Popular Penguins

Gulliver's Travels takes readers on an exhilarating journey as Gulliver experiences life from various perspectives through his adventurous voyages around the world. In Lilliput, he becomes a giant among a race of little people only six inches high. Conversely, in Brobdingnag, he finds himself diminutive compared to the enormous inhabitants. In the land of the Houyhnhnms, the social order flips,...

First published fifty years ago, this classic novel was Albert Wendt's first published book. This classic has been released in the Popular Penguin format to mark 50 years of publishing in New Zealand. The format reaches further back to 1935, when Allen Lane founded Penguin Books with a clear vision: 'We believed in the existence of a vast reading public...

In Fever Pitch: Popular Penguins by Nick Hornby, the passion, obsession, and emotional rollercoaster of being an ardent football fan is vividly brought to life. The book is a beautifully written memoir that explores how football can be inextricably woven into the fabric of one's existence. Set against the backdrop of Nick Hornby's lifelong support of Arsenal Football Club, the...

Over the course of his short life, John Keats (1795-1821) honed a raw talent into a brilliant poetic maturity. This wide-ranging selection of Keats's poetry contains youthful verse, such as his earliest known poem Imitation of Spenser; poems from his celebrated collection of 1820 - including Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes, Ode to a Nightingale and Hyperion -...

When the services of famed detective Sherlock Holmes are engaged to ensure the safety of Baskerville heir Sir Henry—recently arrived from America—Dr Watson is surprised to find his friend dismissive of the matter. In fact, Watson is dispatched alone to accompany Sir Henry to Baskerville Hall in Devon while Holmes deals with another case. Yet Watson finds the wild moors...

Sir Ernest Shackleton's South is one of the greatest survival stories of all time. In 1914, Shackleton led a party of men hoping to be the first to traverse the Antarctic, but when their ship became crushed by ice 350 miles from land, the expedition soon became a matter of life and death. This is the extraordinary account of treacherous...

Arguably William Shakespeare's most influential play, Hamlet portrays a young Prince's dilemma in choosing between moral integrity and the need for revenge following the murder of his father. Dealing with themes of love, death, and revenge, Hamlet is a rich and complex tragedy that continues to entertain audiences around the world today.

Leonard Cohen made his name as a poet before he came to worldwide attention as a singer and songwriter. Book of Longing was twenty years in the making and written in Montreal, Mumbai, and during his retreat in Mt Baldy. These poems show the full range of one of the most influential and enigmatic writers of his generation.

The Pigeon: Popular Penguins by Patrick Suskind tells the story of Jonathan Noel, a bank security guard, who has spent 30 years meticulously shielding himself from the chaos of people and unpredictable events. However, his carefully constructed world is shattered by an unexpected encounter with a glaring pigeon, plunging him into a state of fear and insecurity. This compelling narrative...

When one long, hot summer, young Leo is staying with a school-friend at Brandham Hall, he begins to act as a messenger between Ted, the farmer, and Marian, the beautiful young woman up at the hall. He becomes drawn deeper and deeper into their dangerous game of deceit and desire, until his role brings him to a shocking and premature...

One of Waugh's most exuberant comedies, Scoop is a brilliantly irreverent satire of Fleet Street and its hectic pursuit of hot news. 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, however, and may in...

Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, school headmaster and model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils and his family with facts, he bans fancy and wonder from young adult minds. As a consequence, his obedient daughter Louisa marries the loveless businessman and 'bully of humanity' Mr Bounderby, and his son Tom rebels to become embroiled...

When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders, an eccentric group of relatives suffering from a wide variety of ailments. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people. Armed with common sense...

One ill-fated evening at the Reform Club, Phileas Fogg rashly bets his companions 20,000 pounds that he can travel around the entire globe in just eighty days - and he is determined not to lose. Travelling by train, steamship, sailing boat, sledge and even elephant, the reserved Englishman and his manservant must overcome storms, kidnappings, natural disasters, Sioux attacks and...

