Penguin English Library
The Penguin English Library is an imprint of Penguin Books. The series was first created in 1963[1] as a 'sister series'[2] to the Penguin Classics series, providing critical editions of English classics; at that point in time, the Classics label was reserved for works translated into English (for example, Juvenal's Sixteen Satires). The English Library was merged into the Classics stable in the mid 1980s,[1] and all titles hitherto published in the Library were reissued as Classics.
The imprint was resurrected in 2012 for a new series of titles.[2][3] The present English Library no longer seeks to provide critical editions; the focus is now 'on the beauty and elegance of the book'.[3]
History
1963 to 1986
The Penguin English Library aimed to publish 'a comprehensive range of the literary masterpieces which have appeared in the English language since the 15th century'.[1] All texts in the Library were published with an introduction and explanatory notes written and compiled by an editor; some with a bibliography as well.[2] Editors were also required to provide 'authoritative texts', using their own judgement in printing one, or in some cases creating their own.[2] The series was recognisable chiefly by its distinctive orange spine.[1][3]
Most, if not all, titles were reprinted as Penguin Classics following the merger of the two imprints in the mid 1980s. Some of these editions were superseded in the 1990s or later,[4] while some continue to be reprinted today as Classics. Additionally, the introductions to some titles survive in present-day Penguin Classics as appendices – for example, Tony Tanner's introduction to Mansfield Park.
2012 to present
The imprint was resurrected in name, though not so much in spirit, in 2012. Texts published in the series no longer include critical apparatus; they instead feature an essay by a notable literary figure, usually excerpted from prior work - for example, the essays of Harold Bloom, V. S. Pritchett and John Sutherland have been featured.[3] A portrait or photograph of the author remains printed on the inside of the front cover.[3] The focus is now on cover art, with each title designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.[3]
List of English Library titles
This is an incomplete list of the titles in the Penguin English Library:
1963 to 1986
All titles listed below are assumed to have lists of further reading appended and/or are no longer in print having been superseded by new editions, unless stated.
2012 to present
| Author | Title | Essayist | Essay | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jane Austen | Persuasion | Elizabeth Bowen | Unknown | |
| Emily Brontë | Wuthering Heights | Virginia Woolf | Wuthering Heights | |
| G. K. Chesterton | The Man Who Was Thursday | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Wilkie Collins | The Moonstone | T. S. Eliot | The Moonstone | |
| Daniel Defoe | Robinson Crusoe | David Blewett | The Island and the World | The essay is taken from a chapter in Blewett's Defoe's Art of Fiction: Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, Colonel Jack, and Roxana (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979). |
| Henry Fielding | Tom Jones | R. P. C. Mutter | Tom Jones | The essay is a reprint of Mutter's introduction to the original Penguin English Library edition (see above). |
| Elizabeth Gaskell | North and South | V. S. Pritchett | The South Goes North | The essay is from Sir Victor's 1942 collection of essays, In My Good Books. |
| Nathaniel Hawthorne | The Scarlet Letter | D. H. Lawrence | Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter | The essay is from Lawrence's Studies in Classic American Literature. |
| Mary Shelley | Frankenstein | Paul Cantor | The Nightmare of Romantic Idealism | The text is that of the 1985 Penguin Classics edition, edited by Maurice Hindle, i. e. the 1832 text. The essay is taken from a chapter in Cantor's book, Creature and Creator: Myth-Making and English Romanticism (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985). |
| Laurence Sterne | Tristram Shandy | V. S. Pritchett | Tristram Shandy | |
| Bram Stoker | Dracula | John Sutherland | Why Does the Count Come to England? | The essay is taken from Sutherland's Is Heathcliff a Murderer? Great Puzzles in Nineteenth Century Fiction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). |
| Mark Twain | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Harold Bloom | Unknown | |
| Oscar Wilde | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Peter Ackroyd | - | The essay is a reprint of Ackroyd's introduction to the first Penguin Classics edition. |
References
- Kelly, Stuart. "The new Penguin English Library is a far cry from its 1963 version". The Guardian.
- "About Penguin Classics". Penguin Classics.
- Akbar, Arifa. "A whole new chapter for the Penguin English Library". Independent.
- Andrew Sanders. Wooten, William; Donaldson, George (eds.). Reading Penguin: A Critical Anthology. p. 112. ISBN 1443850829.
- Keating, Peter. "What's new". Peter Keating: Author and vegetarian cook. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
- "Culture and Anarchy and Other Selected Prose". Penguin UK. Penguin. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
- Austen, Jane (2003). Mansfield Park. Penguin Classics. pp. 440–465. ISBN 9780141439808.
- Maus, Katharine (1998). Four Revenge Tragedies. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics. p. i. ISBN 0192838784.
- Patton, Phil. "Reflections on a Penguin-iversary". AIGA. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- "Back cover of Three Gothic Novels (Classics, 2003)".
