Illustrated Collector's Guide to the Penguin Deluxe Classics

I’ve listed the books in order of production because I enjoy seeing how the designs progress over the years, and have added in the most important details like who wrote the scholarly notes, which translation is used, as well as the cover designer if possible. If the books were published in different years across the pond, US date is listed first. I’m also slowly adding in the full cover art for each book in the series, so you can enjoy the whole design – clicking on the artwork on this page will open a larger version for you to look at. 

Source material and updates

There are various incomplete lists of this series bumbling around, but none of them include all the books. Even the supposedly official list on the Penguin Website contains numerous incorrect ISBNs, because they sometimes update books with details from their most recent edition even if it isn’t part of the deluxe series, and they drop titles off the list when they go out of print. So I compiled this complete list of all the Penguin Deluxe Classics series for my own entertainment using my own purchasing history and library, publisher backlists, individual cover designer websites, Paul Buckley’s Flickr account, Penguin Classics: A Complete Annotated Listing, and a fascinating book on Penguin’s publishing history called Penguin Classics: Cover to Cover. It is also worth noting that there are a few titles I have identified below that that have different covers and annotations depending on where are they are released even though they naughtily use the same isbn, so your purchasing location may impact which edition you receive.

I regularly update the list as new books are released (including upcoming titles), and I do hope the list is useful to someone somewhere out there in the internet! The page was last updated in January 2024.