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Penguin Modern Classics
At Penguin Classics our mission has always been to make the best books ever written available to everyone. And that also means constantly redefining and refreshing exactly what makes a ‘classic’.
That’s where Modern Classics come in. Since 1961 they have been an organic, ever-growing and ever-evolving list of books that we believe will continue to be read over and over again.
Note: Do not add non Penguin Modern Classics editions. They will be summarily deleted. If you require assistance regarding adding the correct edition, please comment accordingly.
That’s where Modern Classics come in. Since 1961 they have been an organic, ever-growing and ever-evolving list of books that we believe will continue to be read over and over again.
Note: Do not add non Penguin Modern Classics editions. They will be summarily deleted. If you require assistance regarding adding the correct edition, please comment accordingly.
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 200 |
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Despair
by
3.91 avg rating — 11,405 ratings
score: 254,
and
4 people voted
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| 202 |
|
Queer
by
3.50 avg rating — 22,172 ratings
score: 252,
and
4 people voted
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| 203 |
|
Rhinoceros / The Chairs / The Lesson
by
4.02 avg rating — 6,078 ratings
score: 248,
and
4 people voted
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| 204 |
|
The Ballad of Peckham Rye
by
3.44 avg rating — 2,761 ratings
score: 247,
and
4 people voted
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| 205 |
|
Gormenghast (Gormenghast Trilogy, #2)
by
4.10 avg rating — 14,753 ratings
score: 246,
and
4 people voted
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| 206 |
|
Fever Pitch
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3.77 avg rating — 43,352 ratings
score: 243,
and
3 people voted
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| 207 |
|
The Myth of Sisyphus
by
4.17 avg rating — 86,552 ratings
score: 240,
and
4 people voted
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| 208 |
|
Shooting an Elephant
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4.06 avg rating — 10,986 ratings
score: 239,
and
3 people voted
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| 209 |
|
Heroes and Villains
by
3.53 avg rating — 3,128 ratings
score: 238,
and
5 people voted
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| 210 |
|
If Not Now, When?
by
4.23 avg rating — 4,058 ratings
score: 236,
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4 people voted
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| 211 |
|
A Rage In Harlem (Harlem Cycle, #1)
by
3.89 avg rating — 7,484 ratings
score: 229,
and
4 people voted
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| 211 |
|
Call for the Dead (George Smiley #1)
by
3.85 avg rating — 45,510 ratings
score: 229,
and
3 people voted
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| 213 |
|
The Golden Apples
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3.80 avg rating — 1,227 ratings
score: 224,
and
3 people voted
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| 214 |
|
The Great Railway Bazaar
by
3.90 avg rating — 21,196 ratings
score: 223,
and
3 people voted
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| 214 |
|
There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbour's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales
by
3.61 avg rating — 4,541 ratings
score: 223,
and
3 people voted
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| 216 |
|
The Tunnel
by
4.02 avg rating — 90,425 ratings
score: 215,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 217 |
|
The Fire Next Time
by
4.55 avg rating — 116,588 ratings
score: 214,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 218 |
|
Anthills of the Savannah
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3.85 avg rating — 4,515 ratings
score: 212,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 219 |
|
Seven Gothic Tales
by
Isak Dinesen (Pseudonym)
3.87 avg rating — 3,714 ratings
score: 208,
and
4 people voted
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| 220 |
|
The Claudius Novels
by
4.24 avg rating — 72,099 ratings
score: 203,
and
3 people voted
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| 221 |
|
Modern Classics The Merry Go Round In The Sea
by
3.81 avg rating — 691 ratings
score: 201,
and
3 people voted
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| 222 |
|
Madonna in a Fur Coat
by
4.36 avg rating — 88,262 ratings
score: 200,
and
2 people voted
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| 223 |
|
Count Belisarius
by
4.02 avg rating — 2,858 ratings
score: 199,
and
3 people voted
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| 224 |
|
Tristes Tropiques
by
4.14 avg rating — 4,016 ratings
score: 197,
and
3 people voted
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| 224 |
|
Italian Folk Tales
by
4.18 avg rating — 4,679 ratings
score: 197,
and
2 people voted
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| 226 |
|
Selected Poems
by
4.14 avg rating — 786 ratings
score: 195,
and
3 people voted
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| 227 |
|
Complete Stories
by
4.36 avg rating — 3,955 ratings
score: 194,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 227 |
|
Closely Watched Trains
by
3.72 avg rating — 12,563 ratings
score: 194,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 227 |
|
The Black Cloud
by
3.90 avg rating — 5,191 ratings
score: 194,
and
2 people voted
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| 230 |
|
Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems
by
3.99 avg rating — 3,470 ratings
score: 193,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 230 |
|
Death Comes for the Archbishop
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3.97 avg rating — 42,218 ratings
score: 193,
and
2 people voted
