Penguin USA publishes some of the most stylish editions of the classics out there, using artists and designers like Coralie Bickford-Smith to create packaging that merits the content. Their Penguin Couture classics, featuring covers designed by renowned fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo, are one of my favorite series—and now you can win the three newest titles. The books are beautiful—quality paperbacks with illustrated French flaps and deckle edges.
To enter, just leave a comment telling us about your favorite classic novel by 5 pm on Friday, January 28. One winner will be chosen at random. Good luck!






One of my favorite classsic novels is A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens. I’m a Dickens fan!
I’m a book collector and would love to win these books. They are gems! Thanks.
Wonderful books. My favorite classic is Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy.
My favorite classic is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
Aren’t they beautiful? Pride & Prejudice is a perennial favorite of mine. Jane Eyre too.
The Dracula one is the best one yet! That also happens to be my favorite classic.
Thinking about The Age of Innocence a lot right now. Edith Wharton. Harsh and accurate!
My favorite is The Count of Monte Cristo.
Around the world in 80 days by Jules Verne is one of my favorites because the world was so different then the people were different. Its a time alot of us should revisit now.
These would be a wonderful add on to my book shelves
Moby Dick has only recently bumped Jane Eyre as my favourite novel of all times.
The covers are absolutely gorgeous. Bravo!
I love any old classics,and can read over and over
My favorite classic would have to be Little Women. Love the new look for these oldies but goodies.
My all time fave is Tess of the Durbervilles, Thomas Hardy.
These editions are gorgeous! I love Pride and Prejudice, and my favorite newer classic would have to be Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
Unfortunately, I’ve never been much of a classic reader. I’m challenging myself to change that this year. However, one that I’ve always and will always love is To Kill a Mockingbird.
p&p. i just love darcy and elizabeth. all that distrust, and misunderstanding, and then 1 day…
Persuasion by Jane Austen is my all-time favorite. Such a comfort read!
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My favorite is A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens. Your new covers are really beautiful.
My favorite classic is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, hands down.
Love To Kill A Mockingbird! Beautiful covers on your books…
Pride and Prejudice all the way!
Jane Eyre is my favorite. Because she’s Jane Eyre and doesn’t take any BS.
It may not be my “favorite,” but rereading Little Women is as comforting as hot chocolate on a cold day.
My favorite classics perhaps aren’t “classic” classics. I grew up with Anne of Green Gables and still love The Lord of the Rings!
Defintely JANE EYRE — it became my favorite book evahr when I first read it at 9 [after stealing it from my mother’s bedside table — and I still love it now. I will always love it, I suppose.
It’s a tie between The Age of Innocence–Edith Wharton and The Awakening–Kate Chopin. Both badass literary ladies.
My favourite classic is definitely Dracula by Bram Stoker. The original thriller!
My all-time fave is Pride & Prejudice.
My Antonia by Willa Cather has held up through rereads since I first read it in high school.
My favorite classic novel is Jane Eyre.
Oh my goodness – these are beautiful! I’m a sucker for French flaps, too. My most recent favorite classic is The Moonstone, which I just finished and loved. They say it’s the first true detective novel. Wordy at times, but wonderful.
My favorite classic is, without a doubt, Dracula.
The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler. An incredible book from the first sentence to the last.
I love Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
These are beautiful. I especially love the Jane Eyre cover.
My favorite is actally a tie. I love Jane Eyre, but I still get completely absorbed in The Scarlet Letter. So many of the classics are favorites of mine but those two are my number 1 choices.
Mine would have to be Treasure Island, classic adventure that I spent many hours reading when I was a young boy!
I love the covers, they’re amazing! My favorite classics are Dracula and The County of Monte Cristo. Both books I have loved for years and forced on everyone I know.
My favorite classic is probably Austen’s “Persuasion.” I can totally identify with Anne. It is so tortured, but with such a wonderful ending. The characters seem so real to me.
It’s hard to choose, but I’d have to say Dracula is wonderful literature to teach, & reaches more students successfully with its beautiful language than other classics I love, too.
My favorite is “The Picture of Dorian Gray”
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
My favorite classic is Little Women. However I’m starting Pride and Prejudice on my kindle app and I am excited to read it. May end up changing my favorite
Bleak House is my absolute favorite–it’s got everything!
An underappreciated classic that I love: The Woman in White.
I’m rather fond of Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, although my favorite changes regularly!!
My favorite classic is “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde. These designs are really awesome. I collect books and would love to add these to my collection.
Thanks.
Anything by Ray Bradbury is a favorite classic of mine!
