Restless Classics
GREAT BOOKS FROM THE PAST THAT SPEAK TO OUR TIME, PLACE, AND RESTLESSNESS
Each classic is beautifully packaged, with fresh introductions and original illustrations.
We all have “the list”: those classic books that we have the best intentions of reading, but which, after we graduate from school, become less urgent priorities. We've set out to address this problem with Restless Classics—a beautifully packaged, newly introduced and illustrated series of great books from the past that still speak to our time, our place, and, especially, our restlessness. In addition to their original artwork and fresh introductions, Restless Classics brings the classroom experience to the reader with linked online teaching videos.
praise for restless classics
“Such a classic can also, by its very eminence, seem unapproachable and intimidating. If this describes your feeling, then this new edition published by Restless Books could be the one to change your mind.… This edition comes with some wonderful helps for you to begin to realize why Don Quixote has had such staying power. The story itself is actually very funny, full of biting wit, sarcasm and satire, with nothing left unskewered.… In addition to an extremely helpful new introduction by prominent Quixote scholar Ilan Stavans, Restless Books has also made several videos, available online, that are flagged in the text and that help explain the themes of the section; they also have an online book group that will have live participation and will then be archived for future reference. Another interesting element in this edition is the uncanny artwork by the artist Eko, which brilliantly fuses both ‘realities’ experienced by the characters.… Don Quixote of La Mancha well deserves its reputation and its pedestal, and will richly reward readers each time they visit it; this new edition, with its many helpful guides, is a wonderful gateway into the treasures of this classic text.”
—San Diego Book Review (Five-Star Review)
“Stunning original artwork by acclaimed Mexican artist Eko…. In her insightful introduction, Francine Prose paves the way into the depths of Mary Shelley’s original horror story, by recreating the journey which led to the birth of one of history’s greatest monsters…. The new anniversary edition of Frankenstein is a beautiful example of remaking a novel for the 21st century. While remaining true to the spirit of Frankenstein, this new edition strives to introduce the novel a general audience, with an intriguing new introduction, and stunning artworks that look as though they may have been torn from the dormitory walls of the true Victor Frankenstein.”
Ready for Halloween? Experience two classic tales of crazed genius, exhilarating horror, and the heartache of living as an outcast. Shelly’s Frankenstein and Stoker’s Dracula have captured reader’s imaginations for over a century, and continue to do so today.
By George Eliot
Introduction by Rebecca Mead
Illustrations by Keren Katz
With new illustrations and a brilliant original introduction by New Yorker writer and author of My Life in Middlemarch Rebecca Mead, the Restless Classics edition of Middlemarch presents George Eliot’s masterpiece of Victorian fiction in an appealing new light.
Paperback ISBN: 9781632063069 • Sep 14, 2021
By Niccolò Machiavelli
Introduction by Jon Lee Anderson
Illustrations by Eko
Restless Classics presents a trenchant new edition of Machiavelli’s most powerful works of political philosophy, including The Prince and selections from Discourses on Livy, introduced by New Yorker writer and biographer of Che Guevara Jon Lee Anderson.
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632062567
Publication date: Mar 23, 2021
By Daniel Defoe
Introduction by Jamaica Kincaid
Illustrations by Eko
Restless Classics presents the Three-Hundredth Anniversary Edition of Robinson Crusoe, the classic Caribbean adventure story and foundational English novel, with new illustrations by Eko and an introduction by Jamaica Kincaid that recontextualizes the book for our globalized, postcolonial era.
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632061195
Publication date: Aug 27, 2019
by Nella Larsen
Introduction by Darryl Pinckney
Illustrated by Malachi Lily
Restless Classics presents the ninetieth anniversary edition of an undersung gem of the Harlem Renaissance: Nella Larsen's Passing, a captivating and prescient exploration of identity, sexuality, self-invention, class, and race set amidst the pealing boisterousness of the Jazz Age.
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632062024
Publication date: Oct 16, 2018
by Mary Shelley
Introduction by Francine Prose
Illustrations by Eko
Video Lecture Series by Wendy Steiner
With a new introduction by Francine Prose and stunning original artwork by Eko, the Restless Classics edition of Frankenstein brings Mary Shelley’s paragon of horror vividly back to life—published to coincide with the two-hundredth anniversary of the infamous night of its creation.
Deluxe Paperback • ISBN: 9781632060785
Publication date: June 14, 2016
By W. E. B. Du Bois
Introduction by Vann R. Newkirk II
Illustrations by Steve Prince
Restless Classics presents The Souls of Black Folk: W. E. B. Du Bois’s seminal work of sociology, with searing insights into our complex, corrosive relationship with race and the African-American consciousness. Reconsidered for the era of Obama, Trump, and Black Lives Matter, the new edition includes an incisive introduction from rising cultural critic Vann R. Newkirk II and stunning illustrations by the artist Steve Prince.
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632060976
Publication date: Feb 14, 2017
By Anton Chekhov
Introduction by Boris Fishman
Translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett, Ilan Stavans, and Alexander Gurvets
Illustrations by Matt McCann
The Restless Classics edition of Chekhov: Stories for Our Time presents a must-have collection by the great Russian author who captured humanity in all its complexity, and reintroduces Chekhov as a funny, playful, deeply human, and thoroughly modern writer.
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632061805
Publication date: Jul 24, 2018
by Virginia Woolf
Introduction by Lauren Groff
Illustrations by Kristen Radtke
The 100th Anniversary Edition of Virginia Woolf’s timely, overlooked second novel—a remarkable story of two women navigating the possibilities opened up by the struggle for women’s suffrage—introduced for Restless Classics by bestselling author of Fates and Furies Lauren Groff and illustrated by graphic artist Kristen Radtke.
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632060327
Publication date: Jul 9, 2019
by Miguel de Cervantes
Translated from the Spanish by John Ormsby
Introduction and Video Lecture Series by Ilan Stavans
Illustrations by Eko
Newly introduced by leading Quixote scholar Ilan Stavans, this 400th Anniversary edition of Don Quixote of La Mancha—called the most popular book in history after the Bible and the first modern novel—inaugurates Restless Classics: interactive encounters with great books and inspired teachers. Each Restless Classic is beautifully designed with original artwork, a new introduction for the trade audience, and an online video teaching series led by passionate experts.
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632060754
Publication date: October 6, 2015
The Restless Classics edition of Middlemarch is richly illustrated by artist Keren Katz, who has rendered Dorothea Brooke and her provincial 1830s world with over two dozen arresting, strikingly modern papercut illustrations.
This April, our virtual classics book club is reading Machiavelli’s The Prince and selections from Discourses on Livy, which offer an “astonishingly modern” take on a timeless question: how should a ruler be?
"It is in such murky waters that Machiavelli still swims, helping us out even now with the necessary language to rationalize the accidental civilian casualties caused when we use remote-controlled drones to assassinate suspected terrorists in foreign lands, not to mention the cumulative collateral damage of our recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria."
Our virtual classics book club is reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky this February, a gripping thriller and timeless social critique.
Our virtual classics book club is reading The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka this January, a tragicomic masterpiece of alienation and abjection.
This fall, join us as we read Don Quixote with our virtual classics book club, Restless Reads. We’ll be in good company: our guide will be Ilan Stavans, a noted Cervantes scholar and devotee (and our publisher). We’ll tackle this bucket-list book a little at a time, about eight pages a day, with monthly virtual meetings along the way, wrapping up by early December. During an uncertain fall, the restless, struggling, dreaming figure of Don Quixote will be a good friend.
Boris Fishman’s Chekhov is a writer of the people, and that’s the Chekhov we’ll be exploring together during the August edition of Restless Reads, our virtual online book club. Before his death from tuberculosis at the age of forty-four, Chekhov wrote nearly a thousand short stories. His radical commitment—radical for his time—to telling complex human truths above simple ideological ones have made those stories some of the most influential ever written.
This July we’re reading The Souls of Black Folk, an indispensable study of race in America. Published forty years after Emancipation, it has parts that feel as if they could have been written yesterday.
Our virtual classics book club continues this June with Robinson Crusoe, a gripping story of peril and survival and ultimate isolation (relatable!)—and an unparalleled portrait of the British colonizer.
If you’re looking for a way to connect with other literature lovers and find new sustenance in your bookshelves—like we are—we invite you to join our virtual book club, Restless Reads.