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| 232 |
|
Bastard Out of Carolina
by
4.14 avg rating — 47,254 ratings
score: 191,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 233 |
|
The Graduate
by
3.35 avg rating — 11,762 ratings
score: 189,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 234 |
|
The Birds
by
4.14 avg rating — 7,349 ratings
score: 188,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 235 |
|
Requiem for a Dream
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4.11 avg rating — 63,494 ratings
score: 183,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 236 |
|
The Assistant
by
3.99 avg rating — 1,664 ratings
score: 182,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 237 |
|
Memoirs
by
3.94 avg rating — 1,187 ratings
score: 181,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 238 |
|
On Photography
by
3.87 avg rating — 54,951 ratings
score: 177,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 239 |
|
Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7,469 ratings
score: 176,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 240 |
|
Man's Fate
by
3.74 avg rating — 6,390 ratings
score: 173,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 241 |
|
Anna of the Five Towns
by
3.68 avg rating — 1,802 ratings
score: 172,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 242 |
|
Territory of Light
by
3.59 avg rating — 9,914 ratings
score: 171,
and
2 people voted
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| 243 |
|
Shosha
by
3.98 avg rating — 2,872 ratings
score: 169,
and
3 people voted
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| 244 |
|
O Pioneers!
by
3.90 avg rating — 57,638 ratings
score: 168,
and
2 people voted
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| 245 |
|
Thousand Cranes
by
3.70 avg rating — 15,080 ratings
score: 167,
and
2 people voted
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| 246 |
|
A Capote Reader
by
4.41 avg rating — 479 ratings
score: 165,
and
3 people voted
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| 247 |
|
The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays
by
4.04 avg rating — 964 ratings
score: 163,
and
2 people voted
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| 248 |
|
Invitation to a Beheading
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3.92 avg rating — 19,577 ratings
score: 160,
and
2 people voted
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| 249 |
|
The Well of Loneliness
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3.76 avg rating — 19,026 ratings
score: 159,
and
2 people voted
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| 250 |
|
The Gentleman from San Francisco and Other Stories
by
3.99 avg rating — 1,995 ratings
score: 158,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 251 |
|
Season of Migration to the North
by
3.72 avg rating — 32,605 ratings
score: 157,
and
3 people voted
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| 252 |
|
Someone Like You
by
3.94 avg rating — 4,982 ratings
score: 155,
and
3 people voted
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| 252 |
|
The Black Unicorn: Poems
by
4.34 avg rating — 3,545 ratings
score: 155,
and
2 people voted
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| 254 |
|
A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman: The Collected Stories
by
3.73 avg rating — 1,009 ratings
score: 153,
and
3 people voted
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| 255 |
|
The Face of Another
by
3.74 avg rating — 5,510 ratings
score: 152,
and
3 people voted
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| 255 |
|
First Love and Other Novellas
by
3.74 avg rating — 2,433 ratings
score: 152,
and
3 people voted
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| 255 |
|
The Uses of Literacy: Aspects of Working-Class Life
by
3.80 avg rating — 441 ratings
score: 152,
and
2 people voted
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| 258 |
|
Terra Amata
by
3.63 avg rating — 218 ratings
score: 151,
and
2 people voted
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| 259 |
|
The Lonely Londoners
by
3.70 avg rating — 13,230 ratings
score: 150,
and
3 people voted
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| 259 |
|
Other Voices, Other Rooms
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3.75 avg rating — 17,412 ratings
score: 150,
and
2 people voted
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| 261 |
|
Reflections in a Golden Eye
by
3.84 avg rating — 7,130 ratings
score: 148,
and
2 people voted
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| 261 |
|
Lust, Caution and Other Stories
by
3.58 avg rating — 759 ratings
score: 148,
and
2 people voted
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| 263 |
|
Go
by
3.81 avg rating — 1,859 ratings
score: 146,
and
2 people voted
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| 264 |
|
The Forsyte Saga, Volume One
by
4.18 avg rating — 20,560 ratings
score: 141,
and
2 people voted
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| 265 |
|
The Dharma Bums
by
3.93 avg rating — 100,341 ratings
score: 139,
and
2 people voted
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| 266 |
|
In Dubious Battle
by
3.93 avg rating — 15,869 ratings
score: 137,
and
4 people voted
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| 266 |
|
Winter's Tales
by
3.86 avg rating — 2,531 ratings
score: 137,
and
2 people voted
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| 268 |
|
The Andy Warhol Diaries
by
3.93 avg rating — 3,077 ratings
score: 136,
and
2 people voted
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| 268 |
|
Henry and June
by
3.93 avg rating — 13,367 ratings
score: 136,
and
2 people voted
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| 270 |
|
Homage to Catalonia
by
4.09 avg rating — 69,168 ratings
score: 135,
and
2 people voted
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| 271 |
|
The Complete Short Stories
by
4.18 avg rating — 2,845 ratings
score: 134,
and
2 people voted
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| 271 |
