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100 Essential Penguin Classics

Fan of classic fiction or looking for a new read? Here’s a list of important Penguin Classics.

  1. 1

    East of Eden

    by John Steinbeck

    East of Eden Book Cover Picture
    East of Eden Book Cover Picture

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  2. 2

    The Penguin Book of French Poetry

    by Various

    The Penguin Book of French Poetry Book Cover Picture
    The Penguin Book of French Poetry Book Cover Picture

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  3. 3

    Wuthering Heights

    by Emily Bronte

    Wuthering Heights Book Cover Picture
    Wuthering Heights Book Cover Picture

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  4. 4

    Little Women

    by Louisa May Alcott

    Little Women Book Cover Picture
    Little Women Book Cover Picture

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  5. 5

    1984

    by George Orwell

    1984 Book Cover Picture
    1984 Book Cover Picture

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  6. 6

    Devil on the Cross

    by Ngugi wa Thiong’o

    Devil on the Cross Book Cover Picture
    Devil on the Cross Book Cover Picture

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  7. 7

    The Scarlet Pimpernel

    by Baroness Orczy

    The Scarlet Pimpernel Book Cover Picture
    The Scarlet Pimpernel Book Cover Picture

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  8. 8

    Where the Red Fern Grows

    by Wilson Rawls

    Where the Red Fern Grows Book Cover Picture
    Where the Red Fern Grows Book Cover Picture

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  9. 9

    Lord of the Flies

    by William Golding

    Lord of the Flies Book Cover Picture
    Lord of the Flies Book Cover Picture

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  10. 10

    Far from the Madding Crowd

    by Thomas Hardy

    Far from the Madding Crowd Book Cover Picture
    Far from the Madding Crowd Book Cover Picture

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  11. 11

    The Bloody Chamber

    by Angela Carter

    The Bloody Chamber Book Cover Picture
    The Bloody Chamber Book Cover Picture

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  12. 12

    The Histories

    by Herodotus

    The Histories Book Cover Picture
    The Histories Book Cover Picture

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  13. 13

    The River Between

    by Ngugi wa Thiong’o

    The River Between Book Cover Picture
    The River Between Book Cover Picture

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  14. 14

    Les Miserables

    by Victor Hugo

    Les Miserables Book Cover Picture
    Les Miserables Book Cover Picture

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  15. 15

    The Poetics of Space

    by Gaston Bachelard

    The Poetics of Space Book Cover Picture
    The Poetics of Space Book Cover Picture

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  16. 16

    Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

    by Frederick Douglass

    Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Book Cover Picture
    Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Book Cover Picture

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  17. 17

    On Being Different

    by Merle Miller

    On Being Different Book Cover Picture
    On Being Different Book Cover Picture

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  18. 18

    Twelve Years a Slave

    by Solomon Northup

    Twelve Years a Slave Book Cover Picture
    Twelve Years a Slave Book Cover Picture

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  19. 19

    My Inventions and Other Writings

    by Nikola Tesla

    My Inventions and Other Writings Book Cover Picture
    My Inventions and Other Writings Book Cover Picture

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  20. 20

    White Noise

    by Don DeLillo

    White Noise Book Cover Picture
    White Noise Book Cover Picture

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  21. 21

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    by Mark Twain

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Book Cover Picture
    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Book Cover Picture

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  22. 22

    Revolutionary Suicide

    by Huey P. Newton

    Revolutionary Suicide Book Cover Picture
    Revolutionary Suicide Book Cover Picture

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  23. 23

    Pride and Prejudice

    by Jane Austen

    Pride and Prejudice Book Cover Picture
    Pride and Prejudice Book Cover Picture

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  24. 24

    Candide

    by Francois Voltaire

    Candide Book Cover Picture
    Candide Book Cover Picture

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  25. 25

    Lady Chatterley’s Lover

    by D. H. Lawrence

    Lady Chatterley's Lover Book Cover Picture
    Lady Chatterley's Lover Book Cover Picture

