Bloc Magazine Spring 15

1935-45 A FAREWELL TO ARMS, ERNEST HEMINGWAY Love in World War I, a story that draws on Hemingway’s own life. Expect lots of booze. 1955-65 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, HARPER LEE Handles the tough subjects of rape and racial discrimination with warmth and humour. 1975-1985 A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, ANTHONY BURGESS The ultimate dystopian novel. A tale of English youth obsessed with extreme violence. 1995-2005 THE ODYSSEY, HOMER Robert Fagles’ modern-verse translation revisited the ancient text making it accessible to all. 1945-55 DEATH ON THE NILE, AGATHA CHRISTIE Hercule Poirot’s greatest adventure. Plot spoiler: The butler DIDN’T do it. 1965-75 RESURRECTION, LEO TOLSTOY Legendary film-maker Kenji Mizoguchi described it as the mother of “all melodrama”. 1985-1995 LAST OF THE MOHICANS, J. FENIMORE COOPER The fast-paced novel took 160 years to become a Penguin classic. It is one of the best. 2005-2015 AUTOBIOGRAPHY, MORRISSEY Morrissey is like Marmite. Love him or hate him, this book will reinforce your views. 62 // WWW.BLOCHOTELS.COM Pic: Mia Garling penguin classic P-P-P-PICK UP A WORDS // ENFYS RAINBOW ------------------------------------------------------ P ublisher Allen Lane founded Penguin Books with the aim of bringing the best writing to the masses at a price they could afford. Its name was forged in an era of miserable austerity and it created a legacy that has lasted for 80 years. The first book – a translation of Homer’s Odyssey – sold more than 3million copies, confirming Lane’s reputation as both a literary mercenary and missionary. While he was not the first to publish cut-price classics, Lane was a firm believer that being cheap did not mean you had to sacrifice quality. From the first editions in 1935, their design was paramount. Not only were the Penguin Classics beautiful works of literature, the cleverly colour-coded covers themselves were works of art. Much of the credit for the iconic look and feel of Penguin Books should go to German book designer Jan Tschichold. He oversaw the design of 500 titles and gave Penguin a standardised set of typographic rules that stuck. Lane came up with the idea for Penguin Books during a train journey home from visiting Agatha Christie in 1934. He was stuck on an Exeter station platform with nothing to read and hatched a plan to produce excellent paperbacks cheap enough to be sold from a vending machine. To mark 80 years since the Penguin Books project began, BLOC has compiled a list of eight must-read titles from the entire catalogue – one from each decade.