Penguin Classics: General Fiction

The tale of Little Nell gripped the nation when it first appeared in 1841. Described as a "tragedy of sorrows", the story tells of Nell uprooted from a secure and innocent childhood and cast into a world where evil takes many shapes, the most fascinating of which is the stunted, lecherous Quilp. Blending realism with non-realistic genres such as fairy-tale,...

Steinbeck's lyrical and moving novel, now in an elegant clothbound edition. The Pearl is Steinbeck's flawless parable about wealth and the evil it can bring. 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...

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 attend school. Obsessed by his dreams, Kino is blind to the greed, fear and violence the pearl arouses in him and his neighbours. Written with lyrical simplicity The...

The comic masterpiece that catapulted the 24-year-old Dickens to fame. The Pickwick Papers began as a literary spoof centred around sketches of stock sporting fops by caricaturist Robert Seymour. Following the success of Sketches by Boz, Dickens was recruited to compose the words which would accompany the illustrations. Dickens quickly made the project his own and created some of his...

A new edition of Henry James's great masterpiece about a spirited young American in Europe, edited by Philip Horne. When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy her freedom, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. Then...

Henry James's masterpiece, now available in a delightful new clothbound edition. When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy Aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy her freedom, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. Then she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond....

The Professor is the hero of Charlotte Brontë's first novel, where he escapes a dreary clerkship in industrial Yorkshire by taking a job as a teacher in Belgium. There, however, his entanglement with the sensuous but manipulative Zoraide Reuter complicates his affections for a penniless girl who is both teacher and pupil in Reuter's school. This landmark story is part...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics—irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. A countess with a card trick; love letters filled with deception; a desperate man with a pistol. The Queen of Spades, one of Pushkin's most popular and chilling stories, is accompanied here by the thrilling Dubrovsky and...

One of the great novels of the twentieth century, now in a wonderful new cover. The Rainbow chronicles the lives of three generations of the Brangwen family over a period of more than 60 years, setting them against the emergence of modern England. The central figure of Ursula becomes the focus of Lawrence's examination of relationships and the conflicts they...

Handsome, ambitious Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble provincial origins. Soon realizing that success can only be achieved by adopting the subtle code of hypocrisy by which society operates, he begins to achieve advancement through deceit and self-interest. His triumphant career takes him into the heart of glamorous Parisian society, along the way conquering the gentle, married...

Penguin Classics relaunch. The Return of the Native was written towards the beginning of Hardy's career as a novelist and can be considered one of his most representative works. In this novel, Hardy's tragic vision is powerfully and narrowly focused on Egdon Heath and the men and women who live on it. Set against the backdrop of the Heath and...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. Every step the Scarlet Pimpernel takes on French soil is fraught with danger. The French Terror is raging, and few are safe from the threat of the guillotine. Sir Percy Blakeney, a foppish Englishman, decides to rescue imprisoned aristocrats before they can be executed. Showing great daring...

Published alongside other Conrad's works, on the 150th anniversary of his birth. In the only novel Conrad set in London, The Secret Agent communicates a profoundly ironic view of human affairs. The story is woven around an attack on the Greenwich Observatory in 1894, masterminded by Verloc, a Russian spy working for the police and ostensibly a member of an...

Penguin Classics relaunch. Visiting an idyllic German village, Werther, a sensitive young man, falls in love with sweet-natured Lotte. Though he realises that Lotte is to marry Albert, he is unable to subdue his passion and his infatuation torments him to the point of despair. The first great 'confessional' novel, it draws both on Goethe's own unrequited love for Charlotte...

Penguin Classics relaunch Gilbert Markham is deeply intrigued by Helen Graham, a beautiful and secretive young woman who has moved into nearby Wildfell Hall with her young son. He is quick to offer Helen his friendship, but when her reclusive behaviour becomes the subject of local gossip and speculation, Gilbert begins to wonder whether his trust in her has been...

The new paperback series - Penguin English Library The Penguin English Library Edition of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 'Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dimness, and cast grotesque black shadows, in which dim spectral Morlocks sheltered from the glare' Chilling, prophetic, and hugely influential, The Time Machine sees a Victorian scientist propel himself into...