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  26. 26

    The Snow Leopard

    by Peter Matthiessen

    The Snow Leopard Book Cover Picture
    The Snow Leopard Book Cover Picture

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  27. 27

    On the Road: the Original Scroll

    by Jack Kerouac

    On the Road: the Original Scroll Book Cover Picture
    On the Road: the Original Scroll Book Cover Picture

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  28. 28

    Metamorphosis and Other Stories

    by Franz Kafka

    Metamorphosis and Other Stories Book Cover Picture
    Metamorphosis and Other Stories Book Cover Picture

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  29. 29

    The Pillow Book

    by Sei Shonagon

    The Pillow Book Book Cover Picture
    The Pillow Book Book Cover Picture

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  30. 30

    Under the Sea-Wind

    by Rachel L. Carson

    Under the Sea-Wind Book Cover Picture
    Under the Sea-Wind Book Cover Picture

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  31. 31

    Ceremony

    by Leslie Marmon Silko

    Ceremony Book Cover Picture
    Ceremony Book Cover Picture

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  32. 32

    The Haunting of Hill House

    by Shirley Jackson

    The Haunting of Hill House Book Cover Picture
    The Haunting of Hill House Book Cover Picture

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  33. 33

    The Odyssey

    by Homer

    The Odyssey Book Cover Picture
    The Odyssey Book Cover Picture

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  34. 34

    Gravity’s Rainbow (Classics Deluxe Edition)

    by Thomas Pynchon

    Gravity's Rainbow (Classics Deluxe Edition) Book Cover Picture
    Gravity's Rainbow (Classics Deluxe Edition) Book Cover Picture

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  35. 35

    The Divine Comedy

    by Dante Alighieri

    The Divine Comedy Book Cover Picture
    The Divine Comedy Book Cover Picture

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  36. 36

    Twelve Angry Men

    by Reginald Rose

    Twelve Angry Men Book Cover Picture
    Twelve Angry Men Book Cover Picture

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  37. 37

    Jane Eyre

    by Charlotte Bronte

    Jane Eyre Book Cover Picture
    Jane Eyre Book Cover Picture

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  38. 38

    The Grapes of Wrath

    by John Steinbeck

    The Grapes of Wrath Book Cover Picture
    The Grapes of Wrath Book Cover Picture

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  39. 39

    The New York Trilogy

    by Paul Auster

    The New York Trilogy Book Cover Picture
    The New York Trilogy Book Cover Picture

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  40. 40

    Therese Raquin

    by Emile Zola

    Therese Raquin Book Cover Picture
    Therese Raquin Book Cover Picture

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  41. 41

    The Quiet American

    by Graham Greene

    The Quiet American Book Cover Picture
    The Quiet American Book Cover Picture

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  42. 42

    The Aleph and Other Stories

    by Jorge Luis Borges

    The Aleph and Other Stories Book Cover Picture
    The Aleph and Other Stories Book Cover Picture

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  43. 43

    Anna Karenina

    by Leo Tolstoy

    Anna Karenina Book Cover Picture
    Anna Karenina Book Cover Picture

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  44. 44

    Storm of Steel

    by Ernst Junger

    Storm of Steel Book Cover Picture
    Storm of Steel Book Cover Picture

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  45. 45

    Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

    by Pablo Neruda

    Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair Book Cover Picture
    Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair Book Cover Picture

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  46. 46

    Sixty Stories

    by Donald Barthelme

    Sixty Stories Book Cover Picture
    Sixty Stories Book Cover Picture

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  47. 47

    The Art of War

    by Sun-tzu

    The Art of War Book Cover Picture
    The Art of War Book Cover Picture

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  48. 48

    Democracy in America and Two Essays on America

    by Alexis de Tocqueville

    Democracy in America and Two Essays on America Book Cover Picture
    Democracy in America and Two Essays on America Book Cover Picture

