Penguin and Waterstone's team up for hardback classics

Waterstone's is teaming up with Penguin Classics to exclusively sell a range of 10 newly designed hardback classics, including Oliver Twist and The Odyssey.

This is the series' second year, with 10 titles released in 2008 and also sold exclusively through the retailer.

Penguin Press' senior cover designer Coralie Bickford-Smith created the covers, with each design picking up on a central item from the story. "[I used the chairs for Emma] because Emma is all about the social conversations—the matchmaking and etiquette. Little Women is scissors, because [the story] is all about them making things and Jo cutting her hair."

The clothbound hardback titles, with matt foil and a ribbon marker, will be available exclusively at Waterstone's and waterstones.com from 5th October, priced £12.99. Bickford-Smith will also design instore display bins. Aiming to capture the Christmas market, Penguin Press' marketing director Nicola Hill said: "A big portion [of buyers] will be the gift market. [They also work as] a self-purchase for people who love classics."

Penguin Classics publisher Adam Freudenheim said the original idea for doing a hardback classics series in this way was developed during discussions with Waterstone's. It followed partly from the success of the Penguin Classics hardback editions of Hans Christian Andersen's The Fairy Tales, published in 2004, and anthology Penguin's Poems for Life in 2007. Freudenheim said: "The idea for this particular series came as much from [Waterstone's] as from us."

Eight of 2008's titles will become available to the whole trade next month, with plans to release 2009's titles widely in September 2010.