The tranquil atmosphere of the cathedral town of Barchester is shattered when a scandal breaks concerning the financial affairs of a Church-run almshouse for elderly men. In the ensuing furore, Septimus Harding, the almshouse's well-meaning warden, finds himself pitted against his daughter's suitor, Dr John Bold, a zealous local reformer. Matters are not improved when Harding's abrasive son-in-law, Archdeacon Grantly,...

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope is a compelling tale centred around Augustus Melmotte, a fraudulent foreign financier who preys on dissolute nobility. His charm tempts the weak into making foolish investments in his dubious schemes. One such victim is the capricious gambler Felix Carbury, who is persuaded to put money into a notional plot to run a...

Part of a series of new editions of Henry James's most famous novels and short stories. Emerging from the grit and stigma of poverty to a life of fairytale privilege under the wing of her aunt, the beautiful and financially ambitious Kate Croy is already romantically involved with promising journalist Merton Densher when they become acquainted with Milly Theale, a...

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity...

Beautifully designed, clothbound edition Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful...

Penguin Classics relaunch When country-girl Grace Melbury returns home from her middle-class school, she feels she has risen above her suitor, the simple woodsman Giles Winterborne. Though marriage had been discussed between her and Giles, Grace finds herself captivated by Dr Edred Fitzpiers, a sophisticated newcomer to the area—a relationship that is encouraged by her socially ambitious father. Hardy's novel...

Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a T. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather forecasts and tins of pineapple chunks—not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.'s...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye that opened suddenly and softly in the evening. To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionistic depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and...

To the Lighthouse is Woolf's most autobiographical novel, now in Penguin Black Classics. To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionistic depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and bitterness. For years now, the Ramsays have spent every summer in their holiday home in Scotland, and they expect these...

New to Penguin Classics, the great underwater adventure story in a stunning clothbound edition with original images. In this thrilling adventure tale by the 'Father of Science Fiction', three men embark on an epic journey under the sea with the mysterious Captain Nemo aboard his submarine the Nautilus. Over the course of their fantastical voyage, they encounter the lost city...

The greatest novel of the twentieth century, now in a beautiful Clothbound Classics centenary edition. Following the events of one single day in Dublin, the 16th of June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, and his wife Molly, Ulysses is a monument to the human condition. It has survived censorship, controversy, and legal action, and...

'Everybody knows now that Ulysses is the greatest novel of the century' — Anthony Burgess, Observer Following the events of one single day in Dublin, the 16th June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly, Ulysses is a monument to the human condition. It has survived censorship, controversy and legal action, and...

No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental companion, Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of Regency society, battles—military and domestic—are fought,...

Vanity Fair is Thackeray's gloriously satirical epic of love and social adventure, presented in a gorgeous new clothbound edition. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, this edition is designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. These delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. No one is better equipped in...

In the years following the First World War, a new generation emerges, wistful and vulnerable beneath the glitter. The Bright Young Things of twenties Mayfair, with their paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercise their hedonistic whims and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade. In a quest for treasure, a favourite party occupation, a vivid assortment of characters...

A beautiful new edition to accompany the Brontës' other great novels in Penguin Clothbound Classics. With neither friends nor family, Lucy Snowe sets sail from England to find employment in a girls' boarding school in the small town of Villette. There she struggles to retain her self-possession in the face of unruly pupils, an initially suspicious headmaster, and her own...

With neither friends nor family, Lucy Snowe sets sail from England to find employment in a girls' boarding school in the small town of Villette. There she struggles to retain her self-possession in the face of unruly pupils, an initially suspicious headmaster and her own complex feelings, first for the school's English doctor and then for the dictatorial professor Paul...

These stories from the middle period of Chekhov's career show him exploring complex, ambiguous, and often extreme emotions. Influenced by his own experiences as a doctor, Ward No. 6, set in a mental hospital, is a savage indictment of the medical profession. The Black Monk, portraying an academic who has strange hallucinations, explores ideas of genius and insanity. In Murder,...

A classics tale of romance in urban nineteenth-century America When timid and plain Catherine Sloper acquires a dashing and determined suitor, her father, convinced that the young man is nothing more than a fortune-hunter, decides to put a stop to their romance. Torn between her desire to win her father's love and approval and her passion for the first man...

New edition When attractive, impulsive English widow Lidia takes a holiday in Italy, she causes a scandal by marrying Gino, a dashing and highly unsuitable Italian twelve years her junior. Her prim, snobbish in-laws make no attempts to hide their disapproval, and when Lidia's decision eventually brings disaster, her English relatives embark on an expedition to face the uncouth foreigner....

