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90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Composed in Iceland in the 13th Century, The Prose Edda is the most renowned of all works of Scandinavian literature, taking readers on a voyage through an enthralling world of gods, giants, dwarfs and monsters. From the beginning of the universe to the dreaded Twilight of the Gods, this is the most extensive source of Norse mythology surviving today.

90 Classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Razor-sharp, pugnacious and blackly funny, Wang Xiaobo’s essays established him as one of China’s most popular – and subversive – writers. From the political power of silence to the irrepressible spirit of a pig he met while working in a commune, these reflections on life and literature in the shadow of the Cultural Revolution provide a rare glimpse of a fearless satirical genius.

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books 'All Frenchmen know you have to become civilised between eighteen and twenty-three and that civilisation comes upon you by contact with an older woman, by revolution, by army discipline, by any escape or any subjection, and then you are civilised and life goes on normally in a latin way.' Gertrude Stein's Paris France, published in 1940 on the day Paris fell to Nazi Germany, is a witty account of Stein's life in France, and the perfect introduction to her work.

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books ‘People should fall in love with their eyes closed. Just close your eyes. Don’t look.’ From Warhol’s romantic relationships to his thoughts on interior design, these candid, highly entertaining musings - on love, sex, beauty, work and space – give an intimate glimpse into the mind of one of the most iconic figures in twentieth-century culture.

90 Classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books On a military base in 1930s Georgia, Private Ellgee Williams catches sight of his captain's wife in the nude and becomes obsessed with her. But Captain Penderton - unhappily married to the unfaithful Leonora - in turn erotically fixates on Williams. Spare, muscular and sensual, with the dramatic vision of a Greek myth, Carson McCullers' novella is a timeless work about the alienation of forbidden desire.

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books 'Assuming that I was sane and awake, my experience on that night was such as has befallen no man before' After five years of 'strange amnesia', Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee remains haunted by madness and memories that cannot be real. Desperate for answers he travels to Western Australia, joining an archaeological excavation into Earth's deep past. Journey with Peaslee to discover his fate in the story described by author Lin Carter as 'Lovecraft's single greatest achievement in fiction'.

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books 'One of the hidden geniuses of the twentieth century' - Colm Tóibín A housewife’s life is shattered by a sudden epiphany. A simple tale of killing cockroaches fragments into multiple narratives, each uncovering new truths. In this selection of haunting short stories, Lispector reveals the permeable boundaries between past and present, the real and the surreal, showing ordinary moments to contain the deepest existential truths.

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books How light and alive she was! Like a bird caught in a net . . . Marian Forrester enchants everyone around her: her husband, an elderly railroad pioneer; the small town of Sweet Water; and Niel Herbert, her unwavering confidant. Yet, her irresistible charm and dazzling wit conceal a dangerous vulnerability - and her greatest secret. A significant inspiration for The Great Gatsby, this exquisite novella is a poignant elegy for a bygone era, fading into history.

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Many years ago there lived an Emperor who was so terribly fond of beautiful new clothes that he spent all his money on dressing elegantly... Jewels in storytelling, these magical fairytales by Hans Christian Andersen were inspired by his own life as an outsider. From 'The Little Mermaid' to 'The Red Shoes', his fables show the ugliest of humanity - its power, greed, vanity - but also how suffering can lead to beauty.

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books ‘It demands great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater miracle of perception and charity not to teach your child to hate’ Told in the form of two intensely personal 'letters', The Fire Next Time is an excoriating condemnation of the terrible legacy of racial injustice, drawn from Baldwin's early life in Harlem and his experience as a prominent cultural figure of the civil rights movement.

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books All moonlight is moving, wherever it may be… Japanese gentlewoman Sei Shonagon invites us to look behind the painted screens in the Emperor's palace and discover a lost world, in which games of poetry are the highest form of wit, lovers send each other elegant morning-after letters, and appreciation of the natural world - wild geese in autumn, the pure white frost of winter - is one of life's most exquisite pleasures.

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books 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 time alone or free oneself from fears of death, Seneca is the wise and compassionate friend we all need now.

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books ‘I am Black because I come from the earth’s inside now take my word for jewel in the open light.’ Impassioned and profound, the poems in Coal showcase Audre Lorde in all her dazzling elegance and multiplicity. Mournful, celebratory, politically conscious, this early collection is a testament to Lorde’s beloved and hugely influential lyric voice, which faithfully captures the complex interiority of the self. These timeless poems resonate down the years.

Wreckers sinks the old narratives of imperialism, revealing the violent, chaotic and improvised reality of empire-building from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. 'Clever and compelling book. The storytelling and the scholarship fairly spark off each other. It could be a model for how academics should write history for a general audience' The Times 'a flowing, gripping narrative, Wreckers is distinguished by enchanting stories' Peter Moore, Literary Review While figures such as Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan are celebrated for their maritime achievements - reaching the Americas, India, and circumnavigating the globe - focusing solely on these voyages distorts our perspective on the past. Many explorers ended up as castaways, clinging to the splintered timbers of their wrecked ships, while those who survived often faced resistance and ridicule from indigenous communities across the globe. Drawing on maritime stories from various languages and continents - from Brazil and Southeast Africa to India and the Philippines - Wreckers shares dramatic tales of the sea and the events on land that followed. This offers an alternative timeline for the century after Columbus' 1492 voyage and sheds light on the fractures and fault lines that accompanied the increasing geographical range of European ships. Simon Park argues that even when Europeans arrogantly claimed their own superiority, the truth was that they were often driven by a profound sense of greed and envy, and their actions included numerous mishaps. For example, in his hunt for gold, Martin Frobisher - who fancied himself England's Columbus and Cortés combined - transported worthless rocks across the Atlantic by the tonne. In the search for spices, Captain and profiteer Manuel de Sousa de Sepúlveda's ship was so overladen, it spewed its fragrant cargo when it crashed off the coast of South Africa. Moreover, in every place they went, Europeans depended on local know-how and goodwill - relying on indigenous knowledge of languages, geography, food and medicines. Wreckers reveals the precarious balance between imperious European powers, cunning locals who colluded to further their own agendas, and others who showed great tenacity in their resistance to European incursions. By focusing on stories of failure, defiance and comeuppance, Wreckers - a term Park uses to refer both to those who were wrecked and those involved in wrecking - offers a gripping and original account of a tumultuous period. It challenges the notion of unstoppable European dominance and enables a reimagining of history as a space of possibilities then, now and in the future.

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Priests with shotguns, scheming lovers and a necrophiliac gravedigger haunt the fables of Emilia Pardo Bazán, the formidable Spanish aristocrat, intellectual and feminist. These stories paint a rich and variegated image of Old Spain – sometimes tender, often provocative, always entertaining. But if you decide to visit, beware the Lady Bandit, whose strong, rough hands might grab your neck, and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze . . .

90 Classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books My delight in playing turned to a lust for playing, my lust for playing into a compulsion to play, a mania, a frenetic fury that filled not only my waking hours but also came to invade my sleep. I could think of nothing but chess, I thought only in chess moves and chess problems . . . As a chess obsessive, what if you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play the world champion, but it might send you to the edge of madness . . . and tip you over?