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James Baldwin

Praise for Giovanni's Room

Extraordinarily exact and complex emotional intimacy . . . At the core of the novel lies Baldwin’s recognition that with a denial of suffering and pain as a means of happiness, there can be no feeling, understanding ...

Guardian

Today, when a great many arguments and complaints from the queer quarters of the political sphere have to do with what has been done to queerness by the patriarchy and by whiteness, Baldwin asks, in Giovanni&rsqu ...

Hilton Als, New York Times Style Magazine

The whole novel is a kind of anatomy of shame, of its roots and the myths that perpetuate it, of the damage it can do.

Garth Greenwell, Guardian

Extraordinarily exact and complex emotional intimacy . . . At the core of the novel lies Baldwin’s recognition that with a denial of suffering and pain as a means of happiness, there can be no feeling, understanding ...

Guardian

Today, when a great many arguments and complaints from the queer quarters of the political sphere have to do with what has been done to queerness by the patriarchy and by whiteness, Baldwin asks, in Giovanni&rsqu ...

Hilton Als, New York Times Style Magazine

The whole novel is a kind of anatomy of shame, of its roots and the myths that perpetuate it, of the damage it can do.

Garth Greenwell, Guardian

Extraordinarily exact and complex emotional intimacy . . . At the core of the novel lies Baldwin’s recognition that with a denial of suffering and pain as a means of happiness, there can be no feeling, understanding ...

Guardian

Today, when a great many arguments and complaints from the queer quarters of the political sphere have to do with what has been done to queerness by the patriarchy and by whiteness, Baldwin asks, in Giovanni&rsqu ...

Hilton Als, New York Times Style Magazine

The whole novel is a kind of anatomy of shame, of its roots and the myths that perpetuate it, of the damage it can do.

Garth Greenwell, Guardian

Books by James Baldwin

Series by James Baldwin

Penguin Archive

The finest editions available of the world's greatest classics from Homer to Achebe, Tolstoy to Ishiguro, Proust to Pullman, printed on a fine acid-free, cream-wove paper that will not discolour with age, with sewn, full cloth bindings and silk ribbon markers, and at remarkably low prices. All books include substantial introductions by major scholars and contemporary writers, and comparative chronologies of literary and historical context.

Articles featuring James Baldwin

Features
‘His true genius lies in the universality of his observations’: Reflections on James Baldwin’s legacy

‘His true genius lies in the universality of his observations’: Reflections on James Baldwin’s legacy

Authors, editors and scholars share their thoughts on the trailblazing author on the centenary of his birth.

Features
On the Road with Penguin Classics podcast logo

On the Road with Penguin Classics

Novelist Caryl Phillips discusses Baldwin's exquisite same-sex love story while exploring the rain-soaked boulevards of Paris.

Videos

Nikki Giovanni on the iconic James Baldwin

Nikki Giovanni on the iconic James Baldwin

In the press

James Baldwin Centenary Special - BBC Radio 4 Front Row
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin - BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime
The Lost Archive of James Baldwin - BBC Sounds
David Olusoga: James Baldwin in a time of riots - New Statesman