PRH presents Barbican-inspired Penguin Classics

Penguin Random House has developed a range of Barbican-inspired Penguin Classics to coincide with a new Barbican exhibition, Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction.

The newly imagined cover artworks are for a selection of four science fiction titles from Penguin Press' backlist - A Clockwork Orange, Frankenstein, The Island of Dr Moreau and Nineteen Eighty-Four - created by designer Jamie Keenan as "a playful tribute" to the Barbican’s iconic architecture. Covers feature the Barbican Towers, Conservatory, Martini Bar and "engine room", designed by architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon. 

The branded editions will be displayed in the Barbican Shop and have their own section on the Barbican’s online store. They are part of a wider partnership between the Barbican and Penguin Classics, forming the basis of a series of Penguin Book Club events that are being held during the exhibition with journalists, writers and academics. 

The first session will celebrate Anthony Burgess’s dystopian classic A Clockwork Orange in a panel event at the Barbican on 29th June chaired by Henry Eliot, creative editor of Penguin Classics, between writer A L Kennedy and Andrew Biswell, director of the International Burgess Foundation and editor of A Clockwork Orange: The Restored Edition.

Further events will see Penguin Classics publishing director, Simon Winder discuss The Island of Dr Moreau with Deborah Bowman, professor at St George’s, University of London and Roger Luckhurst, professor in modern and contemporary literature at Birkbeck on 6th July; Frankenstein will be under the miscroscope on 13th July with Angela Wright, author of a forthcoming critical study of Mary Shelley; and Nineteen Eighty Four will be the subject of a discussion on 20th July between Guardian political columnist Polly Toynbee, Richard Keeble, chair of the Orwell Society and senior commissioning editor at Penguin Classics, Jessica Harrison.

The new Barbican exhibition takes place from 3rd June to 1st September and will explore science fiction in contemporary art, film, music, comic books and video games, as well as literature.