Penguin 2008 Book Catalog Classics

Classics Classics The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights Translated by Malcolm Lyons and Ursula Lyons A new, substantially complete translation of one of the best-known and most influential classics of world literature, which will reintroduce the work as a significant landmark in literary history and establish an accurate English text for the first time Once upon a time, the name Baghdad conjured up visions of the most magical, romantic city on earth, where flying carpets carried noble thieves off on wonderful adventures, and vicious viziers and beautiful princesses mingled with wily peasants and powerful genies. This is the world of the Arabian Nights, a magnificent collection of ancient tales from Arabia, India, and Persia. The tales – often stories within stories – are told by the sultana Scheherazade, who relates them as entertainments for her jealous and murderous husband, hoping to keep him amused and herself alive. Though early Islamic critics condemned the tales' ‘vulgarity’ and worldliness, the West has admired their robust, bawdy humour and endless inventiveness since the first translations appeared in Europe in the eighteenth century. Today these stories stand alongside the fables of Aesop, the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, and the folklore of Hans Christian Andersen as some of the Western literary tradition's most­quoted touchstones. Malcolm Lyons is a world renowned specialist in his field of classical Arabic poetry and is the senior fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge. His published works include a biography of Saladin, The Arabian Epic, Identification and Identity in Classical Arabian Poetry, a translation of The Arabian Nights, and articles on Arabic literature. Ursula Lyons, his wife, specializes in Modern Arabic literature, and has been an Emeritus fellow at Lady Cavendish Hall, Cambridge since 1976. Robert Irwin is a novelist, and author of numerous specialized studies of Middle Eastern politics, art and mysticism.   Pub Date November 2008 ISBN 9780141012681 Price £125.00 Format 234 x 156 mm hb Extent 960pp Territory 1W Classics Israel Potter Herman Melville Unique among Melville's works, Israel Potter is his only historical novel Melville's eighth book was begun as a simple rewrite of an obscure little narrative entitled The Life and Remarkable Adventures of Israel R. Potter, in which Israel tells the story of his sad fall from Revolutionary hero to London peddler. Following its opening chapter, Melville's novel retells that tale, with close adherence to the language and events of the Life, and then, shaking free of the original narrative, alternately moves between invented episodes and historical sources unrelated to the Life. Israel Potter is unique among Melville's books, as it is the only one to be offered in the guise of literal biography. Pub Date July 2008 ISBN 9780143105237 Price £10.99 Format B format pb Extent 288pp Territory 2W Three Tales from the Arabian Nights Translated by Malcolm Lyons and Ursula Lyons Three tales from our new translation of one of the best­known and most influential classics of world literature, which will reintroduce the work as a significant landmark in literary history and establish an accurate English text for the first time. Pub Date November 2008 ISBN 9781846141584 Price £9.99 Format A format hb Extent 128pp Territory 1W The Book of Contemplation Islam and the Crusades The first time in Classics for a timely and topical new translation of an eye-witness account of the Crusades from the perspective of a medieval Muslim writer The volume comprises lightly annotated translation of a key medieval Arabic text that bears directly on the Crusades and Crusader society and the Muslim experience of them. Pub Date July 2008 ISBN 9780140455137 Price £12.99 Format B format pb Extent 400pp Territory 1W US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Paul Cobb Serial Rights Penguin UK The Jewel of Seven Stars Bram Stoker New to Classics, to be published in time for Halloween, a spine-chilling novel from the master of the macabre A mysterious attack on Margaret Trelawney's father brings young lawyer Malcolm Ross into the Egyptologist's bizarre home, and the couple soon find they are battling ancient forces greater than they previously could have imagined. The Egyptian queen Tera has been awoken, and is coming to take what she believes to be hers – whatever the cost to the Trelawney family. Set in London and Cornwall, and written at a time when a fascination with the East pervaded Victorian England, The Jewel of Seven Stars reflected the perceived contrast between the Orient's savagery and moral degradation, and its exotic beauty and opulence. Pub Date July 2008 ISBN 9780141442211 Price £8.99 Format B format pb Extent 320pp Territory 1W US Rights Kate Hebblethwaite Translation Rights Kate Hebblethwaite Film Rights Kate Hebblethwaite Serial Rights Kate Hebblethwaite Classics Two Lives of Charlemagne Einhard and Notker Two fascinating biographical accounts of the great medieval ruler Einhard's Life of Charlemagne is an absorbing chronicle of one of the most powerful and dynamic of all medieval rulers, written by a close friend and adviser. In elegant prose it describes