CLASSICS

Sidney Trefusis is a proselytizing socialist. Armed with irony and paradox, he is determined to overthrow a society riddled with class and sexual exploitation.Henrietta, his adoring wife, 'loves' him: he...

With his inimitable wit and sparkle, George Bernard Shaw brings us the character of Owen Jack, a salty non-conformist composer said to have been suggested by Beethoven. The relations between...

After poleaxing his mathematics master with a perfect right, Cashel Byron, the unloved son of a successful actress, runs away to Australia. He returns to England and becomes the most...

The Secret Agent is Joseph Conrad's dark satire on English society, edited with an introduction and notes by Michael Newton in Penguin Classics.In the only novel Conrad set in London,...

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...

The year's best, and darkest, tales of terror, showcasing the most outstanding new short stories and novellas by both contemporary masters of the macabre and exciting newcomers. As ever, this...

A celebrated collection of stories from one of the most important British writers of the twentieth century. Features Greene's most famous short story, 'The Destructors'.Written between 1929 and 1954, each...

The Great War changes everything. In this epic tale, spanning over a decade, war turns the world of privileged, English aristocrat Christopher Tietjens upside down. It forces him to question...

The young Gascon d'Artagnan and the legendary musketeers Athos, Porthos and Aramis are ready to sacrifice everything for love, glory and the common good. The wicked machinations of Cardinal Richelieu...

Introduction and Notes by Dr Jeff Wallace, University of Glamorgan.Lawrence's finest, most mature novel initially met with disgust and incomprehension. In the love affairs of two sisters, Ursula with Rupert,...

Far from fading with time, Kenneth Grahame's classic tale of fantasy has attracted a growing audience in each generation. Rat, Mole, Badger and the preposterous Mr Toad (with his 'Poop-poop-poop'...

Introduction and Notes by Dr Howard J. Booth, University of Kent at Canterbury.'When you have experienced Sons and Lovers you have lived through the agonies of the young Lawrence striving...

Introduced and Annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex.Three Men in a Boat is a comic classic. When it first appeared in 1889 it...

With an Introduction and Notes by David Ellis, University of Kent at Canterbury. With Illustrations by R.Seymour, R.W. Buss and Hablot K. Browne (Phiz).The Pickwick Papers is Dickens' first novel...

With an Introduction and Notes by Sally MinogueThe Shirley of the title is a woman of independent means; her friend Caroline is not. Both struggle with what a woman's role...

Introduction and Notes by R.T. Jones, Honorary Fellow of the University of York.This novel, based on George Eliot's own experiences of provincial life, is a masterpiece of ambiguity in which...

With an Introduction and Notes by Lionel Kelly, University of Reading.Also included are two short stories:The Veteran * The Open BookThe Red Badge of Courage is one of the greatest...

With an Introduction and Notes by David Ellis, University of Kent at Canterbury.In the first part of this famous work, published in 1821 but then revised and expanded in 1856,...

With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex.Kim is Rudyard Kipling's finest work. Now controversial, this novel is a memorably vivid evocation of the...

The Brothers Grimm rediscovered a host of fairy tales, telling of princes and princesses in their castles, witches in their towers and forests, of giants and dwarfs, of fabulous animals...

These witty stories were originally told by Rudyard Kipling to his own children. In them he gives fanciful accounts of how and why things came to be as they are.Generations...

Mary Lennox was horrid. Selfish and spoilt, she was sent to stay with her hunchback uncle in Yorkshire. She hated it. But when she finds the way into a secret...

The Swiss Family Robinson is a story of the happy discovery of the wonders of natural history by a family shipwrecked on a desert island, who remain united through all...

The beautiful Scheherazade's royal husband threatens to kill her, so each night she diverts him by weaving wonderful tales of fantastic adventure, leaving each story unfinished so that he spares...

Little Women is one of the best-loved children's stories of all time, based on the author's own youthful experiences. It describes the family life of the four March sisters living...

The Jungle Book introduces Mowgli, the human foundling adopted by a family of wolves. It tells of the enmity between him and the tiger Shere Khan, who killed Mowgli's parents,...

The magical Peter Pan comes to the night nursery of the Darling children, Wendy, John and Michael. He teaches them to fly, then takes them through the sky to Never-Never...

Heidi is the heart-warming tale of a small girl's power for good, and it has remained a firm favourite since it was published over 100 years ago. It has been...

Robin Hood is the best-loved outlaw of all time.In this edition, Henry Gilbert tells of the adventures of the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest - Robin himself, Little John, Friar...

When Jerry, Jimmy and Cathy discover a tunnel that leads to a castle, they pretend that it is enchanted. But when they discover a Sleeping Princess at the centre of...

Katy Carr is untidy, tall and gangling and lives with her brothers and sisters planning for the day when she will be "beautiful and beloved, and amiable as an angel".An...

Molly is desperately disappointed when, instead of the longed-for silver bangle, her Aunt Phoebe sends her a small, grey, pumpkin-shaped pincushion for her birthday. But at night, when the full...

This book contains over forty of the best-loved fairy stories, retold by Flora Annie Steel, and beautifully illustrated by Arthur Rackham.Favourites such as Jack the Giant-killer, Jack and the Beanstalk,...

Motherless Sara Crewe was sent home from India to school at Miss Minchin's. Her father was immensely rich and she became 'show pupil' - a little princess. Then her father...

When the Cuthberts send to an orphanage for a boy to help them at Green Gables, their farm in Canada, they are astonished when a talkative little girl steps off...

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb was written to be an 'introduction to the study of Shakespeare', but are much more entertaining than that. All of Shakespeare's best-loved...

The sixty-four poems in A Child's Garden of Verses are a masterly evocation of childhood from the author of Treasure Island and Kidnapped. They are full of delightful irony, wit...

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat, Calico Pie and The Pobble Who Has No Toes, together with Edward Lear's crazy limericks, have entertained adults and children alike for over 100 years.This...

Andrew Lang draws on his classical learning to recount the Homeric legend of the wars between the Greeks and the Trojans. Paris, Helen of Troy, Achilles, Hector, Ulysses, the Amazons...

Introduction and Notes by Robert Hampson, Royal Holloway College, University of London.Nostromo is the only man capable of the decisive action needed to save the silver of the San Tome...