On an ordinary summer's afternoon, Alice tumbles down a hole and an extraordinary adventure begins. In a strange world with even stranger characters, she meets a grinning cat and a rabbit with a pocket watch, joins a mad tea-party, and plays croquet with the Queen! Lost in this fantasy land, Alice finds herself growing more and more curious by the...

First published in 1964, The Lucky Country caused a sensation. The book was a wake-up call to an unimaginative nation, an indictment of a country mired in mediocrity and manacled to its past. Valuable not only as a source of continuing truths and revealing snapshots of the past, but above all as a key to understanding the anxieties and discontents...

With his face swaddled in bandages, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses, and his hands covered even indoors, Griffin, the new guest at The Coach and Horses, is at first assumed to be a shy accident victim. But the true reason for his disguise is far more chilling: he has developed a process that has made him invisible, and is...

The ANZACS: War Popular Penguins by Patsy Adam-Smith is a profound recollection of the First World War, capturing the harrowing experiences faced by thousands of young Australians. Gallipoli served as the final resting place for many, with death arriving so swiftly that escape or burial was often impossible. Following Gallipoli was the relentless torment of the European Campaign. To craft...

The History of Sexuality, written by the renowned French philosopher Michel Foucault, opens with an in-depth examination of Western society's complex relationship with sexuality. Foucault challenges the widely held belief that the modern era has liberated sexual practices and discussions. Instead, he asserts that Western culture has crafted an entire scientific domain dedicated to forever scrutinising sexuality, thus limiting the...

Alex Garland's The Beach was published to immediate acclaim, and has since become a bestselling cult classic and a Hollywood blockbuster. Richard, a gap-year student, is introduced to a beautiful island by the mysterious Daffy. But with drugs and the glamorised violence of Vietnam War films haunting his perception of his Thai paradise, Richard soon finds the hideaway becomes a...

Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl is a delightfully dark collection of sixteen stories, each with a startling end. Among the unforgettable characters lurk the homicidal wife and her deadly leg of lamb, a conniving and lecherous wine connoisseur, and the one-eyed brain at the mercy of his vengeful spouse. Tales of the Unexpected is an astonishing assortment of...

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre to this day entrances readers with its passionate portrayal of a woman struggling to make a life for herself in a cruel and indifferent world. As orphan Jane becomes governess at Thornfield Hall, she falls in love with her employer, Mr Rochester, only to discover that he has a terrible secret, one which may jeopardise their...

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera is a brilliantly crafted, beautifully written story of love and the love-sick. Spurned as a young man, Florentino Ariza has a half century of waiting to fill before a chance to redeclare his love for Fermina Daze comes, when her husband is killed retrieving a parrot from a mango tree. Funny,...

In the sixteenth century, Zen monks in Japan developed the haiku, an unrhymed poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines. Now, in One Hundred Great Books in Haiku, David Bader has applied this ancient poetic form to the classics. From Homer to Milton to Dostoevsky, the great books are finally within reach of even the shortest attention...

In a world struggling back from the brink of apocalypse, life is harsh. But for Elspeth Gordie, born with enhanced mental abilities that would see her sterilised or burned if discovered, it is also dangerous. There is only survival by secrecy, and so she determines never to use her forbidden powers. But it is as if they have their own...

To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionist depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on a marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and bitterness. Its use of stream of consciousness, reminiscence and shifting perspectives give the novel an intimate, poetic essence. At the time of publication in 1927, it represented an utter rejection of Victorian...

Romantic, heroic, comic, and tragic, unconventional schoolmistress Jean Brodie has become an iconic figure in post-war fiction. Her glamour, freethinking ideas, and manipulative charm hold dangerous sway over her girls at the Marcia Blaine Academy – the 'crème de la crème' – who become the Brodie Set, introduced to a world of adult games they will never forget. The Prime...

As David and Rosalind grow older, it becomes more difficult to conceal the differences which would label them as mutants from the village elders. Soon, they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badlands. The Chrysalids is a post-nuclear apocalypse story of genetic mutation in a devastated world. It explores the lengths the...

Tender is the Night tells the story of Dick and Nicole Diver who have transformed the French Riviera into a playground for the rich and glamorous. Within their exclusive circle is Rosemary Hoyt, a beautiful starlet innocent to the corruption and dark secrets shadowing their marriage. As Dick becomes entangled with Rosemary, he destabilises the fragile bond with Nicole, leading...

Madame Bovary presents the compelling story of Emma Bovary, a beautiful yet dissatisfied woman, trapped in her mundane marriage to a mediocre doctor. Stifled by the banality of provincial life, Emma becomes an ardent reader of sentimental novels, longing for the passionate adventures she reads about. In pursuit of these desires, Emma indulges in fantasies of high romance, engages in...

Eight years ago, Moose Malloy and cute little redhead Velma were getting married—until someone framed Malloy for armed robbery. Now his stretch is up, and he wants Velma back. PI Philip Marlowe meets Malloy one hot day in Hollywood and, out of the generosity of his jaded heart, agrees to help him. Dragged from one smoky bar to another, Marlowe’s...

Charles Ryder, a lonely student at Oxford, is captivated by the outrageous and decadent Sebastian Flyte. Invited to Brideshead, Sebastian's magnificent family home, Charles welcomes the attentions of its eccentric, aristocratic inhabitants, gradually becoming infatuated with them and the life of privilege they inhabit—particularly with Sebastian's remote sister, Julia. However, Charles gradually comes to recognise his spiritual and social distance...

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote is a brilliant glimmer of the excitement of 1940s New York. Holly Golightly — brashly beautiful with a slim black dress, a mysterious past, and dark glasses over varicoloured eyes — entrances all the men she meets, including the young writer living above her, though her recklessness may yet catch up with her. Also...

Damon Courtenay died on the morning of April Fool's Day. In this tribute to his son, Bryce Courtenay lays bare the suffering behind this young man's life. Damon's story is one of lifelong struggle, his love for Celeste, the compassion of family, and a fight to the end for integrity. A testimony to the power of love, April Fool's Day...

Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals is a charming and comic autobiographical novel. Fleeing the gloomy British climate, the Durrell clan move to Corfu carrying the bare essentials of life: acne cures for Margo, revolvers for Leslie, books for Larry, and a jam jar full of caterpillars for Gerry. Recounted with warmth and humour, it is a heart-warming portrait...

The mid-seventies: at an all-boys Catholic school in Melbourne, Timothy Conigrave falls wildly and sweetly in love with the captain of the football team. So begins a relationship that weathers disapproval, separation and, ultimately, death. With honesty and insight, Holding the Man explores the highs and lows of any partnership, and the strength of heart both men have to find...

A Victorian scientist propels himself into the future. Entranced at first by the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man, he soon realises that this beautiful people are simply remnants of a once-great culture—now weak and childishly afraid of the dark. They have reason to be afraid: in tunnels beneath their paradise lurks another race—the sinister Morlocks. When the scientist's...

During an eventful season at Bath, young, naive Catherine Morland experiences fashionable society for the first time. She is delighted with her new acquaintances: flirtatious Isabella, who introduces Catherine to the joys of Gothic romances, and sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney, who invite her to their father's house, Northanger Abbey. There, influenced by novels of horror and intrigue, Catherine comes...

In The Fabric of the Cosmos, Brian Greene takes readers on an extraordinary grand tour of the universe, delving into the depths of space and time to uncover the deepest secrets of reality. Greene's engaging and comprehensive narrative makes this not only the best layman's guide to current scientific thinking but also an exhilarating journey through the cosmos. Greene explores...

In On Natural Selection, Charles Darwin presents a groundbreaking examination of the process by which species evolve and adapt over time. With meticulous research and keen observation, Darwin explains how natural selection drives the diversity and complexity of life on Earth. Through detailed arguments and abundant examples from nature, he demonstrates how traits that confer survival advantages are passed down...

