The Children's Library (Penguin Classics Complete Collections) [Paperback]

The Editors of the Penguin Classics Library (Author)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics Complete Collections | Publication Date: November 1, 2005

"All children, except one, grow up."

That's the famous first line of J. M. Barrie's novel Peter and Wendy, better known as Peter Pan. For a number of years Penguin Classics has been publishing so-called children's literature, giving each edition the full Penguin Classics treatment: engagingly written critical introductions, suggestions for further readings, and helpful explanatory notes. We do this not only because these books help define classic literature, but because they're great stories that live in the popular imagination, and like all great literature, they are a joy to reread, long after we've finished school, long after we've become grownups.

And so we happily urge you to rediscover--or to read for the first time--Alcott's Little Women (edited by the feminist critic and cultural commentator Elaine Showalter), Burnett's A Little Princess (rife with allusions to Thackeray and Dickens, notes editor U.C. Knoepflmacher) or The Secret Garden (which, as editor Alison Lurie observes, exhibits Brontëan influences), Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (a foundation text of anarchic children's literature, paired with Through the Looking-Glass by editor Hugh Haughton), Selected Tales of the Brothers Grimm (translated by the eminent David Luke), The Complete Fairy Tales of George MacDonald (a favorite of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, says editor Knoepflmacher), or Stevenson's rousing adventure stories including Treasure Island (edited by Penguin Classics consulting editor John Seelye--and without which, arguably, there would be no Pirates of the Caribbean).

You'll find many more such titles in the Children's Classics Library that will bring reading pleasure to your whole family. Included are 51 great titles:

The Complete Fables by Aesop
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward by Horatio Alger
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
The Wonderful World of Oz by L. Frank Baum
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories by Stephen Crane
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lost World and Other Thrilling Tales by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Valley of Fear and Selected Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
In the Land of Time by Lord Dunsany
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
Selected Tales (Brothers Grimm) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Nights with Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris
Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris
Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories by Washington Irving
Just-So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling
Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
The Call of the Wild; White Fang; and Other Stories by Jack London
The Complete Fairy Tales by George MacDonald
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

For more than half a century Penguin has been the leading publisher of classics in the English-speaking world. Since the publication of the first Penguin Classic in 1946--E.V. Rieu's translation of The Odyssey--Penguin's mission has been to make the great books of all time available at a reasonable cost. To this end, Penguin is dedicated to making sure that these books speak to contemporary readers by embracing excellence in scholarship, translation, and book design.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0147503248
• ISBN-13: 978-0147503244
• Product Dimensions: 18.3 x 12.7 x 10.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 29.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,097,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, February 2, 2006

By 

Matthew (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Children's Library (Penguin Classics Complete Collections) (Paperback)

Fabulous idea, terrible execution. Contrary to what you might think, this is not an actual collection in the meaningful sense of the word. The books arrived disordered and poorly packed in a cardboard box, so that some were damaged in transit. It comes with no display box or case. Also, unlike the photo, the books were published under three different generations of Pengiun editions, with different sizes and colors. It's not a collection. It's just a pile of books with a discount.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Where's the rest?, June 28, 2006

By 

Rich Ball (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Children's Library (Penguin Classics Complete Collections) (Paperback)

I completely understand works like Milne's Winnie the Pooh, over which there are reprint rights issues, being omited. There is no reason for classic children's works like Montgomery's Anne (of Green Gable and Avonlea) to be missing from a "complete" collection when Penguin publishes them individually elsewhere.

And as a sidenote, Frankenstein was never intended as a children's book, but was Shelley's novelization of her ethics and philosophy works.

2 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some glaring omissions, March 3, 2006

By 

Jonathan Green "defrocked cultural anthropolo... (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Children's Library (Penguin Classics Complete Collections) (Paperback)

Sure, this has some fine reading for the young ones to keep them away from that creepy Larry Porter bloke, but it's missing some greats. Where's Carl Barks' Donald Duck or Uncle Scrooge? Little Lulu? Calvin & Hobbes?

All words and no pics makes Jack a dull boy.