Penguin Modern Classics
1289 books in this series
East of Eden
'There is only one book to a man,' John Steinbeck wrote of East of Eden. 'It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years.' Set in the Salinas Valley in California, this powerful, often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly re-enact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
Considered by many to be Steinbeck's masterpiece, this enduring novel, filled with some of Steinbeck's most memorable characters, has been adapted into a flagship Netflix limited series, directed by Zoe Kazan, with Florence Pugh starring as the beautiful, dangerous Cathy Ames.
Considered by many to be Steinbeck's masterpiece, this enduring novel, filled with some of Steinbeck's most memorable characters, has been adapted into a flagship Netflix limited series, directed by Zoe Kazan, with Florence Pugh starring as the beautiful, dangerous Cathy Ames.
Vilhelm's Room
I want to write a book about Vilhelm’s room and the events which took place in it, or arose from it; those that led to Lise’s death, which I have survived only so that I might write down the story of her and Vilhelm...
The ripples from a breakup radiate outwards from the room where a married couple once loved each other, and a bizarre Lonely Hearts advert sets off a train of tragicomic events that lead to an inevitable conclusion. Tove Ditlevsen’s final novel – published a year before her suicide in 1976 – is a masterful conclusion to a great work of writing: a blackly funny and devastating tour-de-force that pulses with life even as it journeys towards death.
The ripples from a breakup radiate outwards from the room where a married couple once loved each other, and a bizarre Lonely Hearts advert sets off a train of tragicomic events that lead to an inevitable conclusion. Tove Ditlevsen’s final novel – published a year before her suicide in 1976 – is a masterful conclusion to a great work of writing: a blackly funny and devastating tour-de-force that pulses with life even as it journeys towards death.
Trafalgar
Part pulp adventure, part otherworldly meditation, this is the story of Trafalgar Medrano: intergalactic trader and lover of bitter coffee and black cigarettes. In the bars and cafés of Rosario, Argentina, he recounts tall tales of his space escapades - involving, among other things, time travel and dancing troglodytes.
Cosmopolitan, philosophical and, above all else, pure fun, Angélica Gorodischer's Trafalgar is a unique blend of science fiction, magical realism and shaggy-dog tale from one of Argentina's most distinctive writers.
Cosmopolitan, philosophical and, above all else, pure fun, Angélica Gorodischer's Trafalgar is a unique blend of science fiction, magical realism and shaggy-dog tale from one of Argentina's most distinctive writers.
Kalpa Imperial
In city squares and golden palaces, a series of storytellers recount the history of the greatest Empire that never was: a history in which orphans rise from the underworld to the throne, mad emperors raze cities, captive dancers induce fatal delirium and murderous empresses plot against their own children.
Angélica Gorodischer’s novel, masterfully translated by Ursula K. Le Guin, conjures a vivid fictional universe of labyrinthine cities, desert caravans and the lawless South – and of an Empire fated to rise, fall and rise again.
Angélica Gorodischer’s novel, masterfully translated by Ursula K. Le Guin, conjures a vivid fictional universe of labyrinthine cities, desert caravans and the lawless South – and of an Empire fated to rise, fall and rise again.
Letters
You and I met and fell in love passionately, impatiently, dangerously. I regret nothing and I feel that these last days I’ve lived are enough to justify a life. – Albert Camus to Maria Casarès, 1st July 1944
Their affair began in wartime Paris. Maria Casarès, a young Spanish actress, was starring in a production of the great writer’s play The Misunderstanding, and at an after-party hosted by Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, they embarked on a brief but passionate relationship. Separated by the end of the Occupation and the return of Camus’s wife to Paris, the couple were reunited by chance one day on the boulevard Saint-Germain, and from that day forward – until the fatal car crash that took Camus’s life in 1960 – they were inseparable.
Their correspondence, uninterrupted for over a decade, is testimony to the depth of their connection while also offering a vivid portrait of artistic life in post-war Europe. Camus and Casarès debate books and politics; describe encounters with Colette, Cocteau, Gide and Picasso; discuss stardom and everyday life, their love of the sea and nature, their doubts and dreams. Above all, they describe a relationship that feels like an impossible gift.
Translated into English for the first time by Sandra Smith and Cory Stockwell, these 865 letters reveal the intimate personal lives of two extraordinary artists, and record one of the great love affairs of the twentieth century.
Their affair began in wartime Paris. Maria Casarès, a young Spanish actress, was starring in a production of the great writer’s play The Misunderstanding, and at an after-party hosted by Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, they embarked on a brief but passionate relationship. Separated by the end of the Occupation and the return of Camus’s wife to Paris, the couple were reunited by chance one day on the boulevard Saint-Germain, and from that day forward – until the fatal car crash that took Camus’s life in 1960 – they were inseparable.
Their correspondence, uninterrupted for over a decade, is testimony to the depth of their connection while also offering a vivid portrait of artistic life in post-war Europe. Camus and Casarès debate books and politics; describe encounters with Colette, Cocteau, Gide and Picasso; discuss stardom and everyday life, their love of the sea and nature, their doubts and dreams. Above all, they describe a relationship that feels like an impossible gift.
Translated into English for the first time by Sandra Smith and Cory Stockwell, these 865 letters reveal the intimate personal lives of two extraordinary artists, and record one of the great love affairs of the twentieth century.
Dubliners
'Joyce's early short stories remain undimmed in their brilliance' Sunday Times
James Joyce's earliest major work, written when he was only twenty-five, brought his city to the world for the first time. The stories within Dubliners are rooted in the rich detail of Dublin life, portraying ordinary, often defeated lives with unflinching realism. Joyce writes of social decline, sexual desire and exploitation, corruption and personal failure, yet creates a brilliantly compelling, unique vision of the world and human experience.
'Joyce redeems his Dubliners, assures their identity, and makes their social existence appear permanent and immortal, like the streets they walk' Tom Paulin
With a new introduction and notes by Anne Fogarty.
James Joyce's earliest major work, written when he was only twenty-five, brought his city to the world for the first time. The stories within Dubliners are rooted in the rich detail of Dublin life, portraying ordinary, often defeated lives with unflinching realism. Joyce writes of social decline, sexual desire and exploitation, corruption and personal failure, yet creates a brilliantly compelling, unique vision of the world and human experience.
'Joyce redeems his Dubliners, assures their identity, and makes their social existence appear permanent and immortal, like the streets they walk' Tom Paulin
With a new introduction and notes by Anne Fogarty.
Exiles
‘The undertow of unspoken feeling is tumultuous, and although hardly anything happens the action amounts to a fearful adventure’ New York Times
James Joyce’s play Exiles follows the story of writer Richard Rowan, who, along with his 'common-law wife’ Bertha and their son Archie, has come home to Dublin after ten years away. The couple’s return triggers an existential questioning, an anxiousness which is exacerbated by meetings with old friends and lovers. All this is set against the background of the summer of 1912, when Ireland and even England were threatening to tear themselves apart over Ulster. Exiles is a profound exploration of jealousy, doubt and the complexity of human desire; it is also about the torments of disunion in both the public and private realm.
With a new introduction and notes by Andrew Gibson.
James Joyce’s play Exiles follows the story of writer Richard Rowan, who, along with his 'common-law wife’ Bertha and their son Archie, has come home to Dublin after ten years away. The couple’s return triggers an existential questioning, an anxiousness which is exacerbated by meetings with old friends and lovers. All this is set against the background of the summer of 1912, when Ireland and even England were threatening to tear themselves apart over Ulster. Exiles is a profound exploration of jealousy, doubt and the complexity of human desire; it is also about the torments of disunion in both the public and private realm.
With a new introduction and notes by Andrew Gibson.
Finnegans Wake
'A great comic vision, one of the few books of the world that can make us laugh aloud on nearly every page' - Anthony Burgess
James Joyce's final work, Finnegans Wake, conjures up the dark underground worlds of sexuality and dream with supreme linguistic virtuosity. Here Joyce undermines traditional storytelling and the English language, and confronts the different kinds of betrayal – cultural, political and sexual – that he saw at the heart of Irish history. Dazzlingly inventive, with passages of great lyrical beauty and humour, Finnegans Wake remains one of the most remarkable works of the twentieth century.
‘Here words are not the polite contortions of twentieth-century printer’s ink. They are alive. They elbow their way on to the page, and glow and blaze and fade and disappear’ Samuel Beckett
With a new introduction by Brian Fox.
James Joyce's final work, Finnegans Wake, conjures up the dark underground worlds of sexuality and dream with supreme linguistic virtuosity. Here Joyce undermines traditional storytelling and the English language, and confronts the different kinds of betrayal – cultural, political and sexual – that he saw at the heart of Irish history. Dazzlingly inventive, with passages of great lyrical beauty and humour, Finnegans Wake remains one of the most remarkable works of the twentieth century.
‘Here words are not the polite contortions of twentieth-century printer’s ink. They are alive. They elbow their way on to the page, and glow and blaze and fade and disappear’ Samuel Beckett
With a new introduction by Brian Fox.
Poems
'His writing is not about something; it is that something itself' Samuel Beckett
James Joyce's towering genius as a novelist has often overshadowed his achievements as a poet, yet his verse occupies a pivotal position in his career. This new edition comprises all the poetry that was published in Joyce's lifetime, including his highly accomplished 1907 debut Chamber Music, which fused exuberant lyricism with sharp irony, and the later collection Pomes Penyeach, which confronted adultery, jealousy and betrayal. Also included here are the satirical poems ‘The Holy Office’ and ‘Gas from a Burner’, and ‘Ecce Puer’, written for his new-born grandson.
With a new introduction and notes by Clare Hutton.
James Joyce's towering genius as a novelist has often overshadowed his achievements as a poet, yet his verse occupies a pivotal position in his career. This new edition comprises all the poetry that was published in Joyce's lifetime, including his highly accomplished 1907 debut Chamber Music, which fused exuberant lyricism with sharp irony, and the later collection Pomes Penyeach, which confronted adultery, jealousy and betrayal. Also included here are the satirical poems ‘The Holy Office’ and ‘Gas from a Burner’, and ‘Ecce Puer’, written for his new-born grandson.
With a new introduction and notes by Clare Hutton.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
‘There is nothing more vivid or beautiful in all Joyce’s writings. It has the searing clarity of truth’ Sunday Times
The portrayal of Stephen Dedalus’s Dublin childhood and youth, his quest for identity through art and his gradual emancipation from the claims of family, religion and Ireland itself, is also an oblique self-portrait of the young James Joyce and a universal testament to the artist’s ‘eternal imagination’.
‘Joyce’s depiction of the early Dublin life of Stephen Dedalus towers over modern literature, providing a stylistic blueprint and creative touchstone for artists young and old’ Guardian
‘James Joyce was and remains almost unique among novelists in that he published nothing but masterpieces’ The Times Literary Supplement
With a new introduction by Joseph Brooker and notes by Steven Morrison.
The portrayal of Stephen Dedalus’s Dublin childhood and youth, his quest for identity through art and his gradual emancipation from the claims of family, religion and Ireland itself, is also an oblique self-portrait of the young James Joyce and a universal testament to the artist’s ‘eternal imagination’.
‘Joyce’s depiction of the early Dublin life of Stephen Dedalus towers over modern literature, providing a stylistic blueprint and creative touchstone for artists young and old’ Guardian
‘James Joyce was and remains almost unique among novelists in that he published nothing but masterpieces’ The Times Literary Supplement
With a new introduction by Joseph Brooker and notes by Steven Morrison.
Ulysses
‘It is a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape’ T. S. Eliot
Following the events of one single day in Dublin, 16 June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly, Ulysses has been censored, attacked, and deemed profoundly subversive and blasphemous. Ceaselessly inventive, hilarious, garrulous, sorrowful, vulgar, lyrical and ultimately redemptive, it is simultaneously a great novel, a beacon light of the European avant-garde and a modern Irish epic. This new edition has been reset from the original 1922 text, which is now recognized as a key scholarly and historical document.
‘Language is the hero and heroine – language in constant fluxion, and with a dazzling virtuosity’ Edna O’Brien
Edited with a new introduction by Andrew Gibson.
Following the events of one single day in Dublin, 16 June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly, Ulysses has been censored, attacked, and deemed profoundly subversive and blasphemous. Ceaselessly inventive, hilarious, garrulous, sorrowful, vulgar, lyrical and ultimately redemptive, it is simultaneously a great novel, a beacon light of the European avant-garde and a modern Irish epic. This new edition has been reset from the original 1922 text, which is now recognized as a key scholarly and historical document.
‘Language is the hero and heroine – language in constant fluxion, and with a dazzling virtuosity’ Edna O’Brien
Edited with a new introduction by Andrew Gibson.
Engagement
‘I want to have him, I really do. I just don’t want him to have me.’
Martina and Gustav, students in 1970s Stockholm, meet and fall immediately into coupledom. But what is coupledom? A route to marriage? A declaration of co-dependency? A new dimension of commitment and responsibility? A sexual confrontation? Or is it a habit that an intelligent person must consider breaking? Martina and Gustav discuss their relationship endlessly, between themselves and with others, as they try to make it work.
Engagement, set during a time of social change and political upheaval, sees Martina trying to engage with the world on her own terms. Unwilling to marry, she finds herself in a state of permanent engagement while her friends settle down to marriage and children; uncertain of the world’s future, she engages with demos, sit-ins and philosophy seminars in her quest for a new blueprint for joy. First published in 1976, when it was heralded as an instant classic, Engagement remains as relevant, hilarious and heartbreaking today.
Martina and Gustav, students in 1970s Stockholm, meet and fall immediately into coupledom. But what is coupledom? A route to marriage? A declaration of co-dependency? A new dimension of commitment and responsibility? A sexual confrontation? Or is it a habit that an intelligent person must consider breaking? Martina and Gustav discuss their relationship endlessly, between themselves and with others, as they try to make it work.
Engagement, set during a time of social change and political upheaval, sees Martina trying to engage with the world on her own terms. Unwilling to marry, she finds herself in a state of permanent engagement while her friends settle down to marriage and children; uncertain of the world’s future, she engages with demos, sit-ins and philosophy seminars in her quest for a new blueprint for joy. First published in 1976, when it was heralded as an instant classic, Engagement remains as relevant, hilarious and heartbreaking today.
The Paranoid Style in American Politics
'American political life … has served again and again as an arena for uncommonly angry minds'
How can a country be captured by rumours, surreal conspiracy theories and the most brazen of conmen? The historian Richard Hofstadter asked these questions in the 1960s, amid fears of rising extremism in America. Yet his dazzling dissection of the paranoid worldview – a brew of overheated exaggeration, suspicion and perceived victimhood, which can derail entire nations – is a lesson for the ages in the seductive politics of the irrational.
In an era where we feel assailed by endless paranoid public statements, Hofstadter’s discussion of famous and obscure untruths, some of which have profoundly impacted American domestic and foreign policy, provide the antidote for the present day.
The Issa Valley
'Thomas was born in the village of Gine at that time of year when a ripe apple thumps to the ground during an afternoon lull.' So a boy's life begins in a winding river valley on the Polish-Russian border where time is measured by seasonal rhythms and ancient songs. For Thomas, the ghosts in the forest are as real as the magical water-snakes that live in the Issa; in the village he is entranced by the women with their cinched waists and the men in their long boots. But when he is shown a map, he discovers a kingdom all his own and starts to dream of leaving the valley behind.
Letter to My Judge
My dear Judge, I would like one man, just one, to understand me. And I really hope that man can be you.
In a small town in western France, Dr Charles Alavoine seems to lead the perfect life: his own medical practice, two beautiful children, a new wife and a doting mother. Yet as each quiet day of bourgeois conformity passes, Alavoine begins to feel a sharp sense of futility and solitude. Then, one rainy day in December, he meets a mysterious young woman on a station platform. Fascinated by her innocence and the scars of her past, Alavoine’s passion soon gives way to obsession, as he is drawn deeper into a web of desire and deceit, ending in a terrible act that will forever change the course of his life.
First published in 1947, Letter to My Judge is a masterful exploration of the darkest corners of the human soul, and a harrowing exorcism of Simenon’s phantoms.
In a small town in western France, Dr Charles Alavoine seems to lead the perfect life: his own medical practice, two beautiful children, a new wife and a doting mother. Yet as each quiet day of bourgeois conformity passes, Alavoine begins to feel a sharp sense of futility and solitude. Then, one rainy day in December, he meets a mysterious young woman on a station platform. Fascinated by her innocence and the scars of her past, Alavoine’s passion soon gives way to obsession, as he is drawn deeper into a web of desire and deceit, ending in a terrible act that will forever change the course of his life.
First published in 1947, Letter to My Judge is a masterful exploration of the darkest corners of the human soul, and a harrowing exorcism of Simenon’s phantoms.
Twilight in Musashino
Musashino, 1959. A young Japanese flight attendant is found strangled on the icy banks of the river. The police suspect foul play – but the deeper they dig, the more they collide with a wall of silence.
At the centre of it all stands a foreign priest and the Guglielmo Church, a charitable Christian mission. The dead woman’s connection to the church is undeniable. But what begins as a routine investigation quickly turns into something far more treacherous, entangling together narcotics, post-war relief schemes and the delicate web of international diplomacy.
As the story moves from back alleys to diplomatic sanctuaries, following the twists and turns of Detective Fujisawa's investigation, Seicho Matsumoto masterfully constructs a slow-burning procedural where truth is clear but justice is not permitted.
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