The Jungle Book: Popular Penguins by Rudyard Kipling introduces us to Mowgli, the man-cub brought up by wolves in the jungles of Central India. Mowgli is one of the greatest literary myths ever created. As he embarks on a series of thrilling escapades, Mowgli encounters unforgettable creatures like Bagheera, the graceful black panther, and Shere Khan, the tiger with blazing...

E. H. Carr's What Is History? is the classic introduction to the theory of history. Exploding the Victorian myth of history as a simple record of fact, Carr draws on sources from Nietzsche to Herodotus to argue for a more subtle definition of history as 'an unending dialogue between the present and the past'. Lively, scholarly and challenging, this book...

The Mind of God by Paul Davies is a scientific search for the meaning of the universe. Ranging across the cosmos, Davies explores the origin of the universe, the laws of nature, mathematics, and the beginning and end of everything. Ultimately, he seeks to provide a glimpse of the meaning of it all. This is a book no inquisitive mind...

Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep is the definitive hardboiled detective story, and Philip Marlowe is the perfect expression of the cynical, world-weary gumshoe. Hired by the crippled General Sternwood to shake off a blackmailer, Marlowe also has to deal with the general's two rebellious daughters, the gamblers and pornographers they run with, and, soon enough, some inconvenient murders. Chandler's LA...

John Mortimer's Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders sees our eponymous hero tackle his first ever case. It is just after the war and two RAF heroes are found shot dead. Simon Jerold, the son of one of the victims, is the only suspect and young Rumpole is given the hopeless task of defending him. But Rumpole is determined to...

John Updike's Rabbit, Run is a classic story of dissatisfaction and restlessness. Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom was a star basketball player in high school. Now twenty-six, his life seems full of traps, the biggest being his pregnant wife and two-year-old son. He sets out to escape, but it's not clear if Rabbit is really following his heart or only chasing his...

Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson is a hymn to the English language. In examining how a second-rate, mongrel tongue came to be the undisputed language of the globe, Bryson explores English from America to Australia and looks at, among other things, swearing, spelling, spoonerisms, and Scrabble. No self-respecting English speaker should open his mouth without reading it.

Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate is a wickedly funny satire, brilliantly lampooning upper-class society. When Polly, a beautiful aristocrat, declares her love for her married, lecherous uncle—who also happens to be her mother's former lover—she sparks off a scandal that has both disastrous and delicious consequences. Love in a Cold Climate is an unforgettable tale of the absurdities...

D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover scandalised the world when it was first published in paperback, and helped put Penguin Books on trial. The powerful depiction of the sexual liaison of Constance Chatterley with the gamekeeper Mellors, while her invalid husband quietly seethes, brilliantly captures the perennial struggle between the classes and the sexes.

Hunter S. Thompson's Kingdom of Fear is the wild and outrageous autobiography from the world's most notorious journalist. It's an unrestrained and uncensored account of fast living, hard drinking, sharp writing and unimaginable drug taking; of road trips, girls, guns, bikes and being accused of trying to kill Jack Nicholson. Kingdom of Fear is both personal and political; an explosive...

How Language Works by David Crystal is a fascinating tour through the world of language from one of today's most renowned experts. This book ranges over everything from how children learn to read to what makes words rude or polite, from eyebrow flashes to whistling languages. Unlocking the secrets of communication in an accessible, entertaining way, this exhilarating book sheds...

Everything is Illuminated won the Guardian First Book Award in 2002. It tells the story of a young man who goes to Ukraine in search of the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his quest by a blind old man, a randy guide dog and a very, very bad translator.

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh is a satirical depiction of the 'sterile' generation between the wars. It tells the story of bored Lady Brenda Last, who abandons her husband's Gothic pile to conduct an affair with shallow socialite John Beaver of the Belgravia set. A Handful of Dust remains one of the finest tragedies and comedies of ill...

Nearly 420,000 Australians enlisted during the First World War, and more than half were killed, wounded or captured. The conflict was the most costly in Australia's history. In the fates of his protagonists in his acclaimed Flesh in Armour - one dies valiantly, one dies in an abject and mentally unhinged state, one survives - Mann pays tribute to the...

