Penguin Books Australia

In The Purgatorio , Dante describes his journey to the renunciation of sin, accepting his suffering in preparation for his coming into the presence of God. This brilliant translation of Dante's canticle crystallizes the great poet's immortal conception of the aspiring soul.

Here is the beloved, high-adventure story of David Balfour, whose uncle cheats him out of his inheritance and has him kidnapped and sold into slavery. An odyssey ensues, including a shipwreck, narrow escapes, and desperate fighting.

Here is the haunting drama of Quasimodo, the hunchback; Esmeralda, the gypsy dancer; and Claude Frollo, the priest tortured by his own damnation. Shaped by a profound sense of tragic irony, it is a work that gives full play to the author's brilliant imagination.

A classic by a Russian master

Prince Myshkin, the idiot, is an almost comically innocent Christ figure in a land of sinners, one whose faith in beauty contrasts sharply with that of his society's.

Over 175 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French nobleman and an astute political scientist, came to the United States to evaluate the meaning and actual functioning of democracy. His brilliant discussion of majority rule is still vitally relevant today.

In this brilliant dramatization of the Faust story, a scholar sells his soul to the devil in exchange for limitless knowledge and powerful black magic, yet he remains unfulfilled, serving as a warning to those who would sacrifice everything sacred for mere earthly gain.

'[Milton] belongs with Shakespeare and Wordsworth precisely because his writing balances so transcendently both the conservative and the revolutionary.  In one artistic lifetime, he was both historian an d explorer.'
- CHRISTOPHER RICKS

A magnificent reconstruction of Napoleon's life and legend, written by a distinguished Oxford scholar, is based on intimate documents – including the personal letters of Marie-Louise and the decoded diaries of Grand Marshal Bertrand, who accompanied Napoleon to his final exile on St. Helena.  It has been hailed as the most important single-volume work in Napoleonic literature.

WINNER OF THE NEW YORK CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE'S FLETCHER PRATT AWARD

From the firing on Fort Sumter to the shot the killed Abraham Lincoln, this fascinating compendium of the civil War conveys the sights, sounds, and emotions of the conflict that shaped our history and out national consciousness.  Here is the vivid and compelling commentary of generals, common soldiers, politicians, and ordinary...

THE DECAMERON GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO

Set against the background of the Black Death of 1348, the hundred linked tales in Giovanni Boccaccio's undisputed masterpiece are peopled by nobles, knights, abbots, nuns, doctors, lawyers, philosophers, students, artists, tradesman, troubadours, peasants, pilgrims, servants, spendthrifts, thieves, parasites, gluttons, gamblers, police-and lovers, both faithful and...

LISTEN WITH INTELLIGENCE.

Whether they listen to Mozart or Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland invites you to ask two basic questions: Are they hearing everything that is going on?  Are you really being sensitive to it?  If you cannot answer yes to both questions, you owe it to yourself to read this book.  With his provocative suggestions, Copland guides you through a deeper appreciation of...

'THE OPEN BOAT,' 'THE BLUE HOTEL,' 'THE UPTURNED FACE,' AND 'THE BRIDE COMES TO YELLOW SKY'

Signet Classics

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD: THOMAS HARDY

There is no more real or more emblematic distrinct in England than Thomas Hardy's imaginary Wessex. Its scattered fields and farms first appeared in Far From the Madding Crowd , the story of steady, dependable Gabriel Oak and beautiful, headstrong Bathsheba runs Weatherbury Farm without a husband or an overseerer, but she brings trouble on herself...

PARADISE LOST
SAMSON AGONISTES
LYCISDAS

In 1848, two young men published what would become one of the defining documents of modern history.  The Communist Manifesto rapidly realigned political fault-lines all over the world and its aftershock resonates to this day.  In the many years since its publication, no other social program has inspired such divisive and violent debate.  Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union-the...

SELECTED WRITINGS OF RAPLH WALDO EMERSON

A universal favorite, The Importance of Being Earnest displays Oscar Wilde's wit and theatrical genius at their brilliant best.  Subtitled 'A Trivial Comedy for Serious People,' this hilarious attack on Victorian manners and morals turns a pompous world on its head, lets duplicity lead to happiness, and makes riposte the highest form of art.  Written, according to Wilde, 'by a butterfly for...

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, here are the greatest accounts from the greatest book ever written, presented in an accessible form for contemporary readers. Enhanced with annotations, Paul Roche 's brilliant retelling of these stories is at once impeccably accurate and vibrantly told...

One of the crowning achievements of medieval artistic genius, The Song of Roland tells of the battle of Roncesvals in 778 . At the center of this heroic epic is Roland, the supreme embodiment of the chivalric ideal who leads his men into combat and fights valiantly to the death. But Roland is just one of the superbly defined figures in this panoramic drama. The poem's vivid portrayals of Ganelon's...