|
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
by
3.84 avg rating — 48,181 ratings
score: 134,
and
2 people voted
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| 273 |
|
Junky
by
3.85 avg rating — 70,321 ratings
score: 133,
and
3 people voted
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| 273 |
|
The Labyrinth of Solitude
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4.10 avg rating — 14,506 ratings
score: 133,
and
3 people voted
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| 275 |
|
Diary of a Provincial Lady
by
3.90 avg rating — 6,459 ratings
score: 132,
and
2 people voted
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| 275 |
|
The Book of Daniel
by
3.85 avg rating — 5,868 ratings
score: 132,
and
2 people voted
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| 277 |
|
Titus Alone
by
3.45 avg rating — 6,087 ratings
score: 130,
and
3 people voted
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| 278 |
|
Manhattan Transfer
by
3.64 avg rating — 7,096 ratings
score: 129,
and
3 people voted
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| 279 |
|
A Heart so White
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4.02 avg rating — 17,532 ratings
score: 128,
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3 people voted
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| 279 |
|
Homer's Daughter
by
3.77 avg rating — 1,043 ratings
score: 128,
and
2 people voted
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| 281 |
|
The Wild Boys
by
3.53 avg rating — 4,223 ratings
score: 127,
and
3 people voted
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| 282 |
|
Pale Horse, Pale Rider: The Short Stories
by
3.96 avg rating — 4,832 ratings
score: 126,
and
3 people voted
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| 283 |
|
Literature and Evil
by
3.96 avg rating — 1,505 ratings
score: 125,
and
2 people voted
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| 284 |
|
A Russian Journal
by
4.09 avg rating — 4,431 ratings
score: 124,
and
2 people voted
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| 285 |
|
The Captive Mind
by
4.27 avg rating — 4,785 ratings
score: 121,
and
2 people voted
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| 286 |
|
Hangover Square
by
4.13 avg rating — 5,674 ratings
score: 119,
and
4 people voted
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| 286 |
|
The Sundial
by
3.79 avg rating — 7,557 ratings
score: 119,
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2 people voted
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| 288 |
|
The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas
by
3.94 avg rating — 11,471 ratings
score: 118,
and
3 people voted
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| 289 |
|
The Man-Eater of Malgudi
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3.84 avg rating — 3,421 ratings
score: 115,
and
2 people voted
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| 290 |
|
The Seven Sisters
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3.37 avg rating — 1,839 ratings
score: 114,
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2 people voted
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| 290 |
|
Let It Come Down
by
3.87 avg rating — 2,305 ratings
score: 114,
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2 people voted
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| 292 |
|
The Guide
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3.93 avg rating — 10,833 ratings
score: 112,
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2 people voted
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| 293 |
|
According To Mark
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3.70 avg rating — 786 ratings
score: 111,
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2 people voted
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| 294 |
|
The Book of Sand and Shakespeare's Memory
by
4.10 avg rating — 16,124 ratings
score: 103,
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2 people voted
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| 295 |
|
100 Artists' Manifestos: From the Futurists to the Stuckists
by
Alex Danchev (Editor)
4.05 avg rating — 460 ratings
score: 100,
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1 person voted
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| 295 |
|
Is Rosemary Your Daughter?
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it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating
score: 100,
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1 person voted
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| 295 |
|
The Co-Wife and Other Stories
by
3.96 avg rating — 67 ratings
score: 100,
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1 person voted
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| 295 |
|
Life is a Dream
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3.49 avg rating — 152 ratings
score: 100,
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1 person voted
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| 295 |
|
Monkey Grip
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3.69 avg rating — 7,693 ratings
score: 100,
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1 person voted
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| 295 |
|
The Benefactor
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3.55 avg rating — 540 ratings
score: 100,
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1 person voted
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1005 likes · Like
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Comments Showing 1-39 of 39 (39 new)
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message 1:
by
Luke
(new)
Apr 04, 2014 06:14PM
Ha. I've only read 23.
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|
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One can criticize Penguin for many things, but this is a pretty great list of books. I have read 68 of them and, apart from a couple, all are 4-5 star worthy.
