Item category 1: Classics

Beyond the genre-defining influence of Dracula, Bram Stoker was also a master of the short story form. This new collection of the author's tales represents his diverse interests in the macabre and uncanny.

This stirring new collection brings together George Orwell's most cherished essays with lesser-known gems, all penned with the clarity, wit and charm which characterise his writing. Showcasing his vivid personal encounters and perceptive insights - from his musings on tree planting to his warning...

Caithleen is a romantic. She dreams of finding a handsome man who will sweep her away and look after her. Her friend Baba thinks this makes her a right-looking eejit. What she wants is money and glamour. Life. As much of it as she can get. But neither love nor excitement seem possible in their sm...

Vladimir Nabokov's early novel is the dazzling story of the coarse, strange yet oddly endearing chess-playing genius Luzhin. Discovering his prodigious gift in boyhood and rising to the rank of International Grandmaster, Luzhin develops a lyrical passion for chess that renders the real world a ph...

Known as Ireland's Chekhov, Frank O'Connor was a master of the modern short story, with an eye for capturing the spaces between our selves and our surroundings. 'The Genius' brings together some of his very best stories, often told from the perspective of young children and forming a revealing po...

Laurie Lee was still a young man when he decided to fight for the Republican cause in Spain's civil war. But though he braved icy, storm-swept mountains alone to contact Republican sympathisers, he was immediately suspected of being a Nationalist spy. Imprisoned and almost executed by his own sid...

Wu Cheng'en's 16th-century novel Journey to the West is widely regarded as one of the most important Chinese novels ever written. Here, in Julia Lovell's witty and charismatic translation, we meet one of its heroes: Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, whose powers include shape-shifting, immortality and ...

'All art,' Oscar Wilde once announced, 'is quite useless.' Selected here are some of his finest prose works on the subject of art - useless, illuminating, artificial, uplifting, radical, gorgeous, boring, sublime - and his most brilliant aphorisms on the creative life. Whether lamenting the crass...

'Penguin Archive' features 90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books. This is one title in the collection celebrating one of the greatest and most innovative poets of the 20th century.

Plagued by ill-health, violently sick at sea, irritated by renovation costs: Seneca is never less than sympathetically human. In these letters written 2000 years ago, the ancient philosopher speaks to the reader today with lucidity and warmth. Whether advising on how to live a good life, spend ti...