My favorite Classic is Pride and Prejudice.
White Fang by Jack London. A very classic book about surviving in the wild.
Anna Karenina…so, so timeless.
It’s a tie for me. Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo
And Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.
Two completely different genres and writing styles, but I love them both.
To Kill a Mockingbird, of course! So heartfelt and stirring. That book will always be relevant.
No one favorite – love so many of the classics – The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy is an all-time favorite – recently re-read The Great Gatsby and fell in love with it all over again.
Yes! Please!
It’s impossible to choose a definitive favorite (I don’t know how people do that!).
Rebecca (du Maurier) — even though I know the ending, it offers so much throughout. A character (whatever her name is) that is so likable and unlikable at the same time (and thus identifiable). Wuthering Heights, American Psycho, P&P/Emma, The Phantom Tollbooth…the list goes on.
There are so many wonderful classics but I particularly love The Count of Monte Cristo!
The Count of Monte Cristo by far. I saw the movie first and loved it, but the first two chapters were SO sad! The ending is not what you’d expect, but upon reading it a second time (as a more mature reader) I realized how wonderful the book is.
It would have to be Lolita. I would love to see a Classic Deluxe edition of it on the shelves, especially with a covered by Toledo – so beautiful!
My favorite classic is The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy and it’s time for a re-read.
I have a lot of favorite classics, but the one I have read the most and seem to love the most is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
Thanks for the giveaway…those covers are awesome!
I would say my favorite classic novel is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is also one I remember liking alot as a youngster…and I should pick it back up and re-read it as I have with To Kill A Mockingbird. Thanks so much for the opportunity!
I would have to say Little Women even though it is hard to chose between that one and To Kill a Mockingbird. Both are awesome.
Mine would be Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
It’s Little Women. It defined growing up.
Hard to choose … but “Little Women” has been a favorite since childhood. Looking forward to the opera Little Women to be performed by University of Michigan School of Music students
I keep re-reading Little Women every couple years so it must be that one!
My all-time favorite is Pride & Prejudice.
Congrats, Lori — you won! I’ll be emailing to get your full name and address soon.
I have so many favorites that it is impossible to narrow down to two. So here goes, Pride and Prejudice and Little Women. I just keep re-reading so many of them because they were such good reads.
Romeo and Juliet
Peter Pan
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tough to name one, To Kill a Mockingbird, always!!
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I also loved the novel The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
After 30 years of teaching English & History, I have several favorites, of course for different reasons. Teaching freshmen Romeo & Juliet & helping them to see how current the themes are. Sophomores get Lord of the Flies & a scary look at human nature. For Juniors, To Kill a Mockingbird – Scout is always their hero. Seniors need the heroics of Beowulf & his fight against an implacable darkness. For me, Confederacy of Dunces, funny,bittersweet.
The romantic in me always brings me back to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
My favorite is “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
It’s gotta be CATCHER IN THE RYE! “All morons hate it when you call them a moron.” Holden-what a guy!
To Kill a Mockingbird, but I also love the modern classic The Cider House Rules.
The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells. It’s beautifully written, of course it is, it’s a classic, but more than that, it’s the story of how losing everything can actually give more to your life.
Most anything by Dickens, but my two favorites are “Great Expectations” and “Bleak House.” I also enjoy Willa Cather and her “Death Comes To the Archbishop” and “My Antonia.” Reading bliss!!
To Kill a Mockingbird – fabulous!
Does Charlotte’s Web count as a classic? If not, why not???
To Kill A Mockingbird is my very favorite; I also really like the Jane Austen books, Watership Down, Peter Pan …. and there are so many great books written!
A few people mentioned Thomas Hardy. I remember
loving Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
I would also pick To kill a mockingbird. I need
to re-read it soon.
Gone With the Wind, of course!
Frankenstein. The book is so different from the movies that have been made. You end up feeling sorry for the “monster” after reading the book.
Little Women is “one” of my favorites, but seems to be the one I re-read the most. The charactors feel like family.
Of course, “To Kill a Mockingbird” leaves such an impression, and so does “Gone With the Wind”. Two brave heroines who keep you thinking about them long after you have finished the book
I’ll choose ‘Gone With The Wind’ but ‘Wuthering Heights’ is a very close second.
You bet Charlotte’s Web is a classic! I’ve must have read that and The Wizard of Oz mucho times.
Dracula, Frankenstein, Little Women, Any Charles Dickens, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, I can’t pick a favorite. It’s like being asked which is your favorite child.