The Serene City beckons, promising Paradise regained for Ruth Cracknell and her husband, Eric, as they set forth on a carefully planned holiday. What they are seeking is time. Time to think, time to gaze, time for each other. But from the moment the holiday becomes an uncharted journey, their time is measured. Journey from Venice is confronting yet deeply...

This selection of poems covers the period 1972 to 2002. This beautifully elegant volume excludes the cartoon element, focusing on Leunig's brilliant texts, with all their absurdity, hilarity, poignancy, and joyfulness. Michael Leunig pokes fun at human folly and pretentiousness, deplores the idiocy of war, and revels in the redeeming power of love. Curly Verse: Selected Poems stands out as...

In these three tales from the first major translation into English of The Arabian Nights in more than 100 years, the endless inventiveness of the vizier's daughter Shahrazad is revealed. She spins stories of greed, lust, riches, and wonder to delay her death at the hands of a brutal king.

Driving one night along the deserted track that leads to the farm, Miss Hester Harper and Katherine run into a mysterious creature. They dump the body into the farm's deep well, but the voice of the injured intruder will not be stilled. The closer Katherine is drawn to the edge of the well, the farther away she gets from Hester....

In 1941, Rob Coram is six. The war feels far removed from Geraldton in Western Australia. But when his favourite older cousin Rick leaves to join the army, the war takes a step closer. When Rick returns several years later, he has changed and the old merry-go-round that represents Rob's dream of utopia begins to disintegrate before his eyes. The...

Set among the surf and sandhills of the Australian beach—and the tidal changes of three generations of the Lang family—The Bodysurfers is an Australian classic. A short-story collection which has become a bestseller and been adapted for film, television, radio, and the theatre, The Bodysurfers on its first publication marked a major change in Australian literature.

Our Sunshine is the tale of a man whose story outgrew his life. Robert Drewe's strikingly imaginative re-creation of the inner life of Ned Kelly is written with a brilliant clarity and impressionistic economy. It carries the reader into a dreamworld of astonishing and violent revelation, an entrancing and frightening landscape of murder, sexuality, persecution, robbery, vanity, politics, and corruption....

The year is 1977, and Adrian is nine. He lives with his gran and his uncle Rory; his best friend is Clinton Tull. He loves to draw and he wants a dog; he's afraid of quicksand and self-combustion. Adrian watches his suburban world, but there is much he cannot understand. He does not, for instance, know why three neighbourhood children...

Wresting his family from the easy living of 19th-century Sydney, Cornelius Laffey takes them to northern Queensland where thousands of hopefuls are digging for gold in the mud. They confront the horror of Aboriginal dispossession, and Cornelius is sacked for reporting the slaughter. It's Raining in Mango: Popular Penguins is an unforgettable tale of the other side of Australia's heritage....

In these three unforgettably intense plays, Henrik Ibsen explores the problems of personal and social morality that he perceived in the world around him and, in particular, the complex nature of truth. Hedda Gabler and Other Plays: Popular Penguins offers readers an insight into the intricate dynamics of human relationships and the moral dilemmas of society. Ibsen's compelling storytelling and...

Drawing on his experiences in the First World War, Charles Yale Harrison tells a stark and poignant story of a young man sent to fight on the Western Front. It is an unimaginably harrowing journey, especially for one not yet old enough to vote. In sparse but gripping prose, Harrison conveys a sense of the horrors of life in the...

Edgar Allan Poe is not only the finest, most terrifying writer of Gothic horror tales ever to have lived, he also wrote extraordinary poems. Here, Poe writes of the torments of ingenious, malevolent persecutors and of a mind's own sickening madness. The Pit and the Pendulum is a collection of works from a dark and brilliant genius.

A sinister Countess is driven mad by a dark secret. An innocent woman is made the instrument of retribution. A murdered man's fury reaches beyond the grave. When Countess Narona marries Agnes Lockwood's fiancé and takes him to live in a rundown Venetian palace, a servant mysteriously vanishes, and the husband dies a recluse. But the dead won't rest. When...

