One of the best values in books: Penguin’s Little Black Classics

I'm not trying to write free advertisements or anything but I bought the box set of Penguin's Little Black Classics this year and I was impressed by the value. It was a set they did to celebrate their 80th anniversary and it's collection of 80 little books (probably around by 6 inches and maybe an average of 50-75 pages). It came out around 10 years ago and I think was originally priced much higher, but now you can get new sets online for around $80. It takes up some space but it's so nice to just have a curated set of quick and interesting reads to just pick up when you're looking for something. It's also a format that could really only work physically because browsing is a big part of the fun.

As for the works they choose I thought they did a good job. Short works of philosophy, poetry, short novels and stories, a couple scientific works. There isn't any introductory/editorial material as far as I've seen. I love an academic introduction so I miss those. The translations don't seem like dusty old public domain ones, though. You get some selections and excerpts, but they try to present complete and cohesive works. The range is impressive, and if you are interested in "classic" literature you'll probably find something you're in the mood for.

I'd say it favors classical Greek and Roman works and European writers, but there is a real effort to incorporate diverse works as well. You get Virgil and Sappho, Balzac and Tolstoy, Plato and Marx. But there are also works from the Middle East as well as East and South Asia. As far as I can tell, there is no work from Africa or South America in the collection, nor anything written after… maybe 1900? Obviously that leaves out a lot remarkable work, it's just not the focus of this collection.

All in all, I think there's a lot to like about the selection and the format. And for under $1 a book it's an unbeatable bargain if this is your sort of thing. Yesterday I picked up The Dhammapada and read through it and really got a lot out of it!