2012

The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, a cycle of 154 linked poems, were first published or 'entered' at Stationers' Hall by the publisher Thomas Thorpe on 20th May 1609. This 400th-anniversary edition contains all of the poems and they deal with many of Shakespeare's most common themes: jealousy,

An ageing king makes a capricious decision to divide his realm among his three daughters according to the love they express for him. When the youngest daughter refuses to take part in this charade, she is banished, leaving the king dependent on her manipulative and untrustworthy sisters. In the

Collected here are Gogol's finest tales - from the demon-haunted 'St John's Eve' to the strange surrealism of 'The Nose', from the heart-rending trials of the copyist in 'The Overcoat' to those of the delusional clerk in 'The Diary of a Madman' - allowing readers to experience anew the

Meet Balram Halwai, the 'White Tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer. Balram was born in a backwater village on the River Ganges, the son of a rickshaw-puller. He works in a teashop, crushing coal and wiping tables, but nurses a dream of escape. When he learns that a rich village

Wilkie Collins' classic story, The Woman in White, is one of the great mystery thrillers of the nineteenth century and beyond. It is a wonderful combination of rich characterisation and cunning melodrama which ensnares the reader from its opening pages. The novel features one of the strongest

Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends, George and Harris, decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a T. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead. Three Men in a Boat was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, and, with

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the English countryside and into his past . . . A haunting tale of lost causes and lost love, The Remains of the Day, winner of the Booker Prize, contains Ishiguro's

A tremendous, emotionally stirring tragedy, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame features one of literature's most striking creations Quasimodo, the hideously deformed bellringer of Notre-Dame de Paris during the turbulent final years of the fifteenth century. Rejected by all but the priest Claude Frollo,

"First Drop of Crimson is a passionate and tantalizing tale, filled with dark sensuality and fast-paced action. The lead couple is irresistible--a gutsy heroine to cheer for and a smoldering hero to die for. An unforgettable story!" --Kresley Cole, New York Times bestselling author Jeaniene

Welcome to Panem, the world of The Hunger Games. This is the definitive, richly illustrated, full-colour guide to all the districts of Panem, all the participants in The Hunger Games, and the life and home of Katniss Everdeen. This is a must-have for fans of both the "Hunger Games" novels and the

This is the "Penguin English Library Edition" of "The Warden" by Anthony Trollope. 'It was so hard that the pleasant waters of his little stream should be disturbed and muddied ...that his quiet paths should be made a battlefield: that the unobtrusive corner of the world which been allotted to

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler 'The greater part of every family is always odious; if there are one or two good ones in a very large family, it is as much as can be expected' Written with great humour, irony and honesty, The Way of All Flesh

This is the "Penguin English Library Edition" of "The Small House at Allington" by Anthony Trollope. "What a villain you are ...a villain and a poor weak silly fool. She was too good for you." Engaged to the ambitious and self-serving Adolphus Crosbie, Lily Dale is devastated when he jilts her

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by james Hogg 'He was constantly harassed with the idea, that the next time he lifted his eyes, he would to a certainty see that face, the most repulsive to all his feelings of aught the earth

This is the "Penguin English Library Edition" of "The Return of the Native" by Thomas Hardy. 'Do I desire unreasonably much in wanting what is called life - music, poetry, passion, war, and all the beating and pulsing that is going on in the great arteries of the world?' Tempestuous Eustacia

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy 'Here - I am waiting to know about this offer of mine. The woman is no good to me. Who'll have her?' In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair.

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot If life had no love in it, what else was there for Maggie? Tragic and moving, The Mill on the Floss is a novel of grand passions and tormented lives. As the rebellious Maggie's fiery spirit and imaginative nature bring

The Penguin English Library Edition of The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton 'It was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions' A searing, shocking tale of women as consumer items in a man's world, The House of

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells 'That black figure, with its eyes of fire, struck down through all my adult thoughts and feelings, and for a moment the forgotten horrors of childhood came back to my mind' Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the

This is the "Penguin English Library Edition" of "The Last Chronicle of Barset" by Anthony Trollope. "He is so scandalously weak, and she is so radically vicious, that they cannot but be wrong together. The very fact that such a man should be a bishop among us is to me terribly strong evidence of

Leo Tolstoy combined detailed physical description with perceptive psychological insight to sweep aside the sham of surface appearances and lay bare man's intimate gestures, acts, and thoughts. Murder and sacrifice...greed and devotion...lust and affection...vanity and love--one by one, in this

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Confidence - Man and Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville 'Life is a pic-nic en costume; one must take a part, assume a character, stand ready in a sensible way to play the fool' In The Confidence-Man, Melville's unnerving and hallucinatory satire on

Oscar Wilde's infamous wit, taste for scandal, and gift for revealing the hypocrisies of fashionable society are on display here in this collection of his finest plays. A genius both of and ahead of his time, he built his craft on the eternal questions of right and wrong--with pithy dialogue as

The most inspirational and affirmational Bible stories compiled into an accessible, pocket-sized guide perfect for the contemporary Christian lifestyle. From the awe-inspiring story of the Creation to the defeats and triumphs of the Children of Israel and the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus,

The Penguin English Library Edition of Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy "I would be content, ay, glad, to live with you as your servant, if I may not as your wife; so that I could only be near you, and get glimpses of you, and think of you as mine ... I long for only one thing in heaven

The Penguin English Library Edition of Shirley by Charlotte Bronte 'Alas, Experience! No other mentor has so wasted and frozen a face as yours: none wears a robe so black, none bears a rod so heavy ...' Struggling manufacturer Robert Moore has introduced labour saving machinery to his Yorkshire

The Penguin English Library Edition of Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence '"She was a brazen hussy." "She wasn't. - And she was pretty, wasn't she?" "I didn't look ... And tell your girls, my son, that when they're running after you, they're not to come and ask your mother for you - tell them

The Penguin English Library Edition of New Grub Street by George Gissing 'If only I had the skill, I would produce novels out-trashing the trashiest that ever sold fifty thousand copies' In New Grub Street George Gissing re-created a microcosm of London's literary society as he had experienced

This is the "Penguin English Library Edition" of "Nicholas Nickleby" by Charles Dickens. '"I may grow rich!" repeated Nicholas, with a mournful smile, "ay, and I may grow old. But rich or poor, or old or young, we shall ever be the same to each other, and in that our comfort lies"'. The work of

The Penguin English Library Edition of Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell "The rich know nothing of the trials of the poor; I say, if they don't know, they ought to know. We're their slaves as long as we can work; we pile up their fortunes with the sweat of our brows, and yet we are to live as

The Penguin English Library Edition of Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin 'My hour is come ... the clock of eternity is about to strike, but its knell must be unheard by mortal ears!' This violent, profound, baroque and blackly humorous novel is the story of Melmoth, who has sold his soul in

Louisa May Alcott shares the innocence of girlhood in this classic coming of age story about four sisters--Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy are responsible for keeping a home while their father is off

The Penguin English Library Edition of Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding 'Kissing, Joseph, is but a prologue to a Play. Can I believe a young fellow of your Age and Complexion will be content with Kissing?' Henry Fielding's riotous tale of innocents in a corrupt world was one of the earliest

This is the "Penguin English Library Edition" of "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy. 'As you got older, ...you were seized with a sort of shuddering, he perceived. All around you there seemed to be something glaring, garish, rattling, and the noises and glares hit upon the little cell called your

The Penguin English Library Edition of Kim by Rudyard Kipling 'He knew the wonderful walled city of Lahore from the Delhi Gate to the outer Fort Ditch; was hand in glove with men who led lives stranger than anything Haroun al Raschid dreamed of; and he lived in a life wild as that of the Arabian

The Penguin English Library Edition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett 'What is the society of London, that I should be tempted, for its sake, to mortify my senses, and compound with such uncleanness as my soul abhors?' Smollett's savage, boisterously funny lambasting of eighteenth-century

The Penguin English Library Edition of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 'The mind of man is capable of anything - because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, rage - who can tell? - but truth - truth stripped of its

The Penguin English Library Edition of Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope 'He was sickened also with all these lies. His very soul was dismayed by the dirt through which he was forced to wade. He had become unconsciously connected with the lowest dregs of mankind, and would have to see his name

The Penguin English Library Edition of Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy 'I cannot allow any man to - to criticise my private conduct!' she exclaimed. 'Nor will I for a minute' Hardy's powerful novel of swift sexual passion and slow-burning loyalty centres on Bathsheba Everdene, a proud

The Penguin English Library Edition of Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton 'He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface' Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a