The Penguin Modern Classics

To the outside public she was a Fury, a Pythoness, almost superhuman in her passion and her genius.  To her intimate friends she was a lovable, fascinating woman in spite of all her faults.Nina H. Kennard, Rachel (1894)

1978 Penguin Modern edition

The chief advantage that would result from the establishment of Socialism is, undoubtedly, the fact that Socialism would relieve us from that sordid necessity of living for others which, in the present condition of things, presses so hardly upon almost everybody. In fact, scarcely anyone at all escapes.

Now and then, in the course of the century, a great man of science, like Darwin; a great poet, like Keats; a fine critical spirit, like M.

Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody, not greatly in fault themselves, to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest.

The Penguin English Library

He felt for those who had never known the loving kindness of the Church of Christ, and he shook his head compassionately over those who had not read Mansfield Park.

--about Mr Hayhoe in T.F.

“Thank God I’m English,” said Rickie suddenly.

“Thank Him indeed,” said Mr. Pembroke, laying a hand on his back.

Forster, The Longest Journey

As for theatres and discussion societies, they attracted her less and less. She began to “miss” new movements, and to spend her spare time re-reading or thinking, rather to the concern of her Chelsea friends.

It is impossible to see modern life steadily and see it whole...

Don't despise these country affairs.  These girls have souls and passions too, firm cheeks and fresh lips; and their rough kisses are intoxicating and sweet as wild fruit.  Love is always worth while, wherever it comes from.  A heart that beats quicker when you appear, an eye that sheds a tear at your departure are things so rare, so sweet, so precious that they should never be despised.

H.N.P.

70's edition of Brideshead Revisited with cover by Peter Bentley

The Men Who Fell to Earth

I slept until my servant called me, rose wearily, dressed and shaved in silence.

Augustus John, Study For A Portrait Of Gwen John, Manchester Art Gallery

People are like shadows to me and I am like a shadow.

--Gwen John

The news of my legacy reached me one night about the same time that the act was passed that gave votes to women. A solicitor's letter fell into the post-box and when I opened it I found that she had left me five hundred pounds a year for ever. Of the two--the vote and the money--the money, I own, seemed infinitely the more important.

1973 Penguin Modern Classic edition of The Ambassadors

Edward Gorey and Anchor Books

A Comparison of some Anchor Gorey covers wth their Penguin opposites:

Robert Henri, Young Woman in White, 1904, National Gallery of Art, Washington

You are young and fresh, and of today ; you have the great thing–- you have actuality.

Hardwick House in Oxfordshire, the model for Gardencourt, home of the Touchett family in The Portrait of a Lady

The front of the house, overlooking that portion of the lawn with which we are concerned, was not the entrance-front ; this was in quite another quarter.

He found the situation full of whimsical romance: there was something half attractive, half repellent in the thought of this vulgar woman journeying to places he loved and revered. Why should she not be transfigured? The same had happened to the Goths.

These are in fact two distinct editions of the book, and not just the same one with different covers..  The one on the left is later, based on the Abinger edition of 1972, first published by Penguin in 1976.