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Redburn
by Herman MelvilleThe life of a sailor isn’t all its cracked up to be.
Wellingborough Redburn cannot find employment in his native New York, and so signs aboard the merchantship Highlander, on its journey to Liverpool.
He discovers that he is a “boy,” the lowest rank among the crew, and has to contend with the worst, most offensive duties, and the abuse of the seaman Jackson. Redburn proves to be a quick study at both the craft of seafaring and the surprisingly intricate social dynamics among the crewmembers, but will it be enough to turn his voyage around?
Drawing equally on Melville’s experiences at sea and his talent for cleverly poking fun at human foibles, this is a wonderful treat from a spectacular writer.
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Queen Lucia
by E. F. BensonThe first volume of E.F. Benson's wildly satirical take on the Edwardian English upper class. The books were recently adapted by the BBC into a mini-series starring Sherlock's Mark Gatiss. Emmeline Lucas - Lucia, to her friends - is a determined social climber, determined to rise to the top of the town of Riseholme, a little one-street village inhabited by a strange group of the idle rich. The result is a mish-mash of petty schemes, gossip, and backstabbing the likes of which Riseholme has never seen. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Pylon
by William FaulknerOne of the few of William Faulkner’s works to be set outside his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Pylon, first published in 1935, takes place at an air show in a thinly disguised New Orleans named New Valois. An unnamed reporter for a local newspaper tries to understand a very modern ménage a trois of flyers on the brainstorming circuit. These characters, Faulkner said, “were a fantastic and bizarre phenomenon on the face of the contemporary scene. . . . That is, there was really no place for them in the culture, in the economy, yet they were there, at that time, and everyone knew that they wouldn’t last very long, which they didn’t. . . . That they were outside the range of God, not only of respectability, of love, but of God too.” In Pylon Faulkner set out to test their rootless modernity to see if there is any place in it for the old values of the human heart that are the central concerns of his best fiction.Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Put Out More Flags
by Evelyn WaughWaugh brings some of his best characters back for another romp. Against the backdrop of the Phoney War, Alistair Trumpington wants only the chance to fight for a worthy cause, but instead he finds himself stuck in a never-ending series of military maneuvers, getting him nowhere closer to any front.
Meanwhile, the scoundrel Basil Seal sees the burgeoning war as an opportunity to help only himself.
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Playback
by Raymond ChandlerThe last Philip Marlowe novel finished in Chandler’s lifetime.
Playback begins with private investigator Philip Marlowe being hired to investigate a woman, but soon discovers that she is the victim of blackmail, and that Marlowe has been suckered into being a pawn in a much bigger game.
He turns his attention to the young woman, hoping to free her from the nefarious characters hounding her. Despite being adapted from a screenplay, it is the only Marlowe novel to never be filmed. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Peyton Place
by Grace MetaliousPeyton Place is a sleepy little American town, like any other. But like any other, it harbours its fair share of secrets. Constance MacKenzie is a widower—or so the residents of Peyton Place believe. In reality, after leaving Peyton Place she carried on an affair that lasted until her illicit lover’s untimely death.
No one in town knows the truth—not even her daughter, Allison, a budding intellectual and aspiring author.
Allison feels lonely and isolated in Peyton Place, save for the company of her best friend, Selena Cross, a poor girl trapped under the thumb of an abusive step-father. As the ebb and flow of small-town drama cascades over Peyton Place, the three women must navigate the constraints of their pasts, the potential of their futures, and growing understandings of their own sexuality.
Peyton Place was a resoundingly successful—and deeply controversial—novel when published, bolstered by its colourful cast and frank discussions of sex and sexuality. It was adapted as a film, and then a prime time television series.
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Parade's End
by Ford Madox FordA stark, modernist look at the realities of contemporary war. The four novels that makes up Parade's End (Some Do Not..., No More Parades, A Man Who Could Stand Up--, and Last Post) tell the story of Christopher Tietjens, a British government statistician who joins the army during the first world war. He suffers severe shell-shock, and must live through an unhappy marriage while suspicions run rampant that he has been having an affair. The novels have been referred to as classics of 20th century modernist literature, and Ford has been praised for his unwillingness to ascribe some sort of purpose or order to the violence of war. HBO, VRT, and BBC collaborated on a miniseries adaptation of the novels starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall, and written by Tom Stoppard.
On the Beach
by Nevil ShuteA classic work of post-apocalyptic fiction, and a haunting look at the capacity of humankind for self-destruction. On the Beach is set in the wake of World War III; the world has been rendered almost completely uninhabitable due to Nuclear Fallout, with the only liveable areas, located in the southern part of the planet, on a short clock as air currents threaten to eventually spread the fallout over the entire planet. When Austrlia receives a morse code message from the Seattle area, they dispatch one of the last nuclear submarines in hopes of finding survivors. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Oliver Twist
by Charles DickensOliver is an orphan living on the dangerous London streets with no one but himself to rely on. Fleeing from poverty and hardship, he falls in with a criminal street gang who will not let him go, however hard he tries to escape. In Oliver Twist, Dickens graphically conjures up the capital's underworld, full of prostitutes, thieves and lost and homeless children, and gives a voice to the disadvantaged and abused.Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
by T. S. EliotA lighter side of the great poet. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats will be a delightful surprise for any readers familiar with poem's like The Waste Land and Prufrock. Eliot playfully weaves his way through 13 vignettes about cats, starting with some observations on the importance of cats' names, before diving into the lives of individual felines. Cat burglars, magicians, thieves, and troublemakers populate the colourful cast of this wonderful book. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Old New York
by Edith WhartonA series of four interconnected novellas, painting a vivid portrait of New York through the middle of the 19th century.
In the 1840s, Lewis Raycie is sent to Europe by his father to purchase art by famous painters. The elder Raycie, a self-made man, wants to establish a family dynasty and hopes that a respected art gallery well help entrench his family in New York's upper crust.
But when his son returns home with works by cutting edge but unknown artists, it threatens to tear this fledgling family apart.
In the 1850s, Delia Ralston's cousin Charlotte is about to be married but has a dilemma. Her husband-to-be wishes her to give up her work at an orphanage where, unbeknownst to him, Charlotte's illegitimate daughter resides.
Delia wants to help her cousin out, while also looking out for Charlotte's future husband, who is in turn her husband's cousin. And then there is the young child to worry about, an orphan in the public eye who has no prospects to speak of...
In the 1860s, a young man named Hayley joins the Civil War and is wounded. Three decades later, the narrator traces the way his life has unfolded since the war.
Finally, in the 1870s, a woman named Lizzie's apparent affair is causing a scandal throughout the city, but the relationship is not as it appears...
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Officers and Gentlemen
by Evelyn WaughThe second part of the Sword of Honour Trilogy, inspired by the author’s experiences in World War II.
After being bounced from his regiment in the war, Guy Crouchback, the youngest member of a declining British aristocratic family, falls in with a commando-brigade-in-training led by Tommy Blackhouse, Crouchback’s ex-wife’s second husband (but not her last).
Guy is posted to Egypt and finds himself in the middle of the frantic evacuation of Crete. Can he distinguish himself in service this time, or will he once again stumble?
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Of Human Bondage
by W. Somerset MaughamWhen Philip Carey’s parents pass away he is sent to live with his Aunt Louisa and Uncle William, a vicar.
Because of his club foot and his odd childhood, Philip has trouble fitting in at school, and passes up a scholarship at Oxford to try and make his own way.
He tries an apprenticeship, and pursues a career as a painter, before finally settling on a career in medicine.
But nothing is ever simple for Philip Carey, and the often banal realities of real life confound him at every turn.
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O Pioneers!
by Willa CatherWidely known as Willa Cather’s first great novel and the first of the “prairie trilogy,” O Pioneers! is a work of fiction that conveys both the sharp physical realities and the mythic transformation of the American frontier and those who settled in it. Alexandra Bergson, the heroine of the novel, arrives in Nebraska with her family and grows up to make a prosperous farm despite the losses she experiences—but her love of the land comes at a cost. Filled with clear prose and a characterized landscape, this novel is about personal sacrifice, family loyalty, emotional and romantic ties, and belonging. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
No Pockets in a Shroud
by Horace McCoyIs the pen really mightier than the sword – or the gun?
Mike Dolan is an investigative journalist with his eyes on a baseball bribery scandal until his editor kills the story.
Mike quits his job and starts his own magazine, determined to unearth corruption and make the world a better place. But as he goes after more and more dangerous and powerful people, will he find that he’s bitten off more than he can chew?
