Classics

Classic Japanese Ghost Stories Enter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told and retold across the centuries. From Goblin infested caves and haunted...

A powerful, poignant novel about three half sisters in post-war Japan, from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Snow CountryWith the Second World War only a few years in the past, and...

A chilling horror story of artistic obsession and the price of perfection, based on the classic tale by Ryunosuke Akutagawa! Hell Screen follows Yoshihide, a renowned but tormented artist who,...

In the late fifteenth century, a young Dominican friar sets out on a journey from Paris to Florence in search of manuscripts of pre-Christian philosophy. Along the way, he encounters...

"A breathtakingly beautiful world…reminding us that we are part of the universe." —Kaori Nagai "A modern classic." —NPR Lonely and awkward, Giovanni struggles with his sick mother, absent father, and...

The first English translations of the original novellas about the iconic kaijū Godzilla Godzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, produced by Tōhō Studios...

Translated by Sam Bett For fans of No Longer Human, Osamu Dazai’s darkly bewitching novel about the small redemptions of being a pathetic, miserable writer. A fictional writer in his...

Translated by Edwin McClellan “Soseki is the representative modern Japanese novelist, a figure of truly national stature.” — Haruki Murukami One of the best-selling novels of all time in Japan:...

Translated by Van C. Gessel A group of Japanese tourists journey to the sacred River Ganges, each on a secret personal pilgrimage. Widower Isobe mourns for the devoted wife he...

Translated by G.D. Pickett Part history, part legend, this is the story of Sundiata Keita: the heroic figure who founded the empire of Mali. A thirteenth-century oral epic, Sundiata sees...

Classic Stories from Korea's Enchanted Past Fifty-five folktales offer a fascinating window into the Korean world. Told with wit and pathos, this lively collection of Korean fables features the ever-iconic...

Translated by Stephen Snyder FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE MEMORY POLICE'A conspicuously gifted writer...To read Ogawa is to enter a dreamlike state tinged with a nightmare, and her stories continue to...

An endlessly ingenious battle across Japan between dogged detective Akechi Kogoro and the many-faced thief Gold MaskA frenzied test of wits between ace detective Akechi Kogoro and the seemingly superhuman...

'The undisputed masterpiece of negritude and a poetic milestone of anti-colonialism' Guardian'We shall speak. We shall sing. We shall shout.' This blazing autobiographical poem by the founder of the negritude movement...

 'Flawless' – David Mitchell 'A masterpiece’ – Daily Telegraph Winner of the Tanizaki Prize  Published in 1967 in Japan to huge controversy, Silence is Shusaku Endo's most highly acclaimed novel and a classic...

Originally published in 1899, Dom Casmurro is widely considered to be Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis's masterpiece and a progenitor of twentieth-century Latin American fiction. This exuberant new translation captures all the...

A Life in Twenty Stories "Dazai's brand of egoistic pessimism dovetails organically with the emo chic of this cultural moment and with the inner lives of teenagers of all eras."...

“Delicate and powerful... a haunting, sensitive meditation on memory as well as a wonderful introduction to a master sorely underappreciated in the West. . . timeless, elegiac, and masterful” –...

A beautiful hardback edition of a great Japanese classic, beautiful, lyrical and deeply ominous. A band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and...

A landmark anthology, staking a new claim for Bengali literature in EnglishThe prose short story arrived in Bengal in the wake of British colonizers, and Bengali writers quickly made the...

Two cult-favorite Japanese artists present eerie graphic adaptations of 9 classic Kafka short stories, with hypnotic illustrations that will appeal to fans of Junji Ito Franz Kafka’s work is given...

Translated by Louise Heal Kawai A beautifully written mystery novel that takes on the taboo of Japanese prostitution catering to GIs during the American post-war occupation. Tokyo 1958, Teiko marries...

A timeless psychological study of a young man's deep alienation from society. Set in the early 20th century, Kokoro opens with a chance encounter on a beach near Tokyo that...

Translated by Bryan Karetnyk A classic Japanese mystery —a pair of sleuths investigate a series of bloody murders in 19th century Tokyo Tokyo, 1869. It is the dawn of the...

