Серия книг «Penguin Modern Classics» — 406 книг

Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, the world isn't leaving the Blackwoods alone. And when Cousin Charles arrives, armed with overtures of friendship and a desperate need to get into the safe, Merricat must do everything in her power to protect the remaining family. This Penguin edition includes an afterword by the acclaimed novelist Joyce Carol Oates. All Shirley Jackson's other novels, plus The Lottery and Other Stories, are available in Penguin Modern Classics.

Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since…

In 1949, two young Cuban musicians, brothers Cesar and Nestor, leave Havana for New York. By day they work hard, by night they are the Mambo Kings: packing out clubs, dance halls and theatres with their sensuous, pulsing Latin music. This is the captivating story of charming, vivacious womanizer Cesar and quiet, romantic Nestor - still nursing an unrequited love for 'beautiful Maria of my soul' - and their changing fortunes as they try to make it big in America.

In 1949, two young Cuban musicians, brothers Cesar and Nestor, leave Havana for New York. By day they work hard, by night they are the Mambo Kings: packing out clubs, dance halls…

‘Demonstrates the birth of a writer: the door cracking open, the eye flashing, risking its every breath to see’ San Francisco Chronicle

‘Interzone’ shows the evolution of William Burroughs from the terse, fiercely confessional writer of Junky to the wild, brutal fantasist of ‘Naked Lunch’. In writings on severing the last joint of a little finger (as Burroughs did his own), on life in Tangiers, on legs found in a suitcase and a Christmas miracle for a junky, on a cruel futuristic city of rusted metal, on the abuses of drugs and of sex, from his very first attempt at fiction to the frenzied, obscene ‘WORD’, Burroughs finds his unmistakable, inimitable voice here.

‘An essential text: the statement of a man writing for his life, a venting, a bloodletting’ Bloomsbury Review

‘Demonstrates the birth of a writer: the door cracking open, the eye flashing, risking its every breath to see’ San Francisco Chronicle

‘Interzone’ shows the evolution of…

Fast Eddie Felson has a reputation as a pool hustler to be feared, but his ambitions go far beyond taking small-town punks for a few bucks here and there. He has the talent to make big money, but he soon learns that it takes more than natural ability to become a real winner. He heads to Chicago to test himself against the legendary Minnesota Fats in more than forty-hours of high-stakes pool. Can he find the will to overcome his failings and fulfil his potential as the best there is?

Fast Eddie Felson has a reputation as a pool hustler to be feared, but his ambitions go far beyond taking small-town punks for a few bucks here and there. He has the talent to…

An exploration of the author`s parents` lives, his mother`s inexplicable suicide in her late fifties and his own bouts of depression. It conjures up the pebble-dashed home of his childhood and the landscape of postwar suburban England. It tells a story of grief, loss and dislocation, yet also of the power of memory and the bonds of family love.

An exploration of the author`s parents` lives, his mother`s inexplicable suicide in her late fifties and his own bouts of depression. It conjures up the pebble-dashed home of his…

Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions--sexual, racial, political, artistic--that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime. In a small set of friends, Baldwin imbues the best and worst intentions of liberal America in the early 1970s.

Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions--sexual, racial, political, artistic--that is stunning for its emotional…

Two beautiful, memorable novels in one volume, both focussing on women who retreat into their imaginations until the boundaries between what is real and what is not become blurred.

In ‘Reading Turgenev’, which was shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize, an Irish country girl is trapped in a loveless marriage with an older man. But she finds unusual solace – in secret meetings with a man who shares her passion for Russian novels …

The second story, ‘My House in Umbria’ tells how romantic novelist Emily Delahunty helps the survivors of a bomb attack on a train and invents colourful pasts for her convalescent patients.

Two beautiful, memorable novels in one volume, both focussing on women who retreat into their imaginations until the boundaries between what is real and what is not become…

In Monkey Grip, Helen Garner charts the lives of a generation. Her characters are exploring new ways of loving and living - and nothing is harder than learning to love lightly. Nora and Javo are trapped in a desperate relationship. Nora's addiction is romantic love; Javo's is hard drugs. The harder they pull away, the tighter the monkey grip. A lyrical, gritty, rough-edged novel that deserves its place as a classic of Australian fiction.

In Monkey Grip, Helen Garner charts the lives of a generation. Her characters are exploring new ways of loving and living - and nothing is harder than learning to love lightly.…

Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the unassuming couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then the Quangels receive the news that their beloved son has been killed fighting in France. Shocked out of their quiet existence, they begin a silent campaign of defiance, and a deadly game of cat and mouse develops between the Quangels and the ambitious Gestapo inspector Escherich. When petty criminals Kluge and Borkhausen also become involved, deception, betrayal and murder ensue, tightening the noose around the Quangels' necks ...

Afterword written by Geoff Wilkes. Includes scans of the original documents from the investigation, as well as explanatory footnotes.

Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: the bullying…

Eddie Carbone is a longshoreman and a straightforward man, with a strong sense of decency and of honour. For Eddie, it?s a privilege to take in his wife?s cousins, straight off the boat from Italy. But, as his niece begins to fall for one of them, it?s clear that it?s not just, as Eddie claims, that he?s too strange, too sissy, too careless for her, but that something bigger, deeper is wrong, and wrong inside Eddie, in a way he can?t face. Something which threatens the happiness of their whole family.

Eddie Carbone is a longshoreman and a straightforward man, with a strong sense of decency and of honour. For Eddie, it?s a privilege to take in his wife?s cousins, straight off…

These eighteen tales of the macabre show Dahl's dark brilliance as a short-story writer. They are wicked (as an old man attracts the attentions of those more interested in his skin than his wellbeing), shocking (as distasteful bets are made - a daughter's hand on the identity of a glass of claret, a finger risked for a Cadillac) and blackly humorous (as a cuckolded husband receives a chance to take his revenge out on his wife's neck). "Someone Like You" is as devilishly ingenious and suspenseful as writing gets.

These eighteen tales of the macabre show Dahl's dark brilliance as a short-story writer. They are wicked (as an old man attracts the attentions of those more interested in his…

In this unique collection of short stories composed between 1910-62, Evelyn Waugh's early juvenilia are brought together with later pieces, some of which became the inspirations for his novels. 'Mr Loveday's Little Outing' is a blackly comic tale of a mental asylum and its favourite resident; 'Cruise' sees a hilarious series of letters from a naïve young woman as she travels with her family; 'A House of Gentlefolks' observes a group of elderly eccentric aristocrats and their young heir; and in 'The Sympathetic Passenger' a radio-loathing retiree picks up exactly the wrong hitchhiker. These witty and immaculately crafted stories display the finest writing of a master of satire and comic twists.

In this unique collection of short stories composed between 1910-62, Evelyn Waugh's early juvenilia are brought together with later pieces, some of which became the inspirations…

"I am not an expert on sex, but I was a good student of the women I loved, and I'll try to recall those happy and unhappy experiences which, I believe, made a man out of me," writes the narrator of this novel. Originally published by the author himself in 1965, "In Praise of Older Women" became an international bestseller and renowned classic, and its title is now part of the language.

"I am not an expert on sex, but I was a good student of the women I loved, and I'll try to recall those happy and unhappy experiences which, I believe, made a man out of me,"…

Laurence is a young ex-sailor who can't resist the lure of the good life, and when he finds a job as chauffeur to the wealthy Mr and Mrs Bannister, his occasional work leaves him free to indulge. Bannister himself is bitter - his twisted leg keeps him on the sidelines while his ravishingly beautiful wife endures his moods with saintly patience. Or does she? It's the Bannisters' closest friend, Grisby, who starts stirring, getting Laurence to agree to a crazy plot. It will net him thousands, no strings attached. But is it all too easy?

Laurence is a young ex-sailor who can't resist the lure of the good life, and when he finds a job as chauffeur to the wealthy Mr and Mrs Bannister, his occasional work leaves him…

In these three exotic, steamy dramas Tennessee Williams portrays loss, faded lives and passionate love affairs.
The Rose Tattoo is set in a bustling Sicilian-American community, where newly widowed Serafina is paralysed by grief. But when she has her romantic illusions about her dead husband shattered, she rediscovers her true nature as a fiery prima donna in a life-affirming celebration of love and sex. Tennessee Williams explored a new 'wild and unrestricted' theatrical form in Camino Real, a colourful tropical fantasy which was described by The New York Times as 'a play of genuinely poetic vision'. Orpheus Descending, however, takes us into the familiar dark territory of Williams Deep South: the corrupt hell of a small, brutal township, where a forbidden and tragic love affair sparks horrific violence.

In these three exotic, steamy dramas Tennessee Williams portrays loss, faded lives and passionate love affairs.
The Rose Tattoo is set in a bustling Sicilian-American community,…

Growing up in war-torn Hungary, the narrator András Vajda, discovers that the charms of young girls are lost on him, and seeks out the embraces of older women. From his first disastrous encounter with the formidable Fräulein Mozart at a US army camp to his passion for Maya, a married woman, through to his turbulent affair with a reporter’s wife in Canada, he recounts how his amorous adventures with different middle-aged women have taught him about sex, love and the ways of the world.

'You cannot put it down: witty, moving and it's all about sex' Margaret Drabble

'A masterpiece ... dazzling ... like all great novels, it shows the truth about life' Le Monde

'At the basis of pleasure, of eroticism, Vizinczey places consciousness. His novel consists of scenes which you can see ... Stupefying: it leaves you breathless with excitement. Here, everything is living ardour, inexhaustible fervour' Giorgio Montefoschi, Corriere della Sera.

Growing up in war-torn Hungary, the narrator András Vajda, discovers that the charms of young girls are lost on him, and seeks out the embraces of older women. From his first…

George Orwell was an inveterate keeper of diaries. This book presents eleven of them, covering the period 1931-1949, and follows Orwell from his early years as a writer to his last literary notebook. An entry from 1931 tells of a communal shave in the Trafalgar Sguare fountains, while notes from his travels through industrial England show the development of the impassioned social commentator.
This same acute power of observation is evident in his diaries from Morocco, as well as at home, where his domestic diaries chart the progress of his garden and animals with a keen eye. The wartime diaries, from descriptions of events overseas to the daily violence closer to home, describe astutely his perspective on the politics of both, and provide a new and entirely refreshing insight into Orwell's character and his great works.

George Orwell was an inveterate keeper of diaries. This book presents eleven of them, covering the period 1931-1949, and follows Orwell from his early years as a writer to his…

"The Mountains of My Life" collects Walter Bonatti's classic writings detailing his exploits on numerous expeditions to different mountains of the world, as well as the real story behind the controversy over the events on K2 that changed his life. Bonatti is one of the greatest mountaineers of all time, and these awe-inspiring writings capture the adventure, audacity and magnitude of his craft.

"The Mountains of My Life" collects Walter Bonatti's classic writings detailing his exploits on numerous expeditions to different mountains of the world, as well as the real story…

Andy Warhol kept these diaries faithfully from November 1976 right up to his final week, in February 1987. Written at the height of his fame and success, Warhol records the fun of an Academy Awards party, nights out at Studio 54, trips between London, Paris and New York, and surprisingly even the money he spent each day, down to the cent. With appearances from and references to everyone who was anyone, from Jim Morrison, Martina Navratilova and Calvin Klein to Shirley Bassey, Estee Lauder and Muhammad Ali, these diaries are among the most glamorous, witty and revealing writings of the twentieth century.

Andy Warhol kept these diaries faithfully from November 1976 right up to his final week, in February 1987. Written at the height of his fame and success, Warhol records the fun of…

Obi Okonkwo is an idealistic young man who, thanks to the privileges of an education in Britain, has now returned to Nigeria for a job in the civil service. However in his new role he finds that the way of government seems to be backhanders and corruption. Obi manages to resist the bribes that are offered to him, but when he falls in love with an unsuitable girl - to the disapproval of his parents - he sinks further into emotional and financial turmoil. The lure of easy money becomes harder to refuse, and Obi becomes caught in a trap he cannot escape.

Showing a man lost in cultural limbo, and a Nigeria entering a new age of disillusionment, No Longer at Ease concludes Achebe's remarkable trilogy charting three generations of an African community under the impact of colonialism, the first two volumes of which are Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God.

Obi Okonkwo is an idealistic young man who, thanks to the privileges of an education in Britain, has now returned to Nigeria for a job in the civil service. However in his new…