Penguin Classics: Arts & Culture

Daring essays on democracy, history and the nation state by one of China's leading twentieth-century intellectuals. The power, anger and fluency of Liang Qichao's writings make him one of the towering figures in modern Chinese literature. He saw his great, almost unmanageable task as an attempt to write China into the new era - to provide an ancient country, devastated...

A collection of controversial and galvanising essays on literature, culture, and politics from Matthew Arnold, one of the greatest Victorian thinkers. 'One has often wondered whether upon the whole earth there is anything so unintelligent, so unapt to perceive how the world is really going, as an ordinary young Englishman of our upper class' Poet, education reformer, social theorist, and...

An important new selection of First World War poetry, edited by Jon Stallworthy and Jane Potter. This new selection brings together the poetry of three of the most distinctive and moving voices to emerge from the First World War. Here are the controlled passion and rich metaphors of Wilfred Owen's celebrated verses such as Anthem for Doomed Youth and Strange...

Masterful versions of Ibsen's two great verse plays by one of our greatest living poets, Geoffrey Hill. These two masterly and contrasting verse dramas by Ibsen made his reputation as a playwright. The fantastical adventures of the irrepressible Peer Gynt—poet, idler, procrastinator, seducer—draw on Norwegian folklore to conjure up mountains, kidnappings, shipwrecks, and trolls in an exuberant celebration of life;...

A new departure in Penguin Classics – a book containing one of the greatest of all Renaissance woodcut sequences – Holbein's bravura danse macabre. One of Holbein's first great triumphs, The Dance of Death is an incomparable sequence of tiny woodcuts showing the folly of human greed and pride, with each image packed with drama, wit and horror as a...

A major new anthology of Percy Bysshe Shelley's work, edited by Jack Donovan and Cian Duffy. Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the leading English Romantics and is critically regarded among the finest lyric poets in the English language. His major works include the long visionary poems Prometheus Unbound and Adonais, an elegy on the death of John Keats. His...

The second in a major two-part anthology uncovering the rich reality of life for queer men in London, from the end of the Second World War to decriminalisation in 1967. In the 1940s, it was believed that homosexuality had been becoming more widespread in the aftermath of war. A moral panic ensued, centred around London as the place to which...

The comprehensive guide to a deeply human tradition of memory, mourning and consolation. Elegy is among the world's oldest forms of literature. Born in Ancient Greece, practised by the Romans, revitalised by the poets of the Renaissance and continuing down to the present day, it speaks eloquently and affectingly of the experience of loss and the yearning for consolation. It...

An enchanting collection of the very best of Russian poetry, edited by acclaimed translator Robert Chandler. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, poetry's pre-eminence in Russia was unchallenged, with Pushkin and his contemporaries ushering in the 'Golden Age' of Russian literature. Although prose briefly gained the high ground, poetry again became dominant with the 'Silver Age', which held...

A collection of 50 postcards, each featuring an iconic Jane Austen cover from Penguin, in a beautifully designed box. I have now attained the true art of letter writing, wrote Jane Austen in one of her many missives to her sister Cassandra. This new box set will enable Austen fans to embrace the art of letter-writing for themselves, with 50...

First Penguin volume Of best Japanese haiku Vivid translations Now a global poetry, the haiku was originally a Japanese verse form that flourished from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Although renowned for its brevity, usually running over three lines in seventeen syllables, and by its use of natural imagery to make Zen-like observations about reality, in fact, the haiku is...

Colin Burrow's engaging (even amusing) introduction asks what the term metaphysical means and includes A Very Short History of Metaphysical Poetry from Donne to Rochester. Spanning the Elizabethan age to the Restoration and beyond, Metaphysical Poetry sought to describe a time of startling progress, scientific discovery, unrivalled exploration and deep religious uncertainty. This compelling collection of the best and most...

An award-winning collection from one of America's most distinguished twentieth-century poets. Blessing the Boats draws together poems from across Lucille Clifton's career, showcasing the stunning simplicity and grace with which she addressed the whole of human experience—birth, death, children, family, illness, sexuality, and injustice in antebellum and contemporary America. Hers is a poetry that is passionate and wise, not afraid...

