Bücher der Reihe Canto original series

Black holes are formed by the force of gravity, warping space and time, crushing stars and perhaps galaxies until they fall in on themselves. Igor Novikov's fascinating account, illustrated with a series of inspired cartoon drawings, illuminates this most enigmatic feature of our Universe with exemplary clarity.

Children's responses to literature are equally fascinating from the psychological and the literary point of view. Nicholas Tucker's exploratory study traces the relationship between the child and the book using both these perspectives, from the baby's first picture book to the moment when the adolescent reader takes up adult literature.

This is the first biography of Marc Bloch (1886-1944), historian, soldier in both world wars, and leader of the Resistance, who was captured, tortured, and died a heroic death. Based largely on Bloch's private letters, diaries and papers, as well as on other unpublished documents, it traces the remarkable life of this French-Jewish patriot under the Third Republic.

This collection - published here in English for the first time - brings together a number of political, personal and literary pieces by Israel's most celebrated living novelist. Their refreshing blend of scepticism and idealism will attract new readers while delighting those already familiar with Oz's writings.

A comparative portