bella penguino!

I am so in love with the look of the new Penguin classics! The covers of these gorgeous hardcover editions (designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith) are just perfect- timeless, yet visually interesting. They would look great next to any book on any bookshelf, but I especially love how they look in a grouping. Also, they feel great. The covers are that great, old-fashioned linen thread-y material, and the pages are a satisfying weight. So far, the following titles are available for sale (I've seen them at Borders and Davis Kidd, as well as online):

Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell
Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

Interestingly, the photographic evidence (2 within the above image, the rest below) suggests that other titles exist (or will exist) as new Penguin Classics:

The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle
Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens
Emma, by Jane Austen
The Odyssey, by Homer (now there's a real classic!)
The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint, by William Shakespeare (I cannot read the title of that one in the image!)
Lady Chatterly's Lover, by D.H. Laurence
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert

Aren't they beautiful? Here are some of my favorites, close up:







A little online detective work reveals that all of the books are available through Waterstone's, suggesting they haven't been released in the US yet. They seem to be English 19th century classics more than anything, but since that was a major golden age for modern literature (and one of my favorite periods), I'm okay with that lack of diversity. :) I wonder when the rest will become available in the US? Hopefully in time for my birthday!

What looks good to you on this list? What books do you think are missing? I personally would love to see more American classics (The Scarlet Letter or Leaves of Grass, for example). But I adore so many of these books- especially the Austens, Jane Eyre, and Little Women! :)

~Heather

[Images from the Hardcover Classics Penguin Flickr set]