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  49. 49

    The Count of Monte Cristo

    by Alexandre Dumas pere

    The Count of Monte Cristo Book Cover Picture
    The Count of Monte Cristo Book Cover Picture

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  50. 50

    Frankenstein

    by Mary Shelley

    Frankenstein Book Cover Picture
    Frankenstein Book Cover Picture

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  51. 51

    Utopia

    by Thomas More

    Utopia Book Cover Picture
    Utopia Book Cover Picture

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  52. 52

    Lysistrata and Other Plays

    by Aristophanes

    Lysistrata and Other Plays Book Cover Picture
    Lysistrata and Other Plays Book Cover Picture

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  53. 53

    Dracula

    by Bram Stoker

    Dracula Book Cover Picture
    Dracula Book Cover Picture

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  54. 54

    Robinson Crusoe

    by Daniel Defoe

    Robinson Crusoe Book Cover Picture
    Robinson Crusoe Book Cover Picture

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  55. 55

    Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

    by Lewis Carroll

    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass Book Cover Picture
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass Book Cover Picture

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  56. 56

    The Last Days of Socrates

    by Plato

    The Last Days of Socrates Book Cover Picture
    The Last Days of Socrates Book Cover Picture

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  57. 57

    The Crucible

    by Arthur Miller

    The Crucible Book Cover Picture
    The Crucible Book Cover Picture

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  58. 58

    Middlemarch

    by George Eliot

    Middlemarch Book Cover Picture
    Middlemarch Book Cover Picture

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  59. 59

    The Bhagavad Gita

    by Anonymous

    The Bhagavad Gita Book Cover Picture
    The Bhagavad Gita Book Cover Picture

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  60. 60

    Gulliver’s Travels

    by Jonathan Swift

    Gulliver's Travels Book Cover Picture
    Gulliver's Travels Book Cover Picture

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  61. 61

    Don Quixote

    by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

    Don Quixote Book Cover Picture
    Don Quixote Book Cover Picture

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  62. 62

    Herzog

    by Saul Bellow

    Herzog Book Cover Picture
    Herzog Book Cover Picture

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  63. 63

    The Canterbury Tales

    by Geoffrey Chaucer

    The Canterbury Tales Book Cover Picture
    The Canterbury Tales Book Cover Picture

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  64. 64

    Pygmalion

    by George Bernard Shaw

    Pygmalion Book Cover Picture
    Pygmalion Book Cover Picture

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  65. 65

    Passing

    by Nella Larsen

    Passing Book Cover Picture
    Passing Book Cover Picture

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  66. 66

    The Prince

    by Niccolo Machiavelli

    The Prince Book Cover Picture
    The Prince Book Cover Picture

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  67. 67

    The Picture of Dorian Gray

    by Oscar Wilde

    The Picture of Dorian Gray Book Cover Picture
    The Picture of Dorian Gray Book Cover Picture

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  68. 68

    Great Expectations

    by Charles Dickens

    Great Expectations Book Cover Picture
    Great Expectations Book Cover Picture

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  69. 69

    Madame Bovary

    by Gustave Flaubert

    Madame Bovary Book Cover Picture
    Madame Bovary Book Cover Picture

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  70. 70

    Moby-Dick

    by Herman Melville and Coralie Bickford-Smith

    Moby-Dick Book Cover Picture
    Moby-Dick Book Cover Picture

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  71. 71

    Siddhartha

    by Hermann Hesse

    Siddhartha Book Cover Picture
    Siddhartha Book Cover Picture

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  72. 72

    One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

    by Ken Kesey

    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Book Cover Picture
    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Book Cover Picture

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  73. 73

    The Scarlet Letter

    by Nathaniel Hawthorne

    The Scarlet Letter Book Cover Picture
    The Scarlet Letter Book Cover Picture

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  74. 74

    The Tale of Genji

    by Murasaki Shikibu

    The Tale of Genji Book Cover Picture
    The Tale of Genji Book Cover Picture

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  75. 75

    The Communist Manifesto

    by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

    The Communist Manifesto Book Cover Picture
    The Communist Manifesto Book Cover Picture