Charlemagne's personal life, details his achievements in reviving learning and the arts, recounts his military successes and depicts one of the defining moments in European history: Charlemagne's coronation as emperor in Rome on Christmas Day 800AD. By contrast, Notker's account, written some decades after Charlemagne's death, is a collection of anecdotes rather than a presentation of historical facts. Pub Date July 2008 ISBN 9780140455052 Price £9.99 Format B format pb Extent 160pp Territory 1W US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights David Ganz Serial Rights Penguin UK Kusamakura Natsume Soseki A new translation for a novel by one of Japan's most beloved authors Literally meaning 'Pillow of Grass', Kusamakura is Soseki's portrayal of an artist who opposes convention and logic, and shuns emotional involvement. The artist fluently and prolifically composes poetry, but finds himself unable to paint – despite befriending a beautiful young divorcee. When he one day sees compassion in her eyes he finds himself able to paint her, but in reconnecting with the emotional undercurrents he has tried to avoid, ends his retreat from the world. Soseki's beautiful and haikuesque novel is infused with his own musings on art and nature, and helped to establish the novel as a major literary form in Japan. Pub Date July 2008 ISBN 9780143105190 Price £9.99 Format B format pb Extent 192pp Territory 2W Classics The Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell A new complete edition of the seminal modern literary biography In Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, one of the towering figures of English literature is revealed with unparalleled immediacy and originality, in a biography to which we owe our entire knowledge of the man himself. Through a series of wonderfully detailed anecdotes, Johnson emerges as a sociable figure with a huge appetite for life, crossing swords with other great eighteenth­century luminaries, from Garrick and Goldsmith to Burney and Burke – and even his long­suffering friend and disciple James Boswell. Yet Johnson had a vulnerable side, and anxieties and obsessions haunted his private hours. Boswell's sensitivity and insight into every facet of his subject's character ultimately make this biography as moving as it is entertaining. Pub Date October 2008 ISBN 9780140436624 Price £18.99 Format B format pb Extent 1408pp Territory 1W US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Penguin UK Serial Rights Penguin UK The Water Babies A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby Charles Kingsley The Water Babies remains Kingsley's best-known title The Water­Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land­Baby is a children's novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862­1863 as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. The book was extremely popular during its day, and was a mainstay of children's literature through the 1920s. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780143105091 Price £7.99 Format B format pb Extent 224pp Territory 2W The Egyptian Book of the Dead Translated by E. A. Wallis Budge New to Classics, with a brand-new introduction by John Romer, one of the most famous Egyptologists of our time The Book of the Dead is a unique collection of funerary texts from a wide variety of sources, dating from the fifteenth to the fourth century BC. Consisting of spells, prayers and incantations, each section contains the words of power to overcome obstacles in the afterlife. The papyruses were often left in sarcophagi for the dead to use as passports on their journey from burial, and were full of advice about the ferrymen, gods and kings they would meet on the way. Offering valuable insights into ancient Egypt, The Book of the Dead has also inspired fascination with the occult and the afterlife in recent years. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780140455502 Price £16.99 Format B format pb Extent 960pp Territory 1W Classics Discourses and Selected Writings Epictetus A new selection of the most popular texts from the famous Stoic philosopher in whom there is a resurgence of interest as a source of inspiration for public figures Epictetus, a Greek Stoic and freed slave, ran a thriving philosophy school in Nicropolis in the early second century AD. His animated discussions were celebrated for their rhetorical wizardry and were written down by Arrian, his most famous pupil. Together with the Enchiridion, a manual of his main ideas, and the fragments collected here, the Discourses argue that happiness lies in learning to perceive exactly what is in our power to change and what is not, and in embracing our fate to live in harmony with god and nature. In this personal, practical guide to the ethics of Stoicism and moral self­improvement, Epictetus tackles questions of freedom and imprisonment, illness and fear, family, friendship and love, and leaves an intriguing document of daily life in the classical world. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780140449464 Price £9.99 Format B format pb Extent 304pp Territory 1W US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Penguin UK Serial Rights Penguin UK Timaeus and Critias Plato Timaeus and Critias has a central place in Western thought – to many first-time readers this work will be best known for the story of Atlantis Timaeus and Critias is a Platonic dialogue in two parts. A response to an account of an ideal state told by Socrates, it begins with Timaeus' theoretical exposition of the cosmos and his story describing the creation of the universe, from its very beginning to the coming of man. Timaeus introduces the idea of a creator God and speculates on the structure and composition of the physical world. Critias, the second part of Plato's dialogue, comprises an account of the rise and fall of Atlantis, an ancient, mighty and prosperous empire ruled by the descendents of Poseidon, which ultimately sank into the sea. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780140455045 Price £9.99 Format B format pb Extent 176pp Territory 1W US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Penguin UK Serial Rights Penguin UK The Ladies of the Corridor Dorothy Parker and Arnaud D'Usseau First time in Penguin Classics for this play by Dorothy Parker The Ladies of the Corridor is a play about a group of widowed or divorced middle­aged women who live at the Hotel Marlowe in New York City in the 1950s. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780143105312 Price £9.99 Format B format pb Extent 144pp Territory 2W Classics The Bhagavad Gita Translated by Laurie Patton New translation of one of the central texts of Sanskrit The Bhagavad Gita is an early epic poem that recounts the conversation between Arjuna the warrior and his charioteer Krishna, the manifestation of God. In the moments before a great battle, the dialogue sets out the important lessons Arjuna must learn to change the outcome of the war he is to fight, and culminates in Krishna revealing to the warrior his true cosmic form, counselling him to search for the universal perfection of life. Ranging from instructions on yoga postures to dense moral discussion, the Gita is one of the most important Hindu texts, as well as serving as a practical guide to living well. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780140447903 Price £9.99 Format B format pb Extent 288pp Territory 1W US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Penguin UK Serial Rights Penguin UK Richard II William Shakespeare Part of the new-look Penguin Shakespeare series Banishing his cousin, Bolingbroke, King Richard II prevents a dispute from turning bloody. But Richard is an arrogant and despotic ruler, prone to tyranny and vanity, who listens only to his flatterers. As favour turns against him and Bolingbroke returns to reclaim his land, Richard is humbled and grieved to see that the throne given to him by God might be taken from him by men. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141016634 Price £8.99 Format A format pb Extent 304pp Territory 1W Eugene Onegin A Novel in Verse Alexander Pushkin A new translation of Pushkin's masterpiece, with a new introduction and notes Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in 1820s Russia, Pushkin's verse novel follows the fates of three men and three women. Engaging, full of suspense, and varied in tone, it contains a large cast of characters and offers the reader many literary, philosophical, and autobiographical digressions, often in a highly satirical vein. Eugene Onegin was Pushkin's own favourite work, and this new translation by Stanley Mutchell conveys the literal sense and the poetic music of the original. Pub Date September 2008 ISBN 9780140448108 Price £9.99 Format B format pb Extent 288pp Territory 1W US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Penguin UK Serial Rights Penguin UK Classics Meditations on Living, Dying and Loss Translated by Gyurme Dorje A collection of extracts from The Tibetan Book of the Dead Few books have the depth of understanding and inspirational potency of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and this selection will offer an accessible and poetically evocative introduction to its visionary perspective. Pub Date September 2008 ISBN 9780140455458 Price £7.99 Format B format pb Extent 160pp Illustrations BW Integrated Territory 1BCEKZ2A US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Gillon Aitken Associates Serial Rights Penguin UK The Mountains of California John Muir A stirring tribute to one of America's most remote and beautiful places by one of the first modern preservationists This Penguin Classic – Muir's first book – puts a pioneering conservationist's passion for nature in high relief. With a poet's sensitivity and a naturalist's eye, Muir celebrates the Sierra Nevada, which he dedicated his life to saving, and recounts his breathtaking visits to Yosemite Valley, Kings Canyon, Sequoia Groves, and Mount Whiskey. The Mountains of California is an affecting celebration of raw nature by one of its most ardent defenders. Pub Date September 2008 ISBN 9780143105251 Price £10.99 Format B format pb Extent 304pp Territory 2W Classics An Organizer's Tale Cesar Chavez The first major collection of writings by civil rights leader Cesar Chavez One of the most important civil rights leaders in American history, Cesar Chavez was a firm believer in the principles of non­violence, and effectively employed peaceful tactics to further his cause. Through his efforts, he helped achieve dignity, fair wages, benefits, and humane working conditions for hundreds of thousands of farm workers. This extensive collection of Chavez's speeches and writings chronicles his progress and development as a leader, and includes previously unpublished material. From speeches to spread the word of the Delano Grape Strike, to testimony before the House of Representatives about the hazards of pesticides, Chavez communicated in clear, direct language, and motivated people everywhere with an unflagging commitment to his ideals. Pub Date September 2008 ISBN 9780143105268 Price £12.99 Format B format pb Extent 304pp Territory 2W The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas A new translation by Richard Pevear D'Artagnan, arriving in Paris from Gascony with no horse and few worldly goods, wishes to join the King's Guards. He finds himself in the company of three musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, the most renowned fighters of their day. The adventures they share, fighting for the honour of the Queen against the machinations of 'Milady', are so rich in drama, colour and romance, that The Three Musketeers has remained popular since its first serialization in 1844. Pub Date September 2008 ISBN 9780141442341 Price £9.99 Format B format pb Extent 736pp Territory 1BKZ2AC Humphry Clinker Tobias Smollett A new edition of Smollett's picaresque masterpiece, introduced by the author of the widely praised biography Tobias Smollett Matthew Bramble, a gout­ridden misanthrope, travels Britain with his nephew, niece, spinster sister and man­servant, the trusty Humphry Clinker. In poor health, Bramble sees the world as one of degeneracy and raucous overcrowding, and will not hesitate to let his companions know his feelings on the matter. Peopled with pimps, drunkards, decadents and con­men, Humphrey Clinker displays Smollett's ferociously pessimistic view of mankind, and his belief that the luxury of eighteenth­century England was the enemy of sense and sobriety. Presented in the form of letters from six very different characters, and full of joyful puns and double entendres, Humphrey Clinker is now recognized as a boisterous and observant masterpiece of English satire. Pub Date September 2008 ISBN 9780141441429 Price £9.99 Format B format pb Extent 496pp Territory 1W Classics The Tibetan Book of the Dead Translated by Gyurme Dorje 'Extraordinary ... this work will be a source of inspiration and support to many' The Dalai Lama A comprehensive guide to living and dying, The Tibetan Book of the Dead contains exquisitely written guidance to transforming our experience in the daily life, on the processes of dying and the after­death state, and on how to help those who are dying. Pub Date November 2008 ISBN 9780140455267 Price £12.99 Format B format pb Extent 592pp Territory 1BCEKZ2A US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Gillon Aitken Associates Ltd Serial Rights Penguin UK Penguin's Poems for Life Selected by Laura Barber An anthology of poems to take you from birth to death, and a little beyond ... Taking its inspiration from Shakespeare's idea of the 'seven ages' of a human life, this new anthology brings together the best­loved poems in English to inspire, comfort and delight readers for a lifetime. Beginning with babies, the book is divided into sections on childhood, growing up, making a living and making love, family life, getting older, and approaching death, and ends with poems of mourning and commemoration. Penguin's Poems for Life offers something for each of those moments in life when only a poem will do. Pub Date September 2008 ISBN 9780140424706 Price £9.99 Format B format pb Extent 480pp Territory 1BCEKZ US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Laura Barber Film Rights Laura Barber Serial Rights Penguin UK Spain, Take This Chalice from Me and Other Poems Cesar Vallejo A major new bilingual edition of the Peruvian poet's work Cesar Vallejo is one of the best­known Latin American poets of the twentieth century. Challenging, intense, and difficult to translate, Vallejo's work has often been overshadowed by his fervent endorsement of communism. Noted scholar Ilan Stavans tackles the avant­garde poet's politics head­on in an enlightening new introduction that places Vallejo in his proper literary context, while Margaret Sayers Peden's new translation does full justice to Vallejo's complex literary style. Including Spanish and English versions of more than eighty poems that span his career, this volume is certain to become the leading collection of Vallejo's work for years to come. Pub Date September 2008 ISBN 9780143105305 Price £12.99 Format B format pb Extent 352pp Territory 2W Pericles William Shakespeare Pericles is one of Shakespeare's 'romances' from late in his career and was composed somewhere between 1606 and 1608 Pericles, Prince of Tyre, must solve a riddle in order to marry the daughter of the King of Antioch, or be put to death. But when the answer reveals a horrific secret, the young man faces his greatest dilemma. Danger and adventure follow as Pericles flees the city to find his fortune elsewhere, in a romantic drama of families lost and reunited, evil punished and virtue rewarded. Pub Date September 2008 ISBN 9780141017983 Price £8.99 Format B format pb Extent 