Guide to Greece is an extremely comprehensive guidebook for tourists, concentrating on buildings, tombs, and statues. It includes a wealth of information on the mythological, religious, and historical background to the monuments described. This book is so informative that it may be called the foundation of classical archaeology, and this ancient Baedeker is still used as a guide to classical...

A new collection of Pushkin's great narrative and lyric verse, translated by Antony Wood WINNER OF THE READ RUSSIA PRIZE 2020 Alexander Pushkin established what we know as Russian literature. This collection includes his strongly personal lyric verse, which springs spontaneously from his everyday life – his numerous loves, his exile, his hectic life in St Petersburg – while the...

Part of the authoritative and acclaimed Penguin Shakespeare series, now rejacketed in the celebrated Penguin Classics livery. In the Duke's absence from Vienna, his strict deputy Angelo revives an ancient law forbidding sex outside marriage. The young Claudio, whose fiancée is pregnant, is condemned to death by the law. His sister Isabella, soon to become a nun, pleads with Lord...

An anthology of some of the greatest poetry in the English language. Poetry and music have been associated with each other from the very beginning. The Penguin Book of English Song draws together a great variety of English poetry (including Irish, Scots and Welsh writers) that has reached a wider audience through the magic of music. Richard Stokes's rich anthology...

The nineteenth issue of The Happy Reader, the bookish bi-annual published by Penguin Classics in collaboration with Fantastic Man For avid readers and the uninitiated alike, this is a chance to reengage with classic literature and to stay inspired and entertained. The concept of the magazine is simple- the first half is a long-form interview with a notable book fanatic...

A collectible new Penguin Classics series- beautiful, slim, clothbound editions of ten favourite poets Wessex Poems was Hardy's first collection of poetry, published after he had turned away from novel writing, disillusioned by the savage reception Jude the Obscure had received. Its publication marked the start of an extraordinary new phase in Hardy's writing career- for the rest of his...

The Romanticism that emerged after the American and French revolutions of 1776 and 1789 represented a new flowering of the imagination and the spirit, and a celebration of the soul of humanity with its capacity for love. This extraordinary collection sets the acknowledged genius of poems such as Blake's Tyger, Coleridge's Khubla Khan and Shelley's Ozymandias alongside verse from less...

An essential volume for bibliophiles and collectors – a complete list of all available Penguin Classics, in a clothbound edition. From Achebe and Austen to Zola and Zweig, and from the Epic of Gilgamesh to twenty-first century dystopias and autofiction, here is the complete list of every Penguin Classic in print. The list is arranged alphabetically by author and also...

Édouard Glissant's most celebrated, scintillating philosophical work sets out a new poetic vision for the world. 'We cry our cry of poetry. Our boats are open, and we sail them for everyone.' In Poetics of Relation, his most celebrated philosophical work, Édouard Glissant turns the Caribbean reality of his life into a complex, energetic vision of a world in transformation....

A beloved and ground-breaking collection by the legendary poet, writer and political activist. I am Black because I come from the earth's inside now take my word for jewel in the open light. Impassioned and profound, the poems in Coal showcase Audre Lorde in all her dazzling elegance and multiplicity. Mournful, celebratory, politically conscious, this early collection faithfully captures the...

Penguin Modern Hardbacks — a new series of iconic works from the Modern Classics list with bold, mid-century-inspired cover designs. Drawn from fifty years of experimental, ground-breaking verse, this selection, in Ginsberg's words, 'summarizes what I deem most honest, most penetrant of my writing'. It includes the major poems Howl and 'Kaddish', but also important early work, songs, uncollected poems...

A newly revised and expanded version of the great national epic of Persia—the most complete English-language edition and definitive translation by Dick Davis. The definitive translation by Dick Davis of the great national epic of Iran is now newly revised and expanded to be the most complete English-language edition. A Penguin Classic. Dick Davis—"our pre-eminent translator from the Persian" (The...

Virginia Woolf's pioneering work of feminism is "probably the most influential piece of non-fictional writing by a woman in the twentieth century" (Hermione Lee). This edition features a new introduction by Xochitl Gonzalez, Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming and Anita de Monte Laughs Last. A Penguin Classic In October 1928, Virginia Woolf...

A landmark American drama that inspired a classic film and a Broadway revival—featuring an introduction by David Mamet A blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic faith in the U.S. legal system. The play centres on Juror...