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Ninteen Eighty-Four
by George OrwellGeorge Orwell's dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four is perhaps the most pervasively influential book of the twentieth century, published with an introduction by Ben Pimlott in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past' Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal. If you enjoyed Nineteen Eighty-Four, you might like Orwell's Animal Farm, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'His final masterpiece . . . enthralling and indispensible for understanding modern history' Timothy Garton-Ash, New York Review of Books 'The book of the twentieth century . . . haunts us with an ever-darker relevance' Independent
My Antonia
by Willa CatherOriginally published in 1918, My Ántonia is considered one of Willa Cather’s best works and was praised as a masterpiece. It is the final book of her “prairie trilogy” novels, preceded by O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark. After the death of his parents, ten-year-old Jim Burden arrives in Nebraska to live with his grandparents and makes fast friends with the Shimerda children, particularly Ántonia, who live on a neighbouring farm. When tragedy strikes Ántonia’s family, she and Jim drift apart, seeing each other only infrequently over the next two decades and building their own lives. But after twenty years, Jim visits Ántonia and they reconnect, reflecting on the ways in which they’d been tied together all those years. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Murder Must Advertise
by Dorothy L. SayersMad Men weren’t the first advertisers with dark secrets. When an advertising copywriter is murdered under suspicious circumstances, Lord Peter Wimsey must go undercover to solve the case; by day, as a respected member of an advertising agency, and by night, as a wild bohemian. When he starts to sniff out evidence of a cocaine ring connected to the murder, things become rather more dangerous than Lord Peter bargained for. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Murder in the Cathedral
by T. S. EliotA vivid exploration of the fundamental contradiction of martyrdom. Though best known for his poetry, T.S. Eliot was also an accomplished playwright. Murder in the Cathedral is a beautiful, haunting poetic take on the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170. Becket sees his death coming, but embraces it. This strange duality - a martyr's death as both tragic and glorious - serves as the basis for the action. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville“Call me Ishmael.” Thus begins one of the classics of American literature.
A masterful tale of revenge, Moby Dick follows the relentless quest of Captain Ahab to find and slay the whale that stole his leg. The story touches of topics ranging from the technicalities of whale oil to the existence of God, and all things in between.
It is Melville’s most ambitious novel, bending genres and styles, and is still considered one of the greatest achievements in American writing. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values.
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Miss Mapp
by E. F. BensonThe second volume of E.F. Benson's wildly satirical take on the Edwardian English upper class. The books were recently adapted by the BBC into a mini-series starring Sherlock's Mark Gatiss. Miss Elizabeth Mapp is the self-appointed guardian of good manners and propriety for her upper-crust neighbours in the small town of Tilling, but her job isn't easy, as they are beset from all sides by potential scandals and romantic entanglements (but not the ones that Mapp herself engineers - those are, of course, the good kind). Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Miss Lonelyhearts
by Nathanael WestMiss Lonelyhearts is a decidedly off-kilter, darkly comic tale set in New York in the early 1930s. A nameless man is assigned to produce a newspaper advice column. It was meant to be a joke. But as endless letters from the Desperate, Sick-of-it-All and Disillusioned pile up for Miss Lonelyhearts's attention the joke begins to escape him.Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Men at Arms
by Evelyn WaughThe first part of the Sword of Honour Trilogy, inspired by the author’s experiences in World War II.
Guy Crouchback, the youngest member of a declining British aristocratic family, is on self-imposed exile in Italy, ashamed of his failed marriage.
When World War II breaks out, he sees a chance to turn his life around, and to combat the evils of modernity.
As it turns out, war is not so glamorous as he’d imagined, and he finds himself an officer in an old, stodgy regiment, surrounded by eccentric and buffoonish characters, like his friend Apthorpe, a career soldier with an exceedingly complicated past. Guy is determined to do right by himself, and by his Catholic faith, but circumstances will not make it easy.
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Martin Eden
by Jack LondonA brilliant critique of class hierarchies and The American Dream. Martin Eden is in love with Ruth Morse, but their union cannot be. Eden is a poor, uneducated sailor, and Ruth comes from a bourgeoisie family.
To allow them to be together, Martin commits to a tireless enterprise of education and self-refinement, hoping to elevate himself to the upper classes through literary achievements.
But if he makes it, will Martin like what he finds?Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you high quality, classic works of literature in e-book form.
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Mapp and Lucia
by E. F. BensonThe fourth volume of E.F. Benson's wildly satirical take on the Edwardian English upper class. The books were recently adapted by the BBC into a mini-series starring Sherlock's Mark Gatiss. Miss Elizabeth Mapp is the undisputed queen of the social scene in the village of Tilling - undisputed, that is, until the arrival of Emmeline "Lucia" Lucas, someone just as clever and determined as she is. The two women, backed by their respective coteries, clash for dominance over the local society scene. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.