This website is an ongoing project to compile and sort every book published by Penguin Books. It is designed to help bibliophiles complete their own collections by providing checklists for the various series that Penguin has published since its inception in 1935. You can find these editions in the tabs above.
After going through the database, you can buy new penguin books by heading to Penguin’s website.
The Penguin Checklist Project is ongoing, so if you have any questions, suggestions, or possible contributions, please feel free to comment below. Good luck, and happy hunting!
Hi there,
Great to find this site. We are in the process of cataloguing an extensive Penguin collection of over 3000 volumes. We have most main series titles up to 1500 and complete runs of many of the other series. If you require any help with this project just let me know.
Great site, thank you so much for all your work on this. I am trying to understand the publication history of the Penguin Classics series. What happened after the second edition? How do we refer to the post second edition ‘solid black spine’ era prior to the appearance of the coloured tabs at the top of the spines? Any pointers would be much appreciated.
Penguin abandoned its numbering system (with a few modern exceptions, like the Great Ideas series) in the seventies once it began publishing each book with the ISBN on the spine. This happened in the middle of the second (black spine) Classic series, which is why most have ISBNs but a few have the original “L” designation.
Now that I’m out of school I’m going to pick back up on development of this site, which includes adding new series, an illustrated guide to editions, and maybe, if I’m feeling ambitious, a catalog of the third edition (or rainbow tab) of Penguin Classics, sorted by ISBN.