American Classics Collection

The writer whom Fran Lebowitz compared to the author of The Great Gatsby, calling him “the real F. Scott Fitzgerald,” makes his Penguin Classics debut with this beautiful deluxe edition of his best-loved book. One of the great novels of small-town American life, Appointment in Samarra is...

A brilliant new short story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Madeline Miller—her first new work of fiction since the publication of Circe—that vibrantly reimagines the powerful and forgotten myth of Mestra. A cursed father, a gifted daughter Mestra, daughter of the King of...

A dazzling novel from one of our finest writers—an epic yet intimate family saga about three generations of all-American radicals At the center of Jonathan Lethem’s superb new novel stand two extraordinary women: Rose Zimmer, the aptly nicknamed Red Queen of Sunnyside, Queens, is an...

Inside this harrowing collection, you’ll uncover three thought-provoking and classic novels about slavery, civil rights, and the plight of African Americans before the abolition of slavery. With timeless narratives and poignant, dramatic prose, these books have stood the test of time to provide unique and moving accounts of life as a slave.

Dorothy Parker's quips and light verse have embedded themselves in the American literary landscape, but it was her prose that proved her star and demonstrated her talent as extending far beyond her time. In her fiction, she not only brought to life the urban milieu that was her bailiwick, but...

Explore the origins of some of the automotive world’s most intriguing stories, mysteries, myths, rumors, and legends. Fantastic stories have swirled around the automobile since the first car appeared over 100 years ago. History’s Greatest Automotive Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors...

“The most convincing portrait I know of contemporary America . . . a great American novel.”— James Atlas, The Atlantic Monthly From acclaimed author Russell Banks, a masterful novel of hope lost and gained—a gripping, indelible story of fragile lives uprooted and transformed by...

From “a poet of lyric wonderment, angular beauty, and uncompromising vision” (Poetry Northwest), a luminous new meditation on loss and love In Joanna Klink’s dreamlike sixth poetry collection, she turns her gaze to ordinary days and asks: What is the measure of a life? How should we weigh...

Collected fables and short stories from literary legend and iconic American humorist James Thurber, performed by Keith Olbermann ""James Thurber was a comedic genius. His fables are not simply parodies of Aesop. They are wry, accurate, and powerful reflections of ourselves, our foibles, our...

John Steinbeck's masterpiece celebrates the spirit and courage of adolescence. Steinbeck draws on his memories of childhood in these stories about a boy who embodies both the rebellious spirit and the contradictory desire for acceptance of early adolescence. Unlike most coming-of-age stories...

From “one of science fiction’s grand masters” (Library Journal), a reissue of Ray Bradbury’s The Toynbee Convector: a collection of twenty-two stories, including the continuing saga of H.G. Wells’s time traveler and his Toynbee Convector, a ghost on the Orient Express, and a bored man...

To this irresistible debut collection of short stories, Richard Russo brings the same bittersweet wit, deep knowledge of human nature, and spellbinding narrative gifts that distinguish his best-selling novels. His themes are the imperfect bargains of marriage; the discoveries and...

John Updike reads six stories he has selected from the hundred-odd he has published. "A&P", recounting a moral crisis on the checkout counter, is his most anthologized story. "Pigeon Feathers," the longest story included, tells of a fourteen-year-old boy's fear of death and the answer he finds...

Award-winning master critic Robert Gottlieb takes a singular and multifaceted look at the life of silver screen legend Greta Garbo, and the culture that worshiped her. “Wherever you look in the period between 1925 and 1941,” Robert Gottlieb writes in Garbo, “Greta Garbo is in people’s...

Now available for the first time in audio as a digital download, a selection of stories from Grace Paley. Whether writing about relationships, little girls, loving and bickering couples, angry suburbanites, frustrated job-seekers, or Jewish children performing a Christmas play, GRACE PALEY...

A collection of self-contained chapters exploring human imperfections, life, and death through humor and raw introspection, perfect for readers who enjoy character-driven, literary fiction. The characters in Dominic Hoffman's tales of Late Rehearsals are familiar. Their choices are recognizable...

Three tales from The Canterbury Tales, read in the original Middle English by Richard Bebb under the direction of Britain's foremost Chaucer scholar, Derek Brewer.

A stunning collection of work from beloved poet John Ashbery, his first posthumous book Renowned for his inventive mind, ambitious play with language, and dexterity with a wide range of tones and styles, John Ashbery has been a major artistic figure in the cultural life of our time. Parallel...

In a unique listening experience from the unforgettable writer and public speaker W.O. Mitchell, An Evening with W.O. Mitchell is a curated, abridged selection of nine remarkable pieces from Mitchell’s lifetime of public readings, read by the author himself. Featuring both a wide variety of...

“A ghost story without ghosts that, beyond its formal elegance, explores loneliness, the cycles in which our lives revolve, and the immeasurable challenges of affection.”—Mariana Enríquez, author of Our Share of the Night In this contemporary “ghost story without a ghost,”...