Penguin Popular Classics

Separated from her twin brother Sebastian after a shipwreck, Viola disguises herself as a boy to serve the Duke of Illyria. Wooing a countess on his behalf, she is stunned to find herself the object of his beloved's affections. With the arrival of Viola's brother, and a trick played upon the

'I did not intend to write a funny book, at first' wrote Jerome J. Jerome of "Three Men in a Boat", which has since become a comic classic. When J. the narrator, George, Harris, and Montmorency the dog, set off on their hilarious misadventures, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead

The most poetic and magical of Shakespeare's comedies, this play contrasts lyrical fantasy surrounding the spirit Ariel and the savage Calaban, with a tale of political intrigue focused around Prospero, the banished Duke of Milan, now a wizard living on a remote island.

When John Bold decides to challenge corruption in the Church of England he sets the whole town of Barchester ablaze with the consequences. This book is the study of conflicting loyalties and principles in a cathedral city where the gentle warden becomes an unwilling focus of national controversy.

Set in the harsh Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston, this tale of an adulterous entanglement that results in an illegitimate birth reveals Nathaniel Hawthorne's concerns with the tension between the public and the private selves. Publicly disgraced and ostracized, Hester Prynne draws

In this story the author recreates her own childhood through the story of the gifted Maggie Tulliver and her spoilt, selfish brother. Though tragic in its outcome, this comic novel combines vivid images of family life with a portrait of the heroine.

In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk

'Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?' Shylock's impassioned plea in the middle of "The Merchant of Venice" is one of its most dramatic moments. After the Holocaust, the play has become a battleground for those who argue that the play

This Complete and unabridged edition also features a summary of the Works of W. Shakespeare, a short Biography of Shakespeare, an essay on Elizabethan Theater and an introduction to the play Henry V.

The terrible spectacle of the beast, the fog of the moor, the discovery of a body, this classic horror story pits detective against dog. When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on the wild Devon moorland with the footprints of a giant hound nearby, the blame is placed on a family curse. It is

The 1964 publication of Sir Richard Burton's translation of the "Kama Sutra" was celebrated as a literary event of the highest importance. As vital to an understanding of ancient Indian civilisation as the works of Plato and Aristotle are to the West, the "Kama Sutra" has endured for 1,700 years as

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 in 1757, "The Last of the Mohicans" recounts the story of two sisters, Cora and Alice Munro,

The Canterbury Tales, compiled in the late fourteenth century, is an incisive portrait, infused with Chaucer's wry wit and vibrant, poetical languauge. He evokes a spectrum of colourful characters, from the bawdy Wife of Bath to the gallant Knight, the fastidious Prioress and the burly, drunken

This title presents beautifully told tales, a perfect introduction to Shakespeare's greatest plays. Charles and Mary Lamb's labour of love brings vividly alive the power of "Hamlet" and "Othello", the fun of "As You Like It" and "The Taming of the Shrew", the magic of "The Tempest" and the drama of

Into his story of a simple but beautiful country girl's seduction by another man which causes her husband to leave her on their wedding night and thereby precipitates a course of events that ends in murder, Hardy wove a luminous tenderness and longing. 'I have never been able to put on paper all

The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude devotes her life to her children, especially to her sons, William and Paul - determined they will not follow their father into working down the coal

A low-priced collection of Wordsworth's poetry.

Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willougby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is

At twenty-seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each

If anything, "Othello" has increased its stature as one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies ever since it was first written, between 1603 and 1604, due to the victimisation suffered by its tragic hero, Othello, as a result of his skin colour. Othello is a "noble Moor", a North African Muslim who

A man whose brain never sleeps .... the enemy Richard Hannay must defeat if he is to save Britain from the clutches of Germany during the crucial days of the World War II.

Promised a golden future as ruler of Scotland by three sinister witches, Macbeth murders the king to ensure his ambitions come true. But he soon learns the meaning of terror - killing once, he must kill again and again, and the dead return to haunt him. A story of war, witchcraft and bloodshed,

This is a tale of Dives and Lazarus, of the comfortable pinnacle and the miserable base of the Victorian social pyramid. It is told, however, without simplification and without hatred.

With her soft brown hair, lithe figure and big, wondering eyes, Constance Chatterley is possessed of a certain vitality. Yet she is deeply unhappy; married to an invalid, she is almost as inwardly paralysed as her husband Clifford is paralysed below the waist. It is not until she finds refuge in

Beautiful, aristocratic, an adored wife and young mother, Lady Windermere is 'a fascinating puritan' whose severe moral code leads her to the brink of social suicide. The only one who can save her is the mysterious Mrs Erlynne whose scandalous relationship with Lord Windermere has prompted her

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

Three men trek to the remote African interior in search of a lost friend - and reach, at the end of a perilous journey, an unknown land cut off from the world, where terrible dangers threaten anyone who ventures near the spectacular diamond mines of King Solomon...

Kidnapped is a classic adventure story, as thrilling today as when it was first published. As he sets off into the world to seek his last remaining kinsman, Uncle Ebenezer, young David Balfour has no idea of the hazards and intrigues that the encounter will, bring. He finds his uncle'to be a

A young prince meets with his father's ghost, who alleges that his own brother, now married to his widow, murdered him. The prince devises a scheme to test the truth of the ghost's accusation, feigning wild madness while plotting a brutal revenge. But his apparent insanity soon begins to wreak

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a dangerous

Black Beauty begins life in a loving home. But his owners are forced to sell him, and Black Beauty's fortunes change. He is moved from place to place and job to job, often suffering cruel treatment and harsh conditions - until a chance encounter leads to a new turn of events.

Set in mid-Victorian England, this novel follows the fight for ascendancy among the clergy and dependants of a great English cathedral.

When Rosalind is banished by her uncle, who has usurped her father's throne, she flees to the forest of Arden where her exiled father holds court. There, dressed as a boy to avoid discovery, she encounters the man she loves - now a fellow exile - and resolves to remain in disguise to test his

This adventure story tells of three men and their guide Umslopogaas who trek into the remote interior of Africa in search of a lost white race. Through unknown territories their perilous journey takes them to Zu-vendis, a kingdom ruled by the beautiful twin sisters, Nyleptha and Sorais.

Sardonic, wry and wise, Aesop's Fables are some of the most enduring and well-loved literary creations in history. In a series of pithy, amusing vignettes, Aesop created a vivid cast of characters to demonstrate different aspects of human nature. Here we see a wily fox outwitted by a quick-thinking

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, educated women in Victorian society. "Agnes Grey" is undoubtedtedly a deeply personal novel, in

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