Penguin Classics: Arts & Culture

A wonderful edition of Herbert's poetry, edited by his acclaimed biographer John Drury, and including elegant new translations of his Latin verse by Victoria Moul. George Herbert wrote, but never published, some of the very greatest English poetry, recording in an astonishing variety of forms his inner experiences of grief, recovery, hope, despair, anger, fulfilment and—above all else—love. This volume,...

Published in cooperation with the English Folk Dance and Song Society, this volume presents the songs with music, and annotations on their original sources and meaning. The definitive collection of folk music—one of the great English popular art forms. One of the great English popular art forms, the folk song can be painful, satirical, erotic, dramatic, rueful or funny. This...

"I am large, I contain multitudes" A Penguin Classic When Walt Whitman self-published his Leaves of Grass in July 1855, he altered the course of literary history. One of the greatest masterpieces of American literature, it redefined the rules of poetry while describing the soul of the American character.Throughout his great career, Whitman continuously revised, expanded, and republished Leaves of...

When the last fire goes out, time too will be finished Taken from his Collection of Sand, these marvelous essays are not great ideas in themselves but commentaries on great ideas and the physical remains they have left behind them- astonishing objects and human-made places which have encapsulated different senses of wonder and desire. The essays range from fire-temples to...

A new anthology, bringing together four masterpieces of classical comedy in one volume. From the fifth to the second century BC, innovative comedy drama flourished in Greece and Rome. This collection brings together the greatest works of Classical comedy, with two early Greek plays—Aristophanes' bold, imaginative Birds, and Menander's The Girl from Samos, which explores popular contemporary themes of mistaken...

A new and authoritative edition of five seminal revenge tragedies, edited by Emma Smith. As the Elizabethan era gave way to the reign of James I, England grappled with corruption within the royal court and widespread religious anxiety. Dramatists responded with morally complex plays of dark wit and violent spectacle, exploring the nature of death, the abuse of power, and...

Tennyson's version of the life of King Arthur Tennyson had a life-long interest in the legend of King Arthur and after the huge success of his poem Morte d'Arthur, he built on the theme with this series of twelve poems, written in two periods of intense creativity over nearly twenty years. Idylls of the King traces the story of Arthur's...

A selection of D. H. Lawrence's writings on art, morality and obscenity, edited & selected by Geoff Dyer. For D. H. Lawrence, the novel was the pinnacle, 'the one bright book of life', yet his non-fiction shows him at his most freewheeling and playful. This is a selection of his brilliantly varied essays, on subjects including art, morality, obscenity, songbirds,...

Part of the authoritative and acclaimed Penguin Shakespeare series, now rejacketed in the celebrated Penguin Classics livery. A king and his lords form an austere academy, swearing to have no contact with women for three years. But when the princess of neighbouring France arrives with her female attendants, their pledge is quickly placed under strain. Soon all are smitten and...

Now in paperback, a wonderful anthology of wedding poems, filled with surprising, curious, unorthodox and charming poems about love and the public commitment to love. For the many thousands of readers who each year go through the complex mix of thrill and trauma that is the planning of a marriage ceremony, Laura Barber's anthology is the answer to a prayer....

David Pascoe has selected from the pieces Dickens wrote after he founded Household Words in 1850, until his death in 1870. Throughout his writing career Charles Dickens was a hugely prolific journalist. This volume of his later work is selected from pieces that he wrote after he founded the journal Household Words in 1850 up until his death in 1870....

Robert Fagles's stunning modern-verse translation—available at last in our black-spine classics line. Soon to be a major motion picture directed by Christopher Nolan. A Penguin Classic. The Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey through life. In the myths and legends that are retold here, renowned translator Robert Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in...