Browse by category
A Confession by Leo Tolstoy
Category: Biography | Series: Penguin Great Ideas
Describing Tolstoy's crisis of depression and estrangement from the world, A Confession is an autobiographical work of exceptional emotional honesty. It describes his search for 'a practical religion not promising future bliss but giving bliss on earth'. Although A Confession led to his ex-communication ...Show more
A Confession (Penguin Great Ideas Series) by Tolstoy Leo
Category: Philosophy | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
The legendary author's passionate and iconoclastic writings - on issues of faith, immortality, freedom, violence, and morality--reflect his intellectual search for truth and a religion firmly grounded in reality. However, despite his success with works like War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy, ...Show more
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Category: Fiction | Series: Penguin Great Ideas
A Room of One's Own, based on a lecture given at Girton College Cambridge, is one of the great feminist polemics. Woolf's blazing writing on female creativity, the role of the writer, and the silent fate of Shakespeare's imaginary sister remains a powerful reminder of a woman's need for financial indepe ...Show more
A Room of One's Own (Penguin Great Ideas) by Virginia Woolf
Category: Culture | Series: Penguin Great Ideas
This literary landmark about the male supremacy and female subordination at Oxford University shines a brave, searing light on the obstacles that must be overcome on the path toward a harmonious unity of the sexes.
A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas
Swift's exuberant, bawdy fable is a unique satire on politics, religion, fashion, madness and on writing itself - one which can be seen as anticipating the postmodern age with its witty digressions and dissection of the art of fiction.
A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart by Martin Luther King Jr.
Category: Philosophy and Religion | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, the command to love one's enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival' Advocating love as strength and non-violence as the most powerful weapon there is, these sermons and writings from the heart of the civil rights movement show Martin Luth ...Show more
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas
Mary Wollstonecraft produced her declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate and forthright, she attacked the prevailing view of docile, decorative femininity and laid out the principles of equal education, an end to prejudice, and the call for women to become defined by their profession, not ...Show more
Ain't I a Woman? (Penguin Great Ideas Series) by Sojourner Truth
Category: Philosophy and Religion | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'I am a woman's rights. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I am as strong as any man that is now' A former slave and one of the most powerful orators of her time, Sojourner Truth fought for the equal rights of Black women throughout her life. ...Show more
An Apology for Idlers by STEVENSON ROBERT LOUIS
Category: Philosophy and Religion | Series: Penguin Great Ideas
An irresistible invitation to reject the work ethic and enjoy life's simple pleasures (such as laughing, drinking and lying in the open air), Robert Louis Stevenson's witty and seminal essay on the joys of idleness is accompanied here by his writings on, among other things, growing old, visiting unpleas ...Show more
An Appeal to the Toiling, Oppressed and Exhausted Peoples of Europe by Leon Trotsky
Category: Culture | Series: Penguin Great Ideas
Whether calling for an end to the capitalist system, addressing the crowds after the Russian Revolution, or attacking Stalin during his years of exile, Trotsky's speeches give an extraordinary insight into a man whose words and actions determined the fates of millions. Throughout history, some books hav ...Show more
An Image of Africa/ The Trouble with Nigeria by Chinua Achebe
Category: Philosophy and Religion | Series: Penguin Great Ideas
Beautifully written yet highly controversial, "An Image of Africa" asserts Achebe's belief in Joseph Conrad as a 'bloody racist' and his conviction that Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness" only serves to perpetuate damaging stereotypes of black people. Also included is "The Trouble with Nigeria", Achebe' ...Show more
Anarchist Communism (Penguin Great Ideas Series) by Peter Kropotkin
Category: Philosophy and Religion | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'Everywhere you will find that the wealth of the wealthy springs from the poverty of the poor' Fuelled by anger at injustice and optimism about humankind's ability to make a better, truly communal society, the anarchist writings of Peter Kropotkin have influenced radicals the world over, from nineteenth ...Show more