This eloquent work on the Japanese sense of beauty explores the subtle interplay of shade and light in several important aspects of Japanese life — architecture, drama, food, femininity and...

“Delicate and tough, a crafted danger, full of wit as well as abandon, Hafiz’s lyric is one of the rare mysteries of world literature.” —Coleman Barks, author and translator of...

The essential writings of China’s first iconic modern intellectual, intent on reforming an entire nation, now published for the first time in Penguin Classics The power, anger, and fluency of...

One of the classic works by the master of Japanese detective fiction A super-criminal - as deadly as she is beautiful - wagers all in an epic battle with a...

Translated by John Nathan Bird, the protagonist of A Personal Matter, is a frustrated young intellectual in a failing marriage whose utopian dream is shattered when his wife gives birth...

A Kafaesque marvel and a biting satire of bureaucracy, medicine and modern life In Tokyo, in the middle of the night, an uncalled-for ambulance arrives to spirit away a man's...

In 20 short books, Penguin Classics brings you the new canon of great environmental works Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As humans have driven the...

TRANSLATED BY ANJALI SINGH Now in one volume, both parts of Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi's brilliant memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during and after the Islamic revolution.The brilliant graphic memoir...

The international bestselling tale of love and loss in 1920s Berlin, now a Penguin Classics paperback 'The pain of losing something precious can be forgotten over time. But our missed...

A hardboiled detective story that combines the narrative suspense of Chandler with the psychological suspense of Dostoevsky Mr Nemuro, a respected salesman, disappeared over half a year ago, but only...

The Old Capital is one of the three works for which Yasunari Kawabata won the 1968 Nobel Prize for Literature. Set in Kyoto — the old capital of Japan for...

Translated by Norma Moore Field Soseki Natsume is considered to be one of Japan's most beloved and respected authors.And Then is ranked as one of his most insightful and stirring...

Translated from the Chinese by Gigi Chang and Shelly Bryant THE CHINESE "LORD OF THE RINGS" — NOW IN ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME. THE SERIES EVERY CHINESE READER HAS...

A Modern Translation of Japan's Gardening Classic Learn the art of Japanese gardening with this classic, fascinating text. The Sakuteiki, or "Records of Garden Making," was written nearly one thousand...

Illustrated by Inko Ai Takita, adapted by Sean Michael Wilson Step into a story of life and love in Kyoto's 10th century royal court. The Tale of Genji tells the...

'One never tires of reading and re-reading his best works. Akutagawa was a born short-story writer' — Haruki MurakamiThe stories in this fantastical, unconventional collection are subtly wrought depictions of...

The tale of a cat with no name but great wisdom! Illustrated by Zack Davisson and Chiroru Kobato Japan's beloved literary masterpiece brought to life in manga form! Soseki Natsume's...

Translated by Tulachandra The story of a young modern Siamese girl and her quest for true love, Prisna Volume 1 and Volume 2 take place in 1938 in Phra Nakhon,...

Translated by Richard Philcox A mesmerizing novel from one of the most important writers working today, winner of the alternative Nobel Prize Francis Sancher, a handsome outsider, loved by some...

Kobo Abe's existential and entertaining masterpiece 'This is the record of a box man' The streets of Tokyo have been seeing a strange phenomenon recently — people who have decided...

“One who sings and chants these supremely confidential teachings to My devotees will attain supreme devotion for Me and will attain Me. There is no doubt in this matter.” —Sri...

A fiendish classic murder mystery, from one of Japan's greatest crime writers. In 1940s Japan, the wealthy head of the Inugami Clan dies, setting off a chain of bizarre, gruesome...

Translated by Tulachandra The story of a young modern Siamese girl and her quest for true love, Prisna Volume 1and Volume 2 take place in 1938 in Phra Nakhon, Thailand,...

Spring Snow is the first book of Mishima’s masterpiece tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. The novel is set in Tokyo in 1912, in the closed circles of the imperial court...

Translated by Simon GroveA new edition of this prizewinning classic mystery from one of Japan's best-loved crime writers.A building full of secrets. A key that will unleash them all...The K...

A groundbreaking text of educational philosophy and social reform, now in Penguin Modern Classics This seminal text argues that the perceived passivity of the poor is the direct result of...