The young naturalist W. N. P. Barbellion described this remarkably candid record of living with multiple sclerosis as 'a study in the nude'. It begins as an ambitious teenager's notes on the natural
It is Spring. A young woman, left by her husband, starts a new life in a Tokyo apartment. Territory of Light follows her over the course of a year, as she struggles to bring up her two-year-old daugh
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 writ
A superb new translation by Michael Hofmann of some of Kafka's most frightening and visionary short fiction
Strange beasts, night terrors, absurd bureaucrats and sinister places abound in this col
A beautiful Penguin Classics clothbound edition of Tolstoy's magnificent epic novel of love, conflict, fate and human life in all its imperfection and grandeur
At a glittering society party in St
Gertrude Stein, as a college student at Radcliffe and a medical student at Johns Hopkins Medical School, was a privileged woman, but she was surrounded by women who were trapped by poverty, class, an
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.
Emerging from
The planet's population has exploded. The 35 million inhabitants of New York City run their TVs off pedal power, riot for water, trample for lentil 'steaks', and sweat beneath a sweltering sun. Amid
'Unlike any other person I had come across, Welch seemed to be speaking particularly to me' Alan Bennett
'Vivid ... surprising ... an exquisite balance of pain and beauty' Guardian
Orvil Pym do
A selection of Rossetti's most famous poems, from the hallucinatory 'Goblin Market' to 'In the bleak mid-winter'
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Bla
Chekhov's genius left an indelible impact on every literary form in which he wrote, but none more so than short fiction. Now, renowned translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky give us their
On the Road swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveller and mystic, the living epitome of
Recently widowed, the unscrupulous and beautiful Lady Susan Vernon is determined to scheme her way through high society in the hope of a profitable new match - all while trying to marry off her unfor
Step into the unsettling world of Shirley Jackson with a collection of her finest, creepiest short stories, revealing the queen of American gothic at her mesmerising best. This selection includes 'Th
'I want to be considered a jazz poet blowing a long blues in an afternoon jam session on Sunday'
Freewheeling and spontaneous, Mexico City Blues is Jack Kerouac's most significant and emblematic p
Driven out into the night by the bitterness of his life, an Englishman finds himself contemplating the night sky - its immensity, its mystery. Without explanation, he suddenly finds himself floating
A masterful tale of murder and intrigue in a small French town, from the celebrated author of the Maigret series
Not only had the rain in the dark streets, with a halo around each light and reflec
'Women so empowered are dangerous'
Written with a 'black woman's anger' and the precision of a poet, these searing pieces by the groundbreaking writer Audre Lorde are a celebration of female stren
'One of the greatest elegies in the English language, a book which transcends time' Margaret Drabble
To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionistic depiction of a family, the Ramseys, whose
Daring, energetic, and struck through with linguistic inventiveness, Warm Worlds and Otherwise is one of the most influential short story collections in all of science fiction, and one of the princip
A pioneering work of dystopian fiction from one of Sweden's most acclaimed writers
Written midway between Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four, as the terrible events of the Second World War w
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 celebrate the huge
A newly married woman longs, irrationally, for a silk umbrella; a husband chases away his wife's beloved cat; a betrayed mother impulsively sacks her housekeeper. Underneath the surface of these pre
Ever since it exploded into Vietnam's cultural life two centuries ago, The Song of Kieu has been one of that nation's most beloved and defining central myths. It recounts the tragic fate of the beaut
Clear, bright, burnished ... the moods that it expresses are a true kind of poetry' The New York Times
Tracing the lives of a group of friends, The Waves follows their development from childhood t
When two rich young gentlemen move to town, they don't go unnoticed - especially when Mrs Bennett vows to have one of her five daughters marry into their fortunes. But love, as Jane and Elizabeth Ben
From the bestselling author of Alone in Berlin, his acclaimed novel of a young couple trying to survive life in 1930s Germany
'Nothing so confronts a woman with the deathly futility of her existen
One of the most important philosophical works of all time, in a new Penguin Classics translation by Adam Beresford
'Right and wrong is a human thing'
What does it mean to be a good person? Aris
A major anthology of great Japanese short stories introduced by Haruki Murakami
This is a celebration of the Japanese short story from its modern origins in the nineteenth century to remarkable co
Summary
One of the greatest translations of all time: Scott Moncrieff's classic version of Proust, published in three volumes
Proust's masterpiece is one of the seminal works of the twentieth cen