Tag: penguin books

The Penguin Modern Classics Book by Henry Eliot

A great companion piece to The Penguin Classics Book. This book features on the Penguin Modern Classics series in its forms from its inception to today. I didn’t know the series has gone from several iterations and finally all brought together as ‘Modern Classics’ ‘Penguin Modern Classics’ ‘Twentieth Century Classics’ and finally back to Penguin Modern Classics. Same with how the covers have changed over the years with several re-designs.

Its a nice flick through the history and catalogue, I didn’t find it as enjoyable as the Classics book, but found several books of interest. The book does cover a vast scope of books and every continent is represented with selections, obviously this is a more European/English centred book. It also is only accurate to 2021 when it was published so naturally the series is even more comprehensive than the book represents so it is out of date.

The Penguin Classics Book by Henry Eliot

What a beautiful and rich book and reading experience. This is a readers book.

Essentially this is a book that covers Penguin Classics books. From the figures behind the books inceptions and the editors and translators. The book is split into sections like Ancient Greece, Rome, Republic Rome, Middle Ages, Renaissance etc up to World War 1. It features fiction, poetry, non-fiction, sagas. Each author featured has a short biography where one exists along with books they have printed as part of Penguin Classics. Each book shows covers of the editions of the books along with a paragraph long commentary/synopsis.

It really is an interesting and insightful read, I have bookmarked many books through my reading of this one, lots of new to me books and authors.

Another interesting tidbit is the breakdown and meaning behind the ISBN of books, something that is overlooked can be so fascination such as the 978 or 979 portion is a country code for books or Bookland as its known in the industry.