My traditional favorite is “To Kill a Mockingbird”. My nontraditional favorite is Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” – vampires the way they were meant to be!
A difficult question. Right now I would say Anna Karenina because it has everything and just keeps on giving with each reading.
Gone With The Wind, of course, but Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Little Women have been favorites forever.
I have to say that Jane Eyre will always be special to me as it introduced me to the time period and the lifestyle of women in general which has led to my love of regency novels.
I have many. However, my favorite and most moving is by far To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
My favorite classic is Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Thank you for this great giveaway.
Aimala127(at)gmail(com)
I am going to have to go with Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Excellent!
When I read the question, I immediately thought of “Gone with the Wind”… it was the first “adult” book I read when I was in about 6th grade or so.. Lots of history and great characters in there.. I have re-read it at least 6 times since the 6th grade..
“frankenstein comes to mind.
I loved “As I Lay Dying” by William Faulkner. The best discussion my book club has ever had!
My favorite classic is Pride and Prejudice!! It’s a classic, funny romance! Thanks!
My oldest daughter just read The Picture of Dorian Gray and I read that when I was in high school so I am going to read her copy now!
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Naturally, GONE WITH THE WIND!
And the winners are in alphabetical order:
“Charlottes Web”
“Fahrenheit 451″
“Invasion of the Body Snatchers”
“Tale of Two Cities”
“To Kill a Mockingbird”
“Two Years Before the Mast”
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
David Copperfield
Hanta Yo by Ruth BeeBe Hill
Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo
The collective works of Jane Austen
Definitely To Kill A Mockingbird if I have to choose just one!
To Kill A Mockingbird
My students are enjoying it as much as I did at their age
Mmm, decisions, decisions.
If it was the classic “You’re stuck on an island” scenario, I would have to be stuck with Moby Dick. The prose is so delightfully confounding, yet rollicking.
But I am good at sneaking. I could schmooze Jane Eyre in there somehow.
Jane Eyre-found myself actually crying when
she was reduce to eating from pig’s trough and
collapsed on step to die.
To Kill a Mockingbird and A Christmas Carol are my all-time favorite books. Both the story and the language is beautiful.
My favorite classic book has been “The Good Earth”. My book club read it two years ago. We also watched the movie that was made some time ago when all actors had to be caucasian even when playing a Chinese person. Also every actor and actress was not “ugly” so we had no feeling of how the wife looked like from the movie.
We also visited Ms. Buck’s estate which is now a museum to her life. It is in Dublin, PA which is a lovely area of Bucks County. Anyone in New Jersey, Delaware or Eastern Pennsylvania should be able to get there easily for a great day trip.
Another classic that my book club enjoyed is “To Kill a Mocking Bird”. It really made us think of how bad things were in the South not too long ago. I think that this should be required reading for all of our students in the USA. Again we watched the movie but I found this one more up-to-date and more realistic.
I am of an age that remembers the marchs in Selma and Birmingham. Some of my fellow students went down there to march. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to speak at my college in 1961. I also recommend “The Four Spirits” by Sena Jeter Naslund. It is set in Birmingham, AL right when the clouds were gathering for the Civil Rights Movement. The “Four Spirits” refer tp the 4 young girls who were killed by a fire bombing while attending Sunday School.
Laura Beyer
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is one of the
few novels I enjoy rereading.
I REALLY LIKED BENJAMIN BOTTONS, ALSO THE GREAT GASBY AND THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GREY. THEY ARE AS GOOD A READ NOW AS THEY WERE THEN.
Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath–the intercalary chapters add to the symbolism and plot. This classic can be read on many levels, from the literal to the symbolic to the archetypal–every type of reader will get something from it.
I love Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, every time I read it it’s just as great as the first time.
Can anybody pick just ONE? If I could choose three they would be: East of Eden, Great Expectations and Crime and Punishment. I tend to like my books a little on the dark side, even classic literature.
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. I read that over and over as a kid and then when my younger cousin was in school it was mandatory! Wish it had been when I was in school!
Reading Light In August by William Faulkner made the blood flow through my brain again in my mid-20s.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. My 9th grade English teacher, Mrs. Palmer, had us read it! Each of us had a paperback copy. I can remember staying up and reading this griping story late in to the night. Yes, I should have slept more for school the next day! I recall we had our annual town “Founders Day” parade that year. I went and then rushed home to get back to the story. It was my first taste of Black Literature. I could understand some of the Southern social rules by that age. I often will tell others about to read this classic Novel!
Wuthering Heights is one of my favorites! But I have many that would fit in as well !
I guess GONE WITH THE WIND but I have so many favorites!