-winning designer Coralie Bickford-Smith, we've made some beautiful and sumptuous notebooks that you w
Since no one could get enough of the beautiful Penguin English Library books, created by our award-winning designer Coralie Bickford-Smith, we've made some beautiful and sumptuous notebooks that you w
In the middle of a family lunch Teresa, just married, goes to the bathroom, unbuttons her blouse and shoots herself in the heart. What made her kill herself immediately after her honeymoon?
Offers an introduction to the First World War Poetry. This title features the sequence of poems that is drawn from a number of sources, mixing both well-known and less familiar poetry.
Features a critique of photography that asks forceful questions about the moral and aesthetic issues surrounding this art form. This title examines the ways in which we use these omnipresent images to
Jean-Baptiste Clamence is a soul in turmoil. Over several drunken nights in an Amsterdam bar, he regales a chance acquaintance with his story. From this successful former lawyer and seemingly model ci
Chekhov's genius left an indelible impact on every literary form in which he wrote, but none more so than short fiction. Now renowned translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky give us their s
After journeying across the stars, a man from Earth finds himself lost among the scarlet deserts, black cliffs and semi-sentient oceans of Tormance, a world lit by the star Arcturus. Pulled northward
Gilgi knows where she's going in life: she's ambitious, determined and fearless. She's not even derailed when her parents drop a massive bombshell on her twenty-first birthday. But then she meets the