Uh oh people are adding Vintage editions to the list now. Aubrey, maybe you should disable the settings where anyone is allowed to add books.
Samadrita wrote: "Uh oh people are adding Vintage editions to the list now. Aubrey, maybe you should disable the settings where anyone is allowed to add books."yeah - not quite sure why people do that sort of thing! But yes Aubrey, maybe you should delete those and change the settings...
Sigh. I wanted this list to work out the way the NYRB one did with 100% correct editions with community adding, but people will be idiots. I'll deal with the damage later and decide whether to request it be frozen then.
The reason is that when GR gives you the option to search for a book, unless you're searching for one that's on your shelf and you've already shelved the Penguin edition, it only gives you the option of adding one edition. So then (unless I'm missing something - I'm far from expert at lists) you have to go find the right edition, add it to your books, and then search for it in your books. (Not that I'm excusing adding Vintage editions - obviously it defeats the purpose.)
One can also search within the GR database proper and add the PMC edition via ISBN. I would rather people request additions in the comments that I as a librarian could more easily enable, rather than adding something that will inevitably be deleted. As such, I have modified the description.
Aha, the ISBN, of course! I noticed someone deleted Borges's Labyrinths from the list - was that you? I couldn't see a reason for it so I added it again, seeing as how it is the Penguin Modern Classic which most reorganised my head. But I'll add nothing more.
I made the mistake of checking for duplicates (instinctive these days) and merged the proper one with the incorrect one someone else had added, of which the incorrect ended up triumphing and was subsequently deleted. Thank you for adding it back.
I haven't read a lot but have many on my tbr. Also I didn't finish Ficciones so I'm not counting that. Some I may have read in other editions.
What I want to know is when Penguin is going to acquire the rights to Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo. It's an incredible oversight on Penguin's part: this is probably (with Ficciones and One Hundred Years of Solitude) one of the three most influential works in modern Latin American literature. Though Penguin Modern Classics have been a major influence on me, it's lapses like this that make me realise how arbitrary their choices really are.
(How about a new list: "Books we'd like to see in Penguin Classics"?)
You may create the list if you wish, Ben, although a personal shelf would be a safer bet. The general populace has a far different view of modern classics than you or I.
You may add Penguin Modern Classics of his work, if they exist.
"Though Penguin Modern Classics have been a major influence on me, it's lapses like this that make me realise how arbitrary their choices really are."It's not about choice on the part of Penguin; it's about rights determined by agents, authors and estates.
Yeah, I wondered about that. But surely any agent or estate, in this instance, would rather sell to Penguin than Serpent's Tail (who last published Rulfo in English)?
Depends on dozens of needlessly complex, melodramatic and frustrating variables.
Not surprising, I guess. So the Penguin list (and, by extension, the whole western canon?) is arbitrary because of legal issues, not taste. Should I be relieved or depressed?I notice you just rated Walser's Selected Stories. "Kleist in Thun" - now that is a classic.
A "Books We'd Like to See in Penguin Classics" list would be great.
"Kleist" mesmerized me start to finish. It felt extraordinarily real.
Jeremy wrote: "A "Books We'd Like to See in Penguin Classics" list would be great."Nice idea, Jeremy!
Jeremy wrote: ""Kleist" mesmerized me start to finish. It felt extraordinarily real."Good to hear it! In all this talk about Walser that's snowballed over the past 10 or so years, and the common perception of Susan Bernofsky as his only worthwhile translator, the fact that he wrote one of the greatest short stories in any language seems to have been forgotten.
Re the list, do you think it'd do any good? I guess (in my naivety) I thought maybe the staff at Penguin might notice it and act on it. But even in the unlikely event that they did, maybe they'd be powerless.
(view spoiler)[Penguin Modern Classics edition 
edition that is added to the listPenguin Modern Classics edition
edition that is added to the listPenguin Modern Classics edition
edition that is added to the list (hide spoiler)]
That's the second edition that's been switched to the wrong one somehow, along with The Wretched of the Earth. Ugh. What screwy thing are the data autocompilers up to now.
If editions are combined, the more popular one wins; that may be the cause here.
I wish it were, Susanna. However, the number of voters would have changed between combinations, as would have the number of books in the list, neither of which happened here.
Then I have no idea what it was. With the screwy things the database does, who knows what caused it?
My thoughts exactly. I'll just have to keep swatting at the bugs.
Finally, a list without 'Twilight' in it.
I've come to this list late, but like it. Is the ranking still being updated?
I have added a couple of books if this list is still active.
You could add it. It's easy to add books to lists; at the top of the list, at the tab next to "all votes."
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Anyone can add books to this list.
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