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 Some of these editions were superseded in the 1990s or later,^[4] while some continue to be reprinted today as Classics.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All titles listed below are assumed to have lists of further reading appended and/or are no longer in print having been superseded by new editions, unless stated.

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

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

Web site: Kelly. Stuart. The new Penguin English Library is a far cry from its 1963 version. The Guardian.
Web site: About Penguin Classics. Penguin Classics.
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.
Book: Andrew Sanders. Hatching Classics. Wooten. William. Donaldson. George. Reading Penguin: A Critical Anthology. 1443850829. 112.
Web site: Keating. Peter. What's new. Peter Keating: Author and vegetarian cook. 23 June 2017.
Web site: Culture and Anarchy and Other Selected Prose. Penguin UK. Penguin. 23 June 2017.
Book: Austen. Jane. Mansfield Park. 2003. Penguin Classics. 9780141439808. 440–465.
Book: Maus. Katharine. Four Revenge Tragedies. 1998. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford. 0192838784. i.
Web site: Patton. Phil. Reflections on a Penguin-iversary. AIGA. 8 April 2018.
Web site: Back cover of Three Gothic Novels (Classics, 2003).