When Benjamin Button's father arrives at the hospital, he is surprised and ashamed to find his new baby boy is a weathered, aged man, to all appearances no younger than seventy years old. As time goes by, young Benjamin comes to no longer require a cane, his hair ceases to be grey, his limbs become less frail, his wrinkles less...

As life slips away, Gabriel looks back over his brief 20 years that have been clouded by frustration and humiliation. A small town and distant parents ensure that he is never allowed to forget the horrific mistake he made as a child. He has only two friends - his dog Surrender, and the unruly wild boy Finnigan, with whom he...

Judy's father, Captain Woolcot, found his vivacious, cheeky daughter impossible—but seven children were really too much for him, and most of the time they ran wild at their rambling riverside home, Misrule. Step inside and meet them all—dreamy Meg, and Pip, daring Judy, naughty Bunty, Nell, Baby, and the youngest, 'the General'. Come and share in their lives, their laughter,...

The game is called Beatie Bow, and the children play it for the thrill of scaring themselves. But when Abigail is drawn in, the game is quickly transformed into an extraordinary, sometimes horrifying, adventure as she finds herself transported to a place that is foreign yet strangely familiar... Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park offers a mesmerising journey that combines...

How the Light Gets In: Popular Penguins by M.J. Hyland tells the story of Lou Connor, who desires to break free from her emotionally crass family and life of poverty. To achieve this, Lou embarks on a journey from Sydney to the United States as an exchange student. Upon her arrival, she is placed with the Hardings, a host family...

Beat movement icon and visionary poet, Allen Ginsberg broke boundaries with his fearless, pyrotechnic verse. This volume brings together the poems that made his name as a defining figure of the counter-culture. The apocalyptic Howl became the subject of an obscenity trial when it was first published in 1956. Dark, ecstatic and rhapsodic, it shows why Ginsberg was one of...

Hugh and Margaret Darcy are raising their family in Sydney amid the brothels, grog shops, and rundown boarding houses of Surry Hills, where money is scarce and life is not easy. Filled with beautifully drawn characters that will make you laugh as much as cry, this Australian classic will take you straight back to the colourful slums of Sydney with...

The Thirty-Nine Steps follows the thrilling story of Richard Hannay, who finds his return to England from years in South Africa to be dreadfully monotonous. This uneventful existence in London takes a dramatic turn when a murder occurs in his flat. Just days earlier, Hannay had a chance encounter with an American who revealed an assassination plot with the potential...

The High Window by Raymond Chandler introduces us to Philip Marlowe, a private investigator entangled in a seemingly straightforward case. His client, a dried-up husk of a woman, has tasked him with retrieving a rare gold coin, the Brasher Doubloon, that has disappeared from her late husband's collection. It sounds simple enough. Maybe too simple. However, with every reappearance of...

In this haunting, magical fairy-tale collection, Oscar Wilde beautifully evokes (among others) the Happy Prince who was not so happy after all, the Selfish Giant who learned to love little children and the Star Child who did not love his parents as much as he should. Each of the stories shines with poetry and magic and will be enjoyed by...

Life is good for Buck in Santa Clara Valley, where he spends his days eating and sleeping in the golden sunshine. But one day, a treacherous act of betrayal leads to his kidnap, and he is forced into a life of toil and danger. Dragged away to be a sledge dog in the harsh and freezing cold Yukon, Buck must...

William Shakespeare's sonnets are a beautiful expression of a range of human emotions—from love to grief, anger, jealousy, and lust. Including the instantly recognisable Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? as well as a range of other equally moving works, this compilation brings together the complete collection of all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets.

A barbed attack on the British class system, Pygmalion both delighted and scandalised its first audiences in 1914. Henry Higgins is the Pygmalion figure who believes he can transform Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl, into a duchess at ease in polite society. The one thing he overlooks is that his 'creation' has a mind of her own.