A spellbinding novel looking at the harshness of life in the northern wilds, through nature's ruthless eyes. Born in the wilds of the freezing cold Yukon, White Fang—half-dog, half-wolf—is the only animal in the litter to survive. He soon learns the harsh laws of nature and of the world's indifference, yet buried deep inside him are the distant memories of...

A gorgeous clothbound edition of Jean Rhys's great masterpiece of desire and madness in the Caribbean. Jean Rhys's late masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea was inspired by Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and is set in the lush, beguiling landscape of Jamaica in the 1830s. Born into an oppressive, colonialist society, Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn...

Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters centres on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, brought up from childhood by her father. When he remarries, a new stepsister, Cynthia, enters Molly's quiet life. Loveable but worldly and troubling, Cynthia's arrival alters Molly's daily life. The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood...

A marvel of psychological insight from one of the most important Italian literary figures of the twentieth century. This enormously engaging, strange novel is both an engrossing saga of a family and a hilarious account of addiction and failure. Its helpless hero, notionally undergoing psychiatric help, manages spectacularly to fail to give up smoking, run his business, or make sense...

Little Clothbound Classics - irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Filled with rich description and luxurious beauty, these ten tales of loss and longing from one of Japan's greatest writers show the pull between duty and desire, ecstasy and death. Experience stories of a mother lost...

Ten tales of loss and longing, from one of Japan's greatest writers. Bringing together Yukio Mishima's finest stories, this selection showcases his extraordinary ability to depict a wide variety of human beings in moments of significance. A moonlit journey to fulfil a wish; a mother lost in mourning; a night of infidelity; and a young lieutenant who ends his life....

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics—irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Akutagawa was one of the towering figures of modern Japanese literature and is considered the father of the Japanese short story. This paradigmatic selection, which includes the stories that inspired Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, showcases the...

In the fourth of the Palliser stories, Trollope follows Phineas Finn's return to the dangerous world of Westminster politics. When his political rival is murdered, Phineas is thrown under suspicion and eventually finds himself standing trial at the Old Bailey. The situation is complicated by the presence of two women in his life: his old flame Lady Laura, whose estranged...

A unique new selection, bringing together Akutagawa's undisputed masterpieces and several less well-known tales, never before translated into English. Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japan's foremost stylists—a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty, and wild humour. Rashomon and In a Bamboo Grove inspired Kurosawa's magnificent film and depict a past in which...

A major new translation of a classic of Chinese literature almost completely unknown to the English-speaking world. The Strange Tales of Pu Songling (1640-1715) are exquisite and amusing miniatures that are regarded as the pinnacle of classical Chinese fiction. With their elegant prose, witty wordplay, and subtle charm, the 104 stories in this selection reveal a world in which nothing...

The paperback publication of the first volume of the new, substantially complete translation of one of the best-known and most influential classics of world literature. Every night for three years, the vengeful King Shahriyar sleeps with a different virgin, executing her the next morning. To end this brutal pattern and save her own life, the vizier's daughter, Shahrazad, begins to...

The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield comes with a new introduction by Ali Smith. Katherine Mansfield's clear, sparkling, and perceptive short stories revolutionised the genre, and this collection represents the whole range of her writing. Moving and resonant, full of light and colour, they span from short, sharp studies to longer, richer tales. This volume encompasses her three major works:...

Fairy tales, ghost stories, detective fiction and comedies of manners - the stories collected in this volume made Oscar Wilde's name as a writer of fiction, showing breathtaking dexterity in a wide range of literary styles. Victorian moral justice is comically inverted in Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and The Canterville Ghost, and society's materialism comes under sharp, humorous criticism in...

Fifty new books at £1 each, celebrating the pioneering spirit of the Penguin Modern Classics series, from inspiring essays to groundbreaking fiction and poetry. Summer was drawing to a close, and I realized that the book was monstrous. Fantastical tales of mazes, puzzles, lost labyrinths, and bookish mysteries, from the unique imagination of a literary magician.

When Reverend Josiah Crawley, the impoverished curate of Hogglestock, is accused of theft, it causes a public scandal, sending shockwaves through the world of Barsetshire. The Crawleys desperately try to remain dignified while they are shunned by society, but the scandal threatens to tear them, and the community, apart. Drawing on his own childhood experience of genteel poverty, Trollope gives...

Mad, lascivious, sadistic and ridiculous, the provincial schoolteacher Peredonov torments his students and has hallucinatory fantasies about acts of savagery and degradation, yet to everyone else he is an upstanding member of society. A dark classic of Russia's silver age, this blackly funny novel recounts a schoolteacher's descent into sadism, arson and murder. As he pursues the idea of marrying...

A major anthology of great Japanese short stories, now in Penguin Classics. This fantastically varied and exciting collection celebrates the great Japanese short story, from its modern origins in the nineteenth century to the remarkable works being written today. Short story writers already well-known to English-language readers are all included here—Tanizaki, Akutagawa, Murakami, Mishima, Kawabata—but also many surprising new finds....

A new translation and abridgement of one of the four classical Chinese novels, this is the epic story of the fall of the Han dynasty and rise of the Three Kingdoms. Part historical and part legendary, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms dramatizes the lives of feudal lords and their retainers, recounting their personal and military battles, intrigues, and struggles...

Engaged to the ambitious and self-serving Adolphus Crosbie, Lily Dale is devastated when he jilts her for the aristocratic Lady Alexandrina. Although crushed by his faithlessness, Lily still believes she is bound to her unworthy former fiancé for life and therefore condemned to remain single after his betrayal. When a more deserving suitor pays his addresses, she is unable to...

The Story of the Stone (c.1760) is one of the greatest novels of Chinese literature. The first part of the story, The Golden Days, begins the tale of Bao-yu, a gentle young boy who prefers girls to Confucian studies, and his two cousins: Bao-chai, his parents' choice of a wife for him, and the ethereal beauty Dai-yu. Through the changing...

In Youth is Pleasure is a gay classic coming-of-age novel and an unforgettable slice of British interwar upper-middle-class life. Orvil Pym does not fit in. A waifish, eccentric, sensitive fifteen-year-old, he hates school and longs to be alone. Spending his Summer holidays in a genteel Surrey hotel with his mysterious father and two brothers who don't understand him, he explores...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics — irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Thirteen ingeniously crafted stories make up Vladimir Nabokov's baker's dozen. In some of these stories, shadowy people pass through, cooped up by life, with nowhere to escape. In others, elusive glimpses of fleeting happiness, which...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. The hour should be evening and the season winter, for in winter the champagne brightness of the air and the sociability of the streets are grateful. In such conditions, Virginia Woolf takes to London's streets in...

This collection of Chekhov's finest early writing reveals a young writer mastering the art of the short story. The Steppe, which established his reputation, is the unforgettable tale of a boy's journey to a new school in Kiev, travelling through majestic landscapes towards an unknown destiny. Gusev depicts an ocean voyage, where the sea takes on a terrifying, primeval power;...

The Story of the Stone (c. 1760), also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber, is one of the greatest novels of Chinese literature. The fifth part of Cao Xueqin's magnificent saga, "The Dreamer Awakes", was carefully edited and completed by Gao E some decades later. It continues the story of the changing fortunes of the Jia dynasty, focusing...

A new translation of one of the most popular satires on the Russian Revolution and on Soviet society - first time in Penguin Classics. This is Bulgakov's semi-autobiographical story of a writer who fails to sell his novel and fails to commit suicide. When his play is taken up by the theatre, literary success beckons, but he has reckoned without...

When the elderly Allan Armadale makes a terrible confession on his death-bed, he has little idea of the repercussions to come, for the secret he reveals involves the mysterious Lydia Gwilt: flame-haired temptress, bigamist, laudanum addict, and husband-poisoner. Her malicious intrigues fuel the plot of this gripping melodrama: a tale of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, money—and murder....

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics — irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Karen Blixen, author of the acclaimed memoir Out of Africa, was also a master of the short story form. Her tales offer luminous meditations on rebirth and redemption, and on the mystery and unexpectedness of...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to...

Between the Acts is Virginia Woolf's final novel, now featured in Penguin Black Classics. Outwardly, it is a novel about life in a country house where a pageant is to be held in the grounds. However, it is also a striking evocation of the English experience in the months leading up to the Second World War. Through dialogue, humour, and...

A biting science fiction satire of American racism, and one of the first works of Afrofuturism. It's New Year's Day in 1933 in New York City and Max Disher, a young black man, has just heard the news: a mysterious doctor has discovered a strange process that can turn black skin white—a new way to 'solve the American race problem'....

Scams, heists, and murders abound in a high-energy caper. A preacher called Deke O'Malley's been selling false hope — the promise of a glorious new life in Africa for just $1,000 a family. But when thieves with machine guns steal the proceeds and send one man to the morgue, the con is up. Now Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed,...

Fifty new books at £1 each, celebrating the pioneering spirit of the Penguin Modern Classics series, from inspiring essays to groundbreaking fiction and poetry. Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady offers tales of desire and madness from this giant of Brazilian literature. "The morning became a long, drawn-out afternoon that became depthless night dawning innocently through the house."

In this newly translated classic of spiritual literature, Bernanos considers what it really means to be humble, charitable, and loving. This quiet, imaginative novel is a study of faith in an increasingly hostile world. Through intimate journal entries, the author reveals the private life and struggles of a young, withdrawn, devout, and sickly priest in northern France. Though his beliefs...

When the young nobleman Harold Transome returns to England from the colonies with a self-made fortune, he scandalises the town of Treby Magna with his decision to stand for Parliament as a Radical. But after the idealistic Felix Holt also returns to the town, the difference between Harold's opportunistic values and Holt's profound beliefs becomes apparent. Forthright, brusque and driven...

A fantastically unique work of science fiction that has fascinated generations of readers with its clever blend of social satire and mathematical theory. A work that still poses provocative questions about perception and reality, Flatland is a brilliant parody of Victorian society where all existence is limited to length and breadth—its inhabitants unable even to imagine a third dimension. The...

Elizabeth Gaskell's chilling Gothic tales blend the real and the supernatural to eerie, compelling effect. Disappearances, inspired by local legends of mysterious vanishings, mixes gossip and fact; Lois the Witch, a novella based on an account of the Salem witch hunts, shows how sexual desire and jealousy lead to hysteria; while in The Old Nurse's Story a mysterious child roams...

A Russian heir to Charles Dickens, Leskov is one of the great, underrated voices of nineteenth-century Russia. An outsider from the literary establishment of his day, Nikolai Leskov is one of the most unique voices of nineteenth-century Russia, combining a profound religious spirit with a fascination for idiosyncratic characters, lurid crimes, comic absurdity and the joy of pure story. This...

The Penguin English Library edition of the classic gothic novel that inspired Sarah Perry's new novel Melmoth The Penguin English Library Edition of Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin 'My hour is come ... the clock of eternity is about to strike, but its knell must be unheard by mortal ears!' This violent, profound, baroque, and blackly humorous novel is...

A compelling collection of new Kafka translations in a Penguin Classics Deluxe edition. A brilliant new translation of Kafka's best-known work, published for the 125th anniversary of his birth. This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he thought worthy of publication. It includes Metamorphosis, his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation...

The beloved Australian classic, published in a stunning Penguin Clothbound Classics edition for the first time. My Brilliant Career, Miles Franklin's debut novel, follows the vivacious and rebellious sixteen-year-old Sybylla Melvyn—closely modelled on Franklin herself—as she fights to break free of restrictive bush life. Growing up on her parents' outback farm, Sybylla is desperate to read, write, sing, and achieve...

Fifty new books at £1 each, celebrating the pioneering spirit of the Penguin Modern Classics series, from inspiring essays to groundbreaking fiction and poetry. New York City in 1979 by Kathy Acker is a vivid tale of art, sex, blood, junkies, and whores in New York's underground. This work comes from the cult literary icon Kathy Acker, renowned for her...

Night and Day is new to Modern Classics. Katharine Hilbery is beautiful and privileged but uncertain of her future. She must choose between becoming engaged to the oddly prosaic poet William, and her dangerous attraction to the lower-class Ralph. As she struggles to decide, the lives of two other women—women’s rights activist Mary Datchet and Katharine’s mother, struggling to weave...

Launching a major new paperback series - Penguin English Library. The Penguin English Library edition of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. 'How am I to dress up in my finery, and go off and away to smart parties, after the sorrow I have seen today?' Elizabeth Gaskell's compassionate, richly dramatic novel features one of the most original and fully-rounded...