Penguin English Library Explained

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, and all titles hitherto published in the Library were reissued as Classics.

The imprint was resurrected in 2012 for a new series of titles. The present English Library no longer seeks to provide critical editions; the focus is now 'on the beauty and elegance of the book'.

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'. 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. Editors were also required to provide 'authoritative texts', using their own judgement in printing one, or in some cases creating their own. The series was recognisable chiefly by its distinctive orange spine.[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 Some of these editions were superseded in the 1990s or later,[4] while some continue to be reprinted today as Classics.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. A portrait or photograph of the author remains printed on the inside of the front cover. The focus is now on cover art, with each title designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.

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All titles listed below are assumed to have lists of further reading appended and/or are no longer in print having been superseded by new editions, unless stated.

Author Editor Title Series no. Notes
P. J. Keating Selected Prose 58 Still in print as a Penguin Classic titled Culture and Anarchy and Other Selected Prose (2015).[5] [6]
Oliver Lawson Dick 79
10
102
Tony Tanner 16 Tanner's introduction to the novel is reprinted as an appendix in the 2003 Penguin Classics edition.[7]
Anne Henry Ehrenpreis 74 Does not include a bibliography.
D. W. Harding 5
Tony Tanner 72
Tony Tanner 47
116
11
Andrew and Judith Hook 95
Tony Tanner (introduction)
Mark Lilly
118
1
The Major Works 109
Unknown Still in print as a Penguin Classic.
Roger Sharrock 4 Reprinted with revisions as a Penguin Classic in 1987.
Peter Mudford 57
Richard Hoggart (introduction)
James Cochrane
12
Peter Gunn Selected Prose 80
Alan Shelston Selected Writings 65
51
George Woodcock 23
14
96
Anthony Burgess (introduction)
Christopher Bristow
15
Pat Rogers 66
107
Angus Ross 7
61
56
54
John S. Whitley
Arnold Goldman
77
Gordon Spence 90
J. Hillis Miller (introduction)
Norman Page
63
Trevor Blount 8
Raymond Williams (introduction)
Peter Fairclough
48
3
David Craig 42
25
31
Michael Slater 113
Angus Wilson (introduction)
Peter Fairclough
17
Stephen Gill 60
Deborah A. Thomas Selected Short Fiction 103
Michael Slater The Christmas Books, Volume 1 (A Christmas Carol/The Chimes)68
Michael Slater The Christmas Books, Volume 2 (The Cricket on the Hearth/The Battle of Life/The Haunted Man)69
Angus Wilson (introduction)
Arthur J. Cox
92
Malcolm Andrews (introduction)
Angus Easson
75
Robert Patten 78
Thom Braun 192
Thom Braun (text and notes)
Rab Butler (introduction)
134
Unknown 121
20
Peter Coveney 84
W. J. Harvey 2
120
Andrew Sanders 139
87
30
R. F. Brissenden 114
R. P. C. Mutter 9
Stephen Gill Three Plays ('Tis Pity She's a Whore/The Broken Heart/Perkin Warbeck) 59
Peter Keating 104
Stephen Gill 53
Dorothy Collin
Martin Dodsworth
55
Alan Shelston 99
Frank Glover Smith 46
32
Voyages and Discoveries 73
131
The Distracted Preacher and Other Tales 124
126
125
122
A. Alvarez (introduction)
David Skilton (editor)
135
123
Selected Writings 50
Thomas E. Connolly (introduction and notes) The Scarlet Letter and Selected Tales 52 The text of The Scarlet Letter is that of the authoritative Centenary Works edition, published by Ohio State University Press. Connolly's notes and the text are still included in the updated Penguin Classics edition, which has excised the tales and replaced his introduction with one by Nina Baym.
Unknown Still in print as a Penguin Classic.
Selected Writings 33
108
Michael Jamieson Three Comedies (Volpone/The Alchemist/Bartholomew Fair) 13
John Lawlor (introduction)
Janet Cowen
Le Morte d'Arthur, Volume 1 43
John Lawlor (introduction)
Janet Cowen
Le Morte d'Arthur, Volume 2 44
The Complete Plays 37
110
Harold Beaver Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories 29
Harold Beaver 82
Harold Beaver 105
70
34
Selected Prose 91
News from Nowhere and Selected Writings and Designs 115
The Unfortunate Traveller and Other Works 67 Still in print as a Penguin Classic.
Raymond Wright 45 Does not include a bibliography per se, but an editorial note is appended to the introduction, giving a brief list of editions and criticism. Still in print as a Penguin Classic.
Selected Writings 28
Harold Beaver 97
Harold Beaver The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe 106
143
98
129
71
Maurice Evans 111
Angus Ross 21
A. Alvarez (introduction) 26
19 Ricks's introductory essay is reprinted in the current Penguin Classics edition.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Stories 117
Michael Foot (introduction)
Peter Dixon and John Chalker (notes)
22
John Sutherland
Michael Greenfield
49
J. I. M. Stewart (introduction)
Donald Hawes
76
35
David Wright Records of Shelley, Byron and The Author 88
Stephen Wall 86
85
John Sutherland
Stephen Gill
41
Laurence Lerner (introduction)
Peter Fairclough
24
John William Ward (introduction)
Robert Mason
38
64
40
Peter Coveney 18
D. C. Gunby Three Plays (The White Devil/The Duchess of Malfi/The Devil's Law Case) 81
112
De Profundis and Other Writings 89
Angus Ross 130
Gāmini Salgādo Cony-Catchers and Bawdy Baskets 83
Peter Happé Four Morality Plays (The Castle of Perseverance/Magnyfycence/King Johan/Ane satire of the thrie estaitis) 119
Peter Happé 93
Keith Sturgess Three Elizabethan Domestic Tragedies (Arden of Faversham/A Yorkshire Tragedy/A Woman Killed with Kindness) 39
Peter Happé Tudor Interludes 62
Gāmini Salgādo Three Jacobean Tragedies (The Revenger's Tragedy/The White Devil/The Changeling) 6 Authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy (which was published anonymously) was then attributed to Tourneur; today it is generally thought to have been written by Middleton.[8]
Gāmini Salgādo Three Restoration Comedies (The Man of Mode/The Country Wife/Love for Love) 27 Still in print as a Penguin Classic.
Gāmini Salgādo Four Jacobean City Comedies (The Dutch Courtesan/A Mad World, My Masters/The Devil Is an Ass/A New Way to Pay Old Debts)101
Mario Praz (introduction) Three Gothic Novels (The Castle of Otranto/Vathek/Frankenstein) 36 Still in print as a Penguin Classic. The text of Frankenstein is that of the revised 1832 edition.
The cover art is a detail from J. H. Fuseli's 1781 oil painting The Nightmare, and the detail was retained when the book was first reprinted as a Penguin Classic in 1986. However, reprints from 2003 onwards[9] feature the detail of a photograph by Sir Simon Marsden instead.[10]

2012 to present

Author Title Essayist Essay Notes
Unknown
Austen Portrays a Small World with Humour and Detachment
Jane Eyre The essay is from Showalter's A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977)
Wuthering Heights
Lewis Carroll
Unknown Unknown
The Moonstone
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).
Correspondence between John Blackwood and George Eliot, and two contemporary reviews
R. P. C. Mutter Tom Jones The essay is a reprint of Mutter's introduction to the original Penguin English Library edition (see above).
The South Goes North The essay is from Sir Victor's 1942 collection of essays, In My Good Books.
Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter The essay is from Lawrence's Studies in Classic American Literature.
Ivanhoe
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).
Tristram Shandy
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).
Unknown
- The essay is a reprint of Ackroyd's introduction to the first Penguin Classics edition.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Kelly. Stuart. The new Penguin English Library is a far cry from its 1963 version. The Guardian.
  2. Web site: About Penguin Classics. Penguin Classics.
  3. News: Akbar. Arifa. A whole new chapter for the Penguin English Library. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/a-whole-new-chapter-for-the-penguin-english-library-7814475.html . 25 May 2022 . subscription . live. Independent.
  4. Book: Andrew Sanders. Hatching Classics. Wooten. William. Donaldson. George. Reading Penguin: A Critical Anthology. 1443850829. 112.
  5. Web site: Keating. Peter. What's new. Peter Keating: Author and vegetarian cook. 23 June 2017.
  6. Web site: Culture and Anarchy and Other Selected Prose. Penguin UK. Penguin. 23 June 2017.
  7. Book: Austen. Jane. Mansfield Park. 2003. Penguin Classics. 9780141439808. 440–465.
  8. Book: Maus. Katharine. Four Revenge Tragedies. 1998. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford. 0192838784. i.
  9. Web site: Patton. Phil. Reflections on a Penguin-iversary. AIGA. 8 April 2018.
  10. Web site: Back cover of Three Gothic Novels (Classics, 2003).