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
'Drunk or sober, king or soldier, none will be excluded'
Sensual, profound, delighted, wise, Hafez's poems have enchanted their readers for more than 600 years. One of the greatest figures of worl
'To the utterly at-one with Siva
there's no dawn.'
Meditative, deeply personal poems to the god Siva, from four major Hindu saints.
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80
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
The greatest of Elizabethan pamphleteers, Nashe had a magical ability with words, never more so than in The Terrors of the Night, where he mulls over ghosts, demons, nightmares and the supernatural.
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
From one of the most daring writers of fin-de-siècle America, five stories of awakening that range from Louisiana's plantations and poverty-stricken bayous to its gilded cities.
Introducing Little
A problem of space first of all, then a problem of order'
One of the most singular and extravagant imaginations of the twentieth century, the novelist and essayist Georges Perec was a true origina
A satirical portrait of a drunken, orgiastic Roman banquet, hosted by the grossly ostentatious Trimalchio.
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Cla
But I ran up the broken stairway, and came out suddenly, as if by a miracle, clean on the platform of my San Tommaso, in the tremendous sunshine.'
Four personal, sun-drenched sketches of Lawrence'
Scholar, spy, diplomat and supreme propagandist for Elizabethan sea power, Richard Hakluyt's accounts of famed explorers mythologised a nation growing rapidly aware of the size and strangeness of the
The tragic, epic love affair that allowed Jason to get the Golden Fleece.
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range an
A story of forbidden sexual passion and thwarted dreams set against the backdrop of a lush summer in rural Massachusetts
Seventeen-year-old Charity Royall is desperate to escape life with her hard
A coiffured con man travels across Russia's rural backwaters, buying the souls of dead serfs from their owners to make his fortune, in Gogol's exuberant, bravura masterwork: the greatest comedy in Ru
All the world was mad around her and she herself, agonized, took on the complexion of a mad woman; of a woman very wicked.
In 'the saddest story I have ever heard', a naive American abroad unfolds
'The hideous, then unfamiliar shriek of the air-raid sirens sang out over London.'
Upper-class rogues, bohemians, dowagers, socialites, bureaucrats and delinquent evacuees prepare for England to c
In 1851, at the age of twenty-two, Tolstoy joined the Russian army and travelled to the Caucasus as a soldier. The four years that followed were among the most significant in his life, and deeply inf
'Is it me you love, friend? or the race that made me?'
A gothic novella about love, torment and doomed aristocracy, set in the remote mountains of Spain.
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 b
This dreamlike meditation on being young and alone in Paris is a feverish work of nerves, angst and sublime beauty from one of the twentieth century's greatest poets.
'Even bigger than Japan is the inside of your head. Don't ever surrender yourself - not to Japan, not to anything'
A shy, unworldly young student has his eyes opened to Tokyo's bustling metropolis
"The vivid, impassioned writings collected together in this powerful volume chronicle Orwell's first-hand experiences of life among the underclass of the 'two nations' of rich and poor.
Down and Ou
George Orwell's experience of the Spanish Civil War had a transformative effect on his life and work. This volume brings together his complete writings on the war, including Homage to Catalonia, his
Two of Ruskin's most powerful essays: 'Traffic' and 'The Roots of Honour'
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range an
A gripping, intensely atmospheric story of love, espionage and betrayal in wartime Shanghai, Lust, Caution is accompanied here by four more shimmering tales of Chinese life.
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
'Out of the hideously scarred soil of Flanders rose black, splintered trunks of trees'
In one of the greatest war memoirs ever written, an ordinary German soldier recalls the horror and bloodlust
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
'Rich. . . eclectic. . . a feast' Telegraph
Jhumpa Lahiri's landmark collection brings together forty writers that reflect over a hundred years of Italy's vibrant and diverse short story tradition
"Much of George Orwell's best writing, brought together in this comprehensive collection, is concerned with England, a country that he found both endearing and frustrating.
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