The major devotional work by one of the greatest Christian mystics and Spanish poets. O living flame of love, how tenderly you scorch me The poetry of the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic, John of the Cross, has inspired and consoled for hundreds of years, influencing writers from James Joyce to Seamus Heaney, Geoffrey Hill to T.S. Eliot and Mary Oppen. This...

James Joyce's only surviving play in a new edition with an introduction and annotations by Andrew Gibson. After ten long years spent away from Dublin, Richard, Bertha and their young illegitimate son Archie are back home. Despite expectations of comfort and domesticity, the couple's return to the place where they first met triggers an existential questioning, an anxiousness which is...

The poems published in Joyce's own lifetime are collected in a new edition, with an introduction and notes by scholar Clare Hutton. It is only James Joyce's towering genius as a novelist that has led to his comparative neglect as a poet. And yet his poems not only occupy a pivotal position in Joyce's career, they are also magnificently assured...

A luminous tour through the poems of one of nature's most brilliant and devoted observers. I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I...

A bestseller in France, this is the first English translation of Albert Camus and Maria Casarès' fascinating, impassioned letters. You and I met and fell in love passionately, impatiently, dangerously. I regret nothing and I feel that these last days I've lived are enough to justify a life. - Albert Camus to Maria Casarès, 1st July 1944 Their affair began...

The first complete English translation of a classic late Ming Chinese treatise on good taste. Written in the 17th Century by Chinese scholar Wen Zhenheng, Treatise on Superfluous Things offers a compelling glimpse into the tastes and cultural values of the educated elite in late Ming China. This guide to everyday items—from window frames and old master paintings to caged...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary. A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees 'It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met...' Moonlight, sake, spring blossom, idle moments, a woman's hair - these exquisite...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary A most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food ... Suggesting that the Irish eat their children to avoid famine, Jonathan Swift's vicious satire on his times was published anonymously in the eighteenth century and has since become a touchstone of political writing, deadly serious in its humour.

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary 'Tonight he noticed how the women's eyes Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.'

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary 'It's a dreadful thing to yield...but resist now? Lay my pride bare to the blows of ruin? That's dreadful too.'

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary. 'You must be Odysseus, man of twists and turns...' The tales of Odysseus's struggle with a man-eating Cyclops and Circe, the beautiful enchantress who turns men into swine. Introducing Little Black Classics - 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary I truly thought I'd never make it back. Experience Dante's vivid journey through the netherworld in Circles of Hell, a harrowing exploration of the infernal landscapes and the tormented souls that inhabit them. This classic work is part of the famous Little Black Classics series, perfect for those...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary. 'Yes, we did many things, then - all Beautiful ...' Lyrical, powerful poems about love, sexuality, sun-soaked Greece and the gods. Introducing Little Black Classics - 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around...

The pioneering nineteenth-century poet's best-known and most darkly imaginative verses on love, death, and loss. Goblin Market: 'She kissed and kissed her with a hungry mouth.' A selection of Rossetti's most famous poems, from the hallucinatory Goblin Market to In the Bleak Midwinter. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary Better mad with the crowd than sane all alone

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary. How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing by Michel de Montaigne explores the complexities and contradictions of human nature. Montaigne eloquently captures the essence of human emotions and how they often coexist, showcasing the intricate interplay between joy and sorrow. 'No one characteristic clasps us purely...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary. Dazzling modern lyrical poems from Catullus - by turns smutty, abusive, romantic and deeply moving. Introducing Little Black Classics - 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries....

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary It Was Snowing Butterflies 'The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus' A selection of Darwin's extraordinary adventures during the voyage of the Beagle. Introducing Little Black Classics - 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary 'In this painting of Leonardo's there was a smile so pleasing that it seemed divine rather than human.'

Lips too Chilled is part of the Little Black Classics series, celebrating Penguin's 80th birthday. 'Nothing more lonely -'

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary. On the Beach at Night Alone by Walt Whitman features an evocative selection taken from his renowned work, Leaves of Grass. "All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages..."

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary 'All those excessive, useless regrets...'

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary 'I can promise to be candid, not, however, to be impartial.'

The Eve of St Agnes by John Keats is part of the Little Black Classics collection – a new series introduced to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary. "Hoodwink'd in faery fancy..." Immerse yourself in the enchanting and fantastical narratives crafted by one of the most revered romantic poets, John Keats, as you explore this timeless classic.

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary The Fall of Icarus 'Drawn on by his eagerness for the open sky, he left his guide and soared upwards...' Ovid tells the tales of Theseus and the Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus, the Calydonian Boar-Hunt, and many other famous myths. Introducing Little Black Classics - 80 books for...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary The Great Fire of London by Samuel Pepys features this poignant excerpt: 'With one's face in the wind you were almost burned with a shower of Firedrops'. A selection from Pepys' startlingly vivid and candid diary, it includes his famous account of the Great Fire. Introducing Little Black...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary. The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell is a chilling tale of mystery and suspense. Set against the backdrop of a cold, desolate landscape, the story immerses readers in a haunting atmosphere, where even the weather plays a sinister role. 'Even in the stillness of that dead-cold weather,...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary. 'Those husbands that I had, Three of them were good and two were bad. The three that I call "good" were rich and old...' One of the most bawdy, entertaining, and popular stories from The Canterbury Tales. Introducing Little Black Classics - 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday....

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary Three Tang Dynasty Poets 'Can I bear to leave these blue hills?'

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary 'Ye Ice-Falls! Ye that from the mountain's brow Adown enormous ravines slope amain -...' A selection of Coleridge's poems, including This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison and Frost at Midnight. Introducing Little Black Classics - 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and...

Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me...

New to Modern Classics Amadeus by Peter Shaffer presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a genius, the most brilliant musician the world will ever see. However, the court of eighteenth-century Vienna fails to recognise his talents—only Antonio Salieri, the Court Composer, does, and he is tortured by what he hears. Seething with rage at the genius of this flippant buffoon and...

A new selection of the letters of Che Guevara, from birth to death, revealing a new side to his personal and political life. Che Guevara was an inveterate letter writer and diarist throughout his short but extraordinary life. His letters and diaries are those of a master narrator, characterized by a brutal honesty, a remarkable lack of ego, a razor-sharp...

The landmark poetry collection that transformed 20th-century Arabic poetry, in a brilliant new translation by Kareem James Abu-Zeid and Ivan Eubanks. Written in the early 1960s by Adonis, 'the most eloquent spokesman and explorer of Arabic modernity' (Edward Said), Songs of Mihyar the Damascene is widely considered to be the apex of the modernist poetry movement in the Arab world,...

Miller's provocative play about a guilt-ridden man, fighting his inner demons. 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 is an ill-fated marriage to the charming and beautiful Maggie, who went from operating a switchboard to become...

A wonderful selection of Waugh's journalism, reissued with a new cover look. Whether celebrating Hogarth or savaging Hollywood, mocking modern manners or defending traditional English architecture, inviting readers to come inside the Catholic Church or expressing his contempt for modish Marxism and American-style religion, Evelyn Waugh's journalism is sparkling, sometimes vitriolic and always full of good sense. In this wonderful...

Just as the Iron Curtain fell on Eastern Europe, Steinbeck and Capa began a remarkable journey through the Soviet Union. Their travels took them to Moscow and Stalingrad. What they saw and recorded was what Steinbeck called the "great other side", the ordinary lives of Russian men and women. Combining Steinbeck's compassion, humour, and eye for detail with Capa's photographic...

Reflections by the creator of the essay form display the humane, sceptical, humorous, and honest views of Montaigne, revealing his thoughts on sexuality, religion, cannibals, intellectuals, and other unexpected themes. Included are such celebrated works as On Solitude, To Philosophise Is to Learn How to Die, and On Experience.

The theme of the great Shakespearean tragedies is the fall from grace of a great man due to a flaw in his nature. Whether it is the ruthless ambition of Macbeth or the folly of Lear, the irresolution of Hamlet or the suspicion of Othello, the cause of the tragedy—even when it is the murder of a king—is trifling compared...

From the award-winning translator of The Iliad and The Odyssey comes a brilliant new translation of Virgil's great epic. Fleeing the ashes of Troy, Aeneas, Achilles' mighty foe in The Iliad, begins an incredible journey to fulfil his destiny as the founder of Rome. His voyage will take him through stormy seas, entangle him in a tragic love affair, and...

From the award-winning translator of The Iliad and The Odyssey comes a brilliant new translation of Virgil's great epic. Fleeing the ashes of Troy, Aeneas, Achilles' mighty foe in the Iliad, begins an incredible journey to fulfil his destiny as the founder of Rome. His voyage will take him through stormy seas, entangle him in a tragic love affair, and...

One of the greatest epics in Western literature, The Iliad recounts the story of the Trojan wars. This timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves to its tragic conclusion. In his introduction, Bernard Knox observes that although the violence of The Iliad is grim and relentless,...

The Italian Renaissance man's handbook, defining the virtues essential for a man of the Court. In The Book of the Courtier (1528), Baldesar Castiglione, a diplomat and Papal Nuncio to Rome, sets out to define the essential virtues for those at Court. In a lively series of imaginary conversations between the real-life courtiers to the Duke of Urbino, his speakers...

Legends from the Ancient North brings together some of the magical texts that most influenced Tolkien. 'They summoned their friends, readied their horses, and prepared their helmets, shields, swords, coats of mail.' J.R.R. Tolkien spent much of his life studying, translating, and teaching the great epic stories of northern Europe, filled with heroes, dragons, trolls, dwarves, and magic. He was...

Part of the authoritative and acclaimed Penguin Shakespeare series, now rejacketed in the celebrated Penguin Classics livery. After squandering his wealth with prodigal generosity, a rich Athenian gentleman finds himself deep in debt. Unshaken by the prospect of bankruptcy, he is certain that the friends he has helped so often will come to his aid. But when they learn his...

Chaucer's tale of fragile love against the backdrop of war Set against the epic backdrop of the battle of Troy, Troilus and Criseyde is an evocative story of love and loss. When Troilus, the son of Priam, falls in love with the beautiful Criseyde, he is able to win her heart with the help of his cunning uncle Pandarus, and...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, Focus is Arthur Miller's chilling debut novel. A reticent personnel manager living with his mother, Mr. Newman shares the prejudices of his times and of his neighbours. Neither a Hispanic woman abused outside his window nor the persecution of the Jewish store owner from whom he buys his paper are any of his business. This...

Fifty new books at £1 each, celebrating the pioneering spirit of the Penguin Modern Classics series, from inspiring essays to groundbreaking fiction and poetry. Death the Barber The alphabet of the trees is fading in the song of the leaves Filled with bright, unforgettable images, the deceptively simple work of William Carlos Williams revolutionised American verse, and made him one...

First complete translation into English of Maxims and Reflections. Throughout his long, hectic and astonishingly varied life, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) would jot down his passing thoughts on theatre programmes, visiting cards, draft manuscripts and even bills. Goethe was probably the last true 'Renaissance Man'. Although employed as a Privy Councillor at the Duke of Weimar's court, where he...

After Martin Chuzzlewit was published in 1844, Dickens deliberately took a break from novels to travel in Italy for almost a year. Bored by many traditional tourist sites and repelled by the greed and empty rituals of the Catholic Church, Dickens is far more attracted by urban desolation, the colourful life of the streets, and visible signs of the nation's...

Fifty new books at €1 each, celebrating the pioneering spirit of the Penguin Modern Classics series, from inspiring essays to groundbreaking fiction and poetry. My heart brims with billows and minnows of shadows and silver Beautiful, brutal, strange and lovely — this is Lorca reborn, in a selection of previously unpublished pieces and masterful new translations.

Fifty new books at £1 each, celebrating the pioneering spirit of the Penguin Modern Classics series, from inspiring essays to groundbreaking fiction and poetry. The Survivor presents a selection of poetry from the author of If This is a Man and The Periodic Table. "Back, away from here, drowned people, go. I haven't stolen anyone's place."

A magnificent new translation of the Odyssey by best-selling author and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn With his Odyssey, best-selling author and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn has created a momentous new work, hailed by classicists and poets alike - a translation to stand with those of E. V. Rieu and Robert Fagles. Setting aside the streamlining, modernizing approach of many recent translations, Mendelsohn...