Tagore was a fierce opponent of British rule in India. In this work he discusses the resurgence of the East and the challenge it poses to Western supremacy, calling for a future beyond nationalism, ba
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
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
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
Bleak House opens in the twilight of foggy London, where fog grips the city most densely in the Court of Chancery. The obscure case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which an inheritance is gradually devou
When Another Country appeared in 1962 it caused a literary sensation: among the storm of reviews the Sunday Times said 'Let our novelists read Mr Baldwin and tremble. There is a whirlwind loose in the
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
In one of the finest autobiographies to come out of the First World War, the poet Edmund Blunden records his devastating experiences in France and Flanders. Enlisting at the age of twenty, he took par
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
Offers a collection of essays that covers the author's passion for poetry, his love of the Polish language that was so nearly wiped out by the violence of the twentieth century, and his happy childhoo
Growing up in Kenya in the early twentieth century, the brothers Matu and Muthegi are raised according to customs that, they are told, have existed since the beginning of the world. But when the 'red'
Set in a superficially romantic, between-wars Paris, QUARTET is a poignant tale of a lonely woman. Set against a background of winter-wet streets, Pernod in smoky cafes and cheap hotel rooms with mauv
Survivor, genius, perfumer, and killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more
The Penguin English Library Edition of The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope "He is so scandalously weak, and she is so radically vicious, that they cannot but be wrong together. The v
An ancient evil walks among them. When Adam Salton arrives at his grand-uncle’s Derbyshire estate he quickly senses that a macabre and malevolent force is at work. In his attempts to uncover the grisl
A selection of short stories that opens up a world of wonder, love, cruelty and curious twists of fate, where nothing is as it seems. It includes stories such as: "The Fugitive", "Magic Paint", "Gladi
Having spent some time in Rome, Antonio - the handsomest young man in Catania - returns to his native town with the reputation of being a playboy and with a long list of amorous adventures behind him.
The Histories of Herodotus, completed in the second half of the 5th century BC, is generally regarded as the first work of history and the first great masterpiece of non-fiction writing. This book off
Explores a mans desperate desire for freedom. It finds him in the midst of his stormy marriage to the volatile, duplicitous Mona, and joyfully quitting his dreary job for a hand-to-mouth existence in
Based on the lives of Sir William Hamilton, his wife, Emma, and Lord Nelson in the final decades of the eighteenth century, this title examines the shape of Western civilization since the Age of Enlig
In 1960, John Steinbeck set out to rediscover and document his native land; accompanied only by his dog, he travelled all across the United States in a pick-up truck. This Penguin Classics edition of
Having got rid of their human master, the animals in this political fable look forward to a life of freedom and plenty. But as a clever, ruthless elite takes control, the other animals find themselves
Draws the reader into an unmappable textual space, where nothing is true and everything is permitted, to make a total assault on the colonising powers of planet earth that have turned us all into mach
Mr. Nemuro, a respected salesman, disappeared over half a year ago, but only now does his alluring yet alcoholic wife hire a private eye. The nameless detective has but two clues: a photo and a matchb
The Cold War is over and retired secret servant Tim Cranmer has been put out to pasture, spending his days making wine on his Somerset estate. But then he discovers that his former double agent Larry
Nineteen-year-old Sanna just wants to drink her beer in peace, but that's difficult when Hitler has come to town and his motorcade is blocking the streets of Frankfurt. What's more, her best friend Ge
'DO NOT OPEN - DESTROY.'The words on the envelope he has found are written in Kath's hand, but Glyn ignores his wife's instruction and breaks the seal. His life unwinds. For he finds a photograph show
The final novel in the Great Plains trilogy, this is a celebration of the American midwest with Cather's strongest heroine at its heart Jim and Antonia meets as children in the wide open plains of Neb
You will be a great hero, a general, Gabriele d'Annunzio, Ambassador of France!' For his whole life, Romain Gary's fierce, eccentric motherhad only one aim: to make her son a great man. And she did. T
'A terrific novel' Angela Carter Koko won't do what is expected of her. Defying her family's wishes, she has brought up her eleven-year-old daughter alone in her apartment. And now, after a casual aff
'What use to a being that lives beneath a sun are jewels of gas and silver stars of ice?'From a giant of twentieth-century science fiction, these four miniature space epics feature crazy inventors, su
The classic World War One novel, available as a Penguin Essential for the first time. Alec and Jerry shouldn't have been friends: Alec's life was one of privilege, while Jerry's was one of toil. But t
'I pity this house; the curse of God is hanging over it' Set in Lombardy during the Spanish occupation of the late 1620s, The Betrothed tells the story of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia, prevented
'I'm not myself - I'm somebody else - that's me yonder - no - that's somebody else got into my shoes...I can't tell what's my name, or who I am!'Touching and comic short stories from the 19th century
'He was sickened also with all these lies. His very soul was dismayed by the dirt through which he was forced to wade. He had become unconsciously connected with the lowest dregs of mankind, and would
In 1935, the author set off from his adopted home, Paris, to revisit his native land, America. This title describes the trip and his return journey on a Dutch steamer. It shows height of his powers.
Patrick Suskind's Perfume is a classic novel of death and sensuality in Paris, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time. 'In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the m
When Kino, an Indian pearl-diver, finds 'the Pearl of the world' he believes that his life will be magically transformed. He will marry Juana in church and their little boy, Coyotito, will be able to
With A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens created a modern fairy tale and shaped our ideas of Christmas. The tale of the solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of the season by a
The Penguin English Library Edition of Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton 'He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fas
