Henry Eliot

For six decades the Penguin Modern Classics series has been an era-defining, ever-evolving series of books, encompassing works by modernist pioneers, avant-garde iconoclasts, radical visionaries and timeless storytellers.

The newly published reader’s companion showcases every title in the series so far, with more than 1,800 books and 600 authors, from Achebe and Adonis to Zamyatin and Zweig. It’s the essential guide to twentieth-century literature around the world, and the companion volume to The Penguin Classics Book.

In March 2022, Henry Eliot, the author of The Penguin Classics Book and the presenter of the podcast On the Road with Penguin Classics, joins us for an evening in the bookshop to discuss the seminal literary series. There’s no better guide to accompany us on an exploration through the greatest literature of the last hundred years than Henry, who will do so with his familiar warmth, wit, and brilliance.