224pp Territory 1W Classics The Táin Ciaran Carson First time in paperback for this critically acclaimed translation by Ciaran Carson The Táin Bó Cúailnge, centrepiece of the eighth­century Ulster cycle of heroic tales, is Ireland's great epic. It tells the story of a great cattle­raid, the invasion of Ulster by the armies of Medb and Ailill, Queen and King of Connacht, and their allies, seeking to carry off the great Brown Bull of Cúailnge. The hero of the tale is Cú Chulainn, the Hound of Ulster, who resists the invaders single­handed while Ulster's warriors lie sick. Pub Date October 2008 ISBN 9780140455304 Price £8.99 Format B format pb Extent 256pp Territory 1BEKZ2AC US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Penguin UK Serial Rights Penguin UK Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales from Burns to Buchan Selected by Gordon Jarvie A lively and enchanting collection of much-loved tales, new to Penguin Classics Mystery and excitement abound in this lively collection of fairy tales, folklore and legends, which celebrates Scotland's enormously rich oral tradition and offers a carefully chosen combination of old favourites such as Tam Lin, Thomas Rymer and Adam Bell, as well as more modern stories by master story­tellers like Andrew Lang, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and John Buchan. Pub Date October 2008 ISBN 9780141442266 Price £8.99 Format B format pb Extent 256pp Territory 1W US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Penguin UK Serial Rights Penguin UK Classics The Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan A new edition of the work that has been more widely read than any book in English except the Bible The Pilgrim's Progress was published in 1678. Its influence, both indirectly on the English consciousness and directly on the literature that followed, has been immeasurable. The rich countryman's phrases that Bunyan borrowed or invented have become enshrined in the language, and many of the characters he created to people his world have entered our imaginations. Pub Date October 2008 ISBN 9780141439716 Price £8.99 Format B format pb Extent 384pp Territory 1W The Savoy Operas: The Complete Gilbert and Sullivan W. S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan New to Penguin Classics, with a preface by Mike Leigh Gilbert and Sullivan's operas are some of the world's best­loved musical works, delighting audiences with their joyous wit, topsy­turvy logic and extravagant wordplay. This glorious treasury is the definitive annotated edition of all fourteen of their operettas. Pub Date October 2008 ISBN 9780141441290 Price £16.99 Format B format pb Extent 896pp Territory 1W The Kabbalistic Tradition An Anthology of Jewish Mysticism Alan Unterman A wide-ranging survey of the Jewish mystical tradition 'The Torah is both hidden and revealed . . . there is a secret meaning to the holy Torah that is not written down explicitly or explained in it' This selection offers a comprehensive survey of the 'Kabbalah', the body of writings in the Jewish mystical tradition. It features texts from a variety of literary forms, from the earliest biblical sources through to the early twentieth century, with a section on 'practical kabbalistic knowledge and procedure' to appeal to the modern market. Pub Date November 2008 ISBN 9780140437997 Price £12.99 Format B format pb Extent 400pp Territory 1W Classics Chronicles of the Crusades Joinville and Villehardouin A new edition of these two French accounts written by soldiers in the Crusades The two famous Old French chronicles in this volume were composed by soldiers who took part in the Holy wars. Villehardoin's Conquest of Constantinople is the first trustworthy and fully informed history of the Crusades. Distinguished by its simplicity and lucidity, it is an account of the Fourth Crusade, which ironically became a war against the Eastern Christians of the Orthodox Church. Joinville's Life of Saint Louis was inspired by the author's close attachment to the pious king, and provides a vivid picture of his times and the ways of life in the East. Pub Date October 2008 ISBN 9780140449983 Price £9.99 Format B format pb Extent 464pp Territory 1W US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Caroline Smith Serial Rights Penguin UK The Canterbury Tales A Selection Geoffrey Chaucer A new selection of The Canterbury Tales, with facing-page original Middle-English text A selection of the most popular, and most studied, of the Canterbury Tales, translated by Colin Wilcockson. Pub Date November 2008 ISBN 9780140424454 Price £16.99 Format B format pb Extent 480pp Territory 1W US Rights Penguin UK Translation Rights Penguin UK Film Rights Colin Wilcockson Serial Rights Penguin UK Classics Poems of Robert Burns Selected by Ian Rankin Robert Burns Celebrating the 250-year anniversary of Scotland's favourite son A compilation of Robert Burns's poetry, selected and introduced by Ian Rankin. Burns is well­known, and loved, for his diversity in poetry: 'A Red, Red, Rose' evokes the sentimental, whilst 'Auld Lang Syne' and 'Man Was Made to Mourn' carry a more profound edge, and 'Address To A Haggis' displays his comic wit. Pub Date November 2008 ISBN 9781846141164 Price £10.99 Format A format hb Extent 144pp Territory 1BCKZ