' The valley was full of snakes & serpents as big as palm trees so huge that they could have swallowed any elephant that met them'A selection of fantastic & perilous adventures at sea from the Thousand & One Nights Introducing Little Black Classics 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range & diversity of Penguin Classics with books from around the world & across many centuries They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California & the Russian steppe Here are stories lyrical & savage; poems epic & intimate; essays satirical & inspirational; & ideas that have shaped the lives of millions