Penguin Books has issued A Handful of Dust in a new series being sold in the UK. This is called the Penguin English Library and, with the latest additions, will bring the total to over 80 titles. Others in this new batch include Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. According to Penguin’s announcement, the English Library books, introduced in 2012, will reflect:
the best fiction in English, from the 18th century to the Second World War. Designed with beautiful patterned covers illustrated and commissioned by Coralie Bickford-Smith.
The new format does appear to be distinguished more by its cover art than its content. No critical apparatus or introductory essay is mentioned.
A Handful of Dust is the first of Waugh’s books to be issued in this new line. Most of his other books published by Penguin fall into its Modern Classics group. Put Out More Flags appears in a series with more austere covers called Pocket Penguins and Brideshead Revisited is issued in both Penguin Modern Classics paperback and Penguin Clothback Classics editions.