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  76. 76

    Hamlet

    by William Shakespeare

    Hamlet Book Cover Picture
    Hamlet Book Cover Picture

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  77. 77

    A Room with a View

    by E. M. Forster

    A Room with a View Book Cover Picture
    A Room with a View Book Cover Picture

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  78. 78

    Treasure Island

    by Robert Louis Stevenson

    Treasure Island Book Cover Picture
    Treasure Island Book Cover Picture

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  79. 79

    Personal Memoirs

    by Ulysses S. Grant

    Personal Memoirs Book Cover Picture
    Personal Memoirs Book Cover Picture

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  80. 80

    The Souls of Black Folk

    by W. E. B. Du Bois

    The Souls of Black Folk Book Cover Picture
    The Souls of Black Folk Book Cover Picture

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  81. 81

    The Age of Innocence

    by Edith Wharton

    The Age of Innocence Book Cover Picture
    The Age of Innocence Book Cover Picture

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  82. 82

    Of Mice and Men

    by John Steinbeck

    Of Mice and Men Book Cover Picture
    Of Mice and Men Book Cover Picture

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  83. 83

    My Antonia

    by Willa Cather

    My Antonia Book Cover Picture
    My Antonia Book Cover Picture

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  84. 84

    Dubliners

    by James Joyce

    Dubliners Book Cover Picture
    Dubliners Book Cover Picture

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  85. 85

    The Joy Luck Club

    by Amy Tan

    The Joy Luck Club Book Cover Picture
    The Joy Luck Club Book Cover Picture

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  86. 86

    The Last of the Mohicans

    by James Fenimore Cooper

    The Last of the Mohicans Book Cover Picture
    The Last of the Mohicans Book Cover Picture

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  87. 87

    Fear and Trembling

    by Soren Kierkegaard

    Fear and Trembling Book Cover Picture
    Fear and Trembling Book Cover Picture

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  88. 88

    The Jungle

    by Upton Sinclair

    The Jungle Book Cover Picture
    The Jungle Book Cover Picture

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  89. 89

    Walden and Civil Disobedience

    by Henry David Thoreau

    Walden and Civil Disobedience Book Cover Picture
    Walden and Civil Disobedience Book Cover Picture

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  90. 90

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin

    by Harriet Beecher Stowe

    Uncle Tom's Cabin Book Cover Picture
    Uncle Tom's Cabin Book Cover Picture

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  91. 91

    The Analects

    by Confucius

    The Analects Book Cover Picture
    The Analects Book Cover Picture

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  92. 92

    Confessions

    by Augustine of Hippo

    Confessions Book Cover Picture
    Confessions Book Cover Picture

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  93. 93

    Leaves of Grass

    by Walt Whitman

    Leaves of Grass Book Cover Picture
    Leaves of Grass Book Cover Picture

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  94. 94

    The Epic of Gilgamesh

    by Anonymous

    The Epic of Gilgamesh Book Cover Picture
    The Epic of Gilgamesh Book Cover Picture

    Buy now from your favorite retailer:

  95. 95

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    by Anonymous

    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Book Cover Picture
    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Book Cover Picture

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  96. 96

    The Travels

    by Marco Polo

    The Travels Book Cover Picture
    The Travels Book Cover Picture

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  97. 97

    The Song of Roland

    by Anonymous

    The Song of Roland Book Cover Picture
    The Song of Roland Book Cover Picture

    Buy now from your favorite retailer:

  98. 98

    Beowulf

    by Anonymous

    Beowulf Book Cover Picture
    Beowulf Book Cover Picture

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  99. 99

    The Metamorphoses

    by Ovid

    The Metamorphoses Book Cover Picture
    The Metamorphoses Book Cover Picture

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