The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry

Apr 9, 2026 5:08 AM

Author:Penguin,Jon Stallworthy

THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION OF OUR MOST TREASURED WRITING ON THE MOST UNIVERSAL THEME, LOVE. FEATURING POETRY FROM EDGAR ALLEN POE, EMILY DICKINSON, CHRISTINA ROSSETTI AND MANY MORE.

Love itself might be blind, but over millennia it has inspired some of the most perceptive and visionary poetry ever written - from the fragments of Sappho, to Shakespeare's sonnets and verses of Byron, Keats and Shelley, right through to Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy.

Whether it's the burning passion of two young lovers, the steady companionship of a married couple, the unconditional love of a parent for a child or the enduring affection of lifelong friendship, discover the finest poems on love from across cultures and ages in this curated collection.

Reviews

A scholarly edition of world class

—— Bernard Crick , New Statesman

The edition is a wonder

—— Bevis Hillier , Spectator

You'll enjoy this wild and, in places, wildly funny story- It is all an hilarious send-up of the Dornford Yates style of thriller with some modernistic Sharpe barbs added

—— Daily Express

One of our best contemporary comic writers- very, very funny

—— Birmingham Evening Mail

Excellently funny

—— Auberon Waugh , Daily Mail

He has not written a better or more skilful farce

—— Financial Times

Britain's leading practitioner of black humour

—— Punch

The year's most impressive debut

—— John Carey , Sunday Times

Like Donna Tartt’s "The Secret History" or a good film noir . . . Jane’s low-key narration has just the right tone to keep readers hooked

—— People magazine

The strength of 'The Lake of Dead Languages' is a silken prose that lures the reader into Goodman’s . . . story of murder, suicide . . . revenge, and madness

—— The Washington Post Book World

Part suspense, part coming-of-age, and all-enthralling . . . A book that needs the roar of a fire to ward off its psychic chill

—— The Denver Post

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