CLASSICS

When John Franklin brings his plane down into Occupied France at the height of the Second World war, there are two things in his mind - the safety of his...

When the starving Durbeyfields from the small village of Marlott discover a connection to the wealthy D'Urbervilles, they send their beautiful daughter Tess to the D'Urberville mansion to claim kinship...

Epigrams, aphorisms, and other bon mots gathered from the celebrated wit's plays, essays, and conversation offer an entertaining selection of observations both comic and profound. Organized by category, the nearly...

Though Stoker did not invent vampires - and in fact based his character's life-in-death on extensive research into European folklore - his novel elevated the nocturnal monster to iconic stature,...

The quintessential adventure story that first established pirates in the popular imagination, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island is edited with an introduction by John Seelye in Penguin Classics.When a mysterious...

'He appears to be persecutor and I the persecuted: is not this difference the mere creature of the imagination?'Caleb is a guileless young servant who enters the employment of Ferdinando...

Notes from the Underground (1864) is one of the most profound works of nineteenth-century literature. A probing, speculative book, often regarded as a forerunner of the Existentialist movement, it examines...

A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great DepressionA Penguin Classic Over seventy-five years since its first publication, Steinbeck's tale of commitment, loneliness, hope, and loss remains one...

'people get out of prison, and when they get out, and their name is Edmond Dant`es, they take their revenge!'Falsely accused of treason, the young sailor Edmond Dant`es is arrested...

'That sense of the meaninglessness of existence that runs through much of twentieth-century writing - from Conrad and Kafka, to Beckett and beyond - starts in Dostoyevsky's work' Malcolm BradburyAlienated...

Accused of political subversion as a young man, Dostoyevsky was sentenced to 4 years of hard labor at a Siberian prison camp. Years later, he developed this semi-autobiographical memoir of...

Shakespeare's Macbeth is one of the greatest tragic dramas the world has known. Macbeth himself, a brave warrior, is fatally impelled by supernatural forces, by his proud wife, and by...

Hamlet is not only one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, but also the most fascinatingly problematical tragedy in world literature. First performed around 1600, this a gripping and exuberant drama of...

Its lyricism, comedy (both broad and subtle) and magical transformations have long made A Midsummer Night's Dream one of the most popular of Shakespeare's works. The supernatural and the mundane,...

Trapped in a marriage which has become sterile and joyless since her husband's return from the trenches of the First World War, partially paralysed and confined to a wheelchair, Connie...

"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart..." Crime and Punishment is one of the greatest and most readable novels ever written. From the...

With illustrations by Edward Landseer, Daniel Maclise, Clarkson Stanfield, Frank Stone, Richard Doyle, John Leech and John Tenniel, and with a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English,...

Few would dispute the claim of "War and Peace" to be regarded as the greatest novel in any language. This massive chronicle, to which Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) devoted five whole...

'As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the...

Cooper's most enduringly popular novel combines heroism and romance with powerful criticism of the destruction of nature and tradition. Set against the French and Indian siege of Fort William Henry...

When her family becomes impoverished after a disastrous financial speculation, Agnes Grey determines to find work as a governess. This is a personal perspective on the desperate position of unmarried,...

Thomas Hardy's last novel, Jude the Obscure is a fearless exploration of the hypocrisy of Victorian society, edited with an introduction by Dennis Taylor in Penguin Classics.Jude Fawley's hopes of...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. 'When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. When you know you will find...

Cease I say, cantankerous old fools /Thy deeds hath made our streets a no go zone /No more shall Montagues and Capulets /Enact their West Side Story Sharks and Jets...

Miller's groundbreaking first novel, banned in Britain for almost thirty years. A penniless and as yet unpublished writer, Henry Miller arrived in Paris in 1930. Leaving behind a disintegrating marriage...

Malcolm, Peter and Charlie and their Soave-sodden wives have one main ambition left in life: to drink Wales dry. But their routine is both shaken and stirred when they are...

First published in 1899, this novel shocked readers with its open sensuality and uninhibited treatment of marital infidelity. The poignant, lyrical story of a New Orleans wife who attempts to...