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The Penguin Classics Book
Penguin Classics is the largest and best-known classics imprint in the world. From The Epic of Gilgamesh to the poetry of the First World War, and covering all the greatest works of fiction, poetry, drama, history and philosophy in between, this reader's companion encompasses 500 authors, 1,200 books and 4,000 years of world literature.
Stuffed full of stories, author biographies, book summaries and recommendations, and illustrated with thousands of historic Penguin Classic covers, this is an exhilarating and comprehensive guide for anyone who wants to explore and discover the best books ever written.
465 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
February 9, 2023
meta.
i read this back to front and marked all the books i wanted to read with little rainbow post it things and said the fun-est facts and weirdest deaths aloud to my family and that made the whole thing very fun!
i recommend going into this with the same level of whimsy i did. like, childlike wonder levels.
bottom line: i love books.
i read this back to front and marked all the books i wanted to read with little rainbow post it things and said the fun-est facts and weirdest deaths aloud to my family and that made the whole thing very fun!
i recommend going into this with the same level of whimsy i did. like, childlike wonder levels.
bottom line: i love books.
January 30, 2019
This is an impressive book for several reasons. The book is huge at nearly 460 pages of high quality heavy paper the binding is a cloth bound hard cover with sumptuously illustrated pages of classic Penguin books.
The book itself has a wealth of information in it - from the history of Penguin publishing to lesser know facts such as the explaining of the ISBN number system and how it breaks down in to individual packets of information about the book to the explanation of the original book cover colours. There is also a fascinating section on the imprints of Penguin some of which I knew and others I most certainly did not.
The book itself is broken in to different chapters - covering such topics as geography and ages. Within each chapter they have sections (varying from a single entry to several pages) on the key authors and their most important works. Now many of these I knew about but a lot more I didn't realise their significance to Penguin and the book community.
Each entry has a short bio of the author as well as a paragraph about the book - what you would expect if you were reading the back of the book itself.
In short a great abridged trip through the classics of Penguin and brief showcase of what Penguin publishing has brought to the masses.
There are many stories about how Penguin publishing came about and what their were trying to achieve, this book shows that not only did they achieve this but surpassed in it so many ways.
The book itself has a wealth of information in it - from the history of Penguin publishing to lesser know facts such as the explaining of the ISBN number system and how it breaks down in to individual packets of information about the book to the explanation of the original book cover colours. There is also a fascinating section on the imprints of Penguin some of which I knew and others I most certainly did not.
The book itself is broken in to different chapters - covering such topics as geography and ages. Within each chapter they have sections (varying from a single entry to several pages) on the key authors and their most important works. Now many of these I knew about but a lot more I didn't realise their significance to Penguin and the book community.
Each entry has a short bio of the author as well as a paragraph about the book - what you would expect if you were reading the back of the book itself.
In short a great abridged trip through the classics of Penguin and brief showcase of what Penguin publishing has brought to the masses.
There are many stories about how Penguin publishing came about and what their were trying to achieve, this book shows that not only did they achieve this but surpassed in it so many ways.
September 24, 2022
It's Very informative and very didactic. It is a real joy to immerse yourself in this ocean of books by Penguin publishing house, with comments and arguments of each of them, and photographs of their covers. Very well edited.
November 27, 2018
I bought this for myself as a celebratory present after the US midterm elections, which doesn't make a lot of sense because it's not like I was singlehandedly responsible for the midterm results, but there you go. It's a handsome, heavy, clothbound compendium of (and companion to) the Penguin Classics imprint, beautifully illustrated with colour photographs throughout and including little essays and text boxes about the imprint's early days. E.V. Rieu (whose translation of The Odyssey was the first Penguin Classic ever) edited it for a long time, as did Betty Radice, who seems to have been both marvelously clever and quite wonderful as a person. Little notes on each entry provide pieces of trivia about translators, many of whom were the sort of eccentric academic types that only English intellectual society in the twentieth century could have created and sustained. It'll also remind you of how much there is in the way of world literature; the texts from antique and medieval Asia, in particular, were often new to me. There are a couple of awkward typos (along the lines of "weak" instead of "week"), which shouldn't exist at all in a book where so much design effort has clearly been put in, but the production of the object on the whole is first-class. I spent an extremely happy rainy weekend on the sofa with this beast, and if you're a nerd, you should too.
July 25, 2022
A list of works Penguin has published, all sorted according to time and geography. A great reference book to create insight and help you decide your next book. If you’re a classics lover or an enthusiastic beginner, this giant book provides hundreds of best, well-known classics. Penguin is one of the leading publishers and providers of quality translations for classics and this is a well-structured A-Z library of the famous publishing house. I hate to admit that my tbr has grown uncontrollably due to this and I regret not having started reading classics much younger (sigh). Better late than never!
January 22, 2019
I first engaged with the Penguin Classics imprint in the second half of my teens when I started reading Thomas Hardy, as a result of an English lesson that used a passage from The Woodlanders, describing fallen leaves - thanks, Mr. Bray! (He was one of those teachers who was better the more enthusiasm or talent you displayed - no good for the recalcitrant or below average.) Anyway, I was delighted one day when I saw a flimsy paperback that turned out to be a catalogue for the series, including the Modern Classics, too - being handed out for free! Of course I took one and used it for reading inspiration. I still have it, decades later!
Now, the imprint has a new print catalogue - a large format hardback of over 400p, with the Modern Classics to get their own separate volume - costing £30. The lsit has expanded an enormous amount since the '80s! Is it worth it? After all, a constantly updated listing is available online for free.
Well, for me the answer is a resounding, yes! This isn't simply a list of books in print. As well as short descriptions of each book, there are micro-biographies of the authors and sidebars about the history of Penguin Classics and biographies and anecdotes about editors and translators who have worked on the series. There's even a page explaining ISBNs and their origins. Did you know that the first three digits of a bar code are a geographical origin code? Since books are fundamentally international, they have their own code, known as "bookland" - which is why ISBN13s all start "978" or "979." I love that books have their own country!
The Penguin Classics remit is gigantic; the classics of world literature up to and including WWI - thousands of years. The book therefore stands as a guide to the world of books that are still considered important/great/interesting/entertaining after at least 100 years. It shows up some of the impacts of world history just by charting how much (or little) material came from where and when. The list has not been sniffy about genre, at least as far back as the '80s, by the way. It has changed constantly (not just growing) - books have gone out of print, been replaced with new translations, expanded, split up into multiple volumes, conflated into fewer volumes, so I expect this volume was out of date by the time it went on sale, but that in no way detracts from its value to me as a ready reference and source of inspiration.
Now, the imprint has a new print catalogue - a large format hardback of over 400p, with the Modern Classics to get their own separate volume - costing £30. The lsit has expanded an enormous amount since the '80s! Is it worth it? After all, a constantly updated listing is available online for free.
Well, for me the answer is a resounding, yes! This isn't simply a list of books in print. As well as short descriptions of each book, there are micro-biographies of the authors and sidebars about the history of Penguin Classics and biographies and anecdotes about editors and translators who have worked on the series. There's even a page explaining ISBNs and their origins. Did you know that the first three digits of a bar code are a geographical origin code? Since books are fundamentally international, they have their own code, known as "bookland" - which is why ISBN13s all start "978" or "979." I love that books have their own country!
The Penguin Classics remit is gigantic; the classics of world literature up to and including WWI - thousands of years. The book therefore stands as a guide to the world of books that are still considered important/great/interesting/entertaining after at least 100 years. It shows up some of the impacts of world history just by charting how much (or little) material came from where and when. The list has not been sniffy about genre, at least as far back as the '80s, by the way. It has changed constantly (not just growing) - books have gone out of print, been replaced with new translations, expanded, split up into multiple volumes, conflated into fewer volumes, so I expect this volume was out of date by the time it went on sale, but that in no way detracts from its value to me as a ready reference and source of inspiration.
July 31, 2026
A great pictorial history of Penguin classics. It was good to see so many illustrations and familiar covers over the decades. (My favourite covers were the black spine period and orange spine period.) This has massive book nerd appeal, which suits me just fine.
July 17, 2024
When it comes to paperback reprints, I'm an Oxford World's Classics girlie over anything else (the best notes!) but I have read my share of Penguins. This book covers everything published in this line, notes about Puffins, and so on. It's organized by time/geography and author, with the briefest of author bios. Synopses highlight connections to other books/authors included in the volume. Fun!
There are lots of delightful tidbits (supposedly the term cliffhanger comes from Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes, in which an installment ends with a character hanging from a cliff). An extensive index is much appreciated. I liked "The Vaults," a section of out-of-print titles. I find it quite suspicious that the "Other Penguins" section makes no mention of Penguin Clothbound Classics, which are gorgeous (I own several) but have tiny print, Bible-thin glued pages, and flaky printing designs. Quality is just not Penguin's strong point, I know! But it's a disservice to art as good as Coralie Bickford-Smith's. If only they could put that much effort into the covers of their paperbacks...
Books published several times have several different covers shown. It's fun to see how the design has changed over the years. Shame that the current cover design scheme is the least attractive in their history, and based on the various copies I own, the lowest quality. The black ink flakes off the corners and spine and doesn't hold up to bookstore stickers (wHY). I much prefer the 1980s-2000s cream border with a larger image, rather than a stripe and giant empty text box of the current design. They also zoom in on a random illustration and it's often ugly (see their cover for Bleak House). Fortunately, I can look forward to seeing many Penguin redesigns in my lifetime.
tl;dr make Penguins pretty (and durable) again!
There are lots of delightful tidbits (supposedly the term cliffhanger comes from Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes, in which an installment ends with a character hanging from a cliff). An extensive index is much appreciated. I liked "The Vaults," a section of out-of-print titles. I find it quite suspicious that the "Other Penguins" section makes no mention of Penguin Clothbound Classics, which are gorgeous (I own several) but have tiny print, Bible-thin glued pages, and flaky printing designs. Quality is just not Penguin's strong point, I know! But it's a disservice to art as good as Coralie Bickford-Smith's. If only they could put that much effort into the covers of their paperbacks...
Books published several times have several different covers shown. It's fun to see how the design has changed over the years. Shame that the current cover design scheme is the least attractive in their history, and based on the various copies I own, the lowest quality. The black ink flakes off the corners and spine and doesn't hold up to bookstore stickers (wHY). I much prefer the 1980s-2000s cream border with a larger image, rather than a stripe and giant empty text box of the current design. They also zoom in on a random illustration and it's often ugly (see their cover for Bleak House). Fortunately, I can look forward to seeing many Penguin redesigns in my lifetime.
tl;dr make Penguins pretty (and durable) again!
May 26, 2025
This was awesome. The only reason I’m not giving it 5 stars is because it ends kind of abruptly with WWI poetry. I don’t understand why they didn’t extend it at least into the 70s and 80s.
At any rate, this was so enjoyable and informative, and I think I genuinely added like a 50+ books to my wishlist.
At any rate, this was so enjoyable and informative, and I think I genuinely added like a 50+ books to my wishlist.
July 11, 2019
Absolutely loved this one. I highly recommend it to classic book lovers.
January 7, 2019
Like a massive catalogue of amazing 📚
August 3, 2021
i didn’t read this in its entirety, but went through every page. found so many classics i’m dying to read. such a good book, definitely worth the money imo
March 20, 2021
A catalogue more than actual book but very enjoyable; must have been miserable to write.
July 13, 2021
This compendium of images and information derived from the large collection of Penguin Classics is a wonderful and engaging book that will be welcomed by so many readers, students and teachers of literature, and those with an interest in publishing or collecting books. It is a celebration of the authors and their books that have been accorded the status of Penguin Classics, a statement of what literature have cultural signficance, and a salute to one of the great publishers of the modern world. Oh, and it might also arouse some nostalgia for anyone who, for example, has wended their way through the Graves translation of Seutonius or any number of other non-English books rendered into an understandable text.
Like so many quality titles of its ilk 'The Penguin Classics Book' is a finely wrought balance of the author's words and the images, combining to form an exceedingly well constructed and holistic presentation of its content. The cover photos demonstrate not just the imagination of the editors and publishers associated with Penguin Classics, they also show how the books have an artistic and cultural unity. Very few of illustrations are out of place or jarring; they are works of art in and of themselves.
However the covers need the text (and vice versa), so it is gratifying to have such learned and entertaining material about each book, author and/or translator as provided by Eliot. Whilst the text is a relatively cursory summary of the publications, no title, no writer nor translator is left without the right level of engagement. The reader is encouraged through Eliot's summaries to read those titles that provoke his interest, or perhaps re-evaluate those already digested. The intermittent sprinkling of trivia throughout the book also makes this publication an enjoyable read.
Ultimately this book deserves the rating I have given it because it encapsulates the breadth and depth of so many people's cultural and intellectual identity. Since I was a senior high school student copies of Penguin Classics have never been too far away from my desk, my bed, my class room, my university library. They are a touchstone in my life, and 'The Penguin Classics Book' is a reminder of how much I love the titles that have taught me so much.
Like so many quality titles of its ilk 'The Penguin Classics Book' is a finely wrought balance of the author's words and the images, combining to form an exceedingly well constructed and holistic presentation of its content. The cover photos demonstrate not just the imagination of the editors and publishers associated with Penguin Classics, they also show how the books have an artistic and cultural unity. Very few of illustrations are out of place or jarring; they are works of art in and of themselves.
However the covers need the text (and vice versa), so it is gratifying to have such learned and entertaining material about each book, author and/or translator as provided by Eliot. Whilst the text is a relatively cursory summary of the publications, no title, no writer nor translator is left without the right level of engagement. The reader is encouraged through Eliot's summaries to read those titles that provoke his interest, or perhaps re-evaluate those already digested. The intermittent sprinkling of trivia throughout the book also makes this publication an enjoyable read.
Ultimately this book deserves the rating I have given it because it encapsulates the breadth and depth of so many people's cultural and intellectual identity. Since I was a senior high school student copies of Penguin Classics have never been too far away from my desk, my bed, my class room, my university library. They are a touchstone in my life, and 'The Penguin Classics Book' is a reminder of how much I love the titles that have taught me so much.
December 9, 2022
My family had two bookshelves. One was just the Encyclopedia Brittanica. The other was a three-foot tall shelf in the upstairs hallway with my mom’s health, self-help, and inspirational books – plus some Sidney Sheldon and Danielle Steele. That was it. Pretty barren except on library days. When I was nineteen I visited my friend Claire’s house in downtown Toronto. I took the train in from the burbs and still remember walking in her front door and being just staggered by the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves covering every single wall of their front room. And almost all the books were the same color. Orange! Orange everywhere. Penguin Classics had spread like slime. “It is the design of this Library to provide English-speaking readers with new versions of the finest and most enduring of the foreign classics, ancient, medieval and modern,” says the classic opening page of the book – said in a bit of a snooty brunch-on-Fifth kinda voice. But it’s just because they took the job seriously. And it paid off. Chopped into four high-level sections – The Ancient World, The Middle Ages, Early Modern Europe, and The Industrial Age -- the book turns into a history lesson told entirely through books. For example, zooming into Ancient India (one of 19 sub-sections) I learned about the 12th-19th century BCE-published collected “Roots of Yoga” Penguin classic which collects and translates all the Hindu, Tantric, Buddhist, and Jain yoga traditions from original sources. And the collected plays and poems of Kālidāsa, the 5th century BCE writer thought to be the best classical Sanskrit writer of all time. On one hand: This is just a sales catalog to all the Penguin Classics. On another: It’s a booklovers ultimate geek-out that never gets old. On yet another: It takes a ripe swing at trying to annex and index our collected wisdom over the past 5000 years. Worth grabbing for any of those reasons!
August 7, 2025
A fun journey through all of the Penguin Classics throughout their publishing history. I went through and marked all of the authors/books I wanted to read with sticky tabs. I found some new books I wanted to read and some fun facts about authors that the editors of this catalogue sprinkled in.
I did find the organization of the book itself a little haphazard—they ended the book with WWI poetry and stories, which I found an odd choice. (I guess it's because anything after that is a Penguin Modern Classic, but still...)
Overall, if you like Penguin Classics like I do, I would pick this up as a fun and easy read. It also looks good on your shelf, too.
I did find the organization of the book itself a little haphazard—they ended the book with WWI poetry and stories, which I found an odd choice. (I guess it's because anything after that is a Penguin Modern Classic, but still...)
Overall, if you like Penguin Classics like I do, I would pick this up as a fun and easy read. It also looks good on your shelf, too.
December 24, 2020
As a book lover and a collection development librarian, I found it fun and useful to browse through this and make notes about classics that might have fallen out of my library's collection. While there could be a lot more depth (and more information about some of the best titles), this is a real testament to the breadth of work covered by Penguin Classics over the years. Fans of cover art will also find this intriguing.
April 5, 2019
I grew up with Penguin Classics, especially the Greek and Latin ones, but the series and its offshoots has grown to include all the world's great literature. Here we have a complete listing of every one of the volumes, with a description of each and a reproduction of at least one version of its cover, accompanied by frequent amusing anecdotes, and attractively hardbound. Well done!
December 29, 2018
So far I've only had chance to read a few pages of this amazing book. I've flipped through a few pages detailing my favourite books and authors, but wow already a 5*+ book in my eyes. Love it!
December 28, 2023
Delightful for browsing. Who would ever imagine so many older books are available out there? I've started a list of interesting titles to request at my library.
January 18, 2024
on going reference book
January 22, 2025
This is truly an amazing book that doesn't just shine because of its didactical approach but its humorisitic way of teaching history as well. I wouldn't have thought to have laughed as much as I did reading this. As you go through almost the entire history of book writing, you stumble across so many short biographies, intertwined relationships between authors and the weirdest and least expected pieces of information.
I have read it from cover to cover and enjoyed every bit of it. I also was able to fill many gaps in my own library and found quite a lot of hidden gems along the way. Even if you don't plan to read any of the mentioned books I would still give this a read because after reading it I felt like it opened my mind. Who would have thought that our ancestors had such interesting characters.
I have read it from cover to cover and enjoyed every bit of it. I also was able to fill many gaps in my own library and found quite a lot of hidden gems along the way. Even if you don't plan to read any of the mentioned books I would still give this a read because after reading it I felt like it opened my mind. Who would have thought that our ancestors had such interesting characters.
December 8, 2020
"This book is intended as a reader’s companion to the best books ever written. It is a book of suggestions and recommendations, drawing connections across the history of world literature, which will hopefully reacquaint you with old friends, introduce you to new titles, and suggest ways to map your future reading. It is also a celebration of an abiding series of books, which began more than seventy years ago and has grown incrementally and idiosyncratically ever since."
This book is pretty amazing. It’s not one that you can really sit down and read from start to finish, as it’s more of an encyclopedia/reference book, but it’s incredible and really fun to peruse (and read over time). It’s also a great way to beef up your TBR!
This book is pretty amazing. It’s not one that you can really sit down and read from start to finish, as it’s more of an encyclopedia/reference book, but it’s incredible and really fun to peruse (and read over time). It’s also a great way to beef up your TBR!
February 17, 2020
Books about books is one of my favorite genres. And this is a master class. The quote on the book says it all.
“There are a good many books, are there not, my boy?” said Mr. Brownlow, observing the curiosity with which Oliver surveyed the shelves that reached from the floor to the ceiling.
“A great number, sir,” replied Oliver; “I never saw so many.”
“You shall read them if you behave well,” said the old gentleman kindly; “and you will like that, better than looking at the outsides, - that is, in some cases, because there are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.”
“There are a good many books, are there not, my boy?” said Mr. Brownlow, observing the curiosity with which Oliver surveyed the shelves that reached from the floor to the ceiling.
“A great number, sir,” replied Oliver; “I never saw so many.”
“You shall read them if you behave well,” said the old gentleman kindly; “and you will like that, better than looking at the outsides, - that is, in some cases, because there are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.”
November 17, 2021
Browsed, as this is more a reference book to dip into than to read continuously, this is a joy for a reader of Penguin Classics since the 1980’s. Wonderful to see familiar old covers, read the brief descriptions and more interestingly the stories about the translation and publication of the books. Bookish social history!
Penguin have a lovely introduction at https://www.penguinclassicsbook.co.uk/
Penguin have a lovely introduction at https://www.penguinclassicsbook.co.uk/
April 15, 2019
Great read. Interesting that Australasia merits only one page despite the considerable influence of Richard Lane.
April 20, 2019
Simply wonderful.
December 27, 2019
Penguin classics represent the flower of British studies. This book catalogues the immense treasury of titles in the series. A must for book lovers.
January 14, 2020
I am a most ardent lover of classics ;)
And so, this book was like opening a treasure chest and picking gems from all corners of the globe - I will be revisiting this miscellany often.
And so, this book was like opening a treasure chest and picking gems from all corners of the globe - I will be revisiting this miscellany often.
August 29, 2020
It's a book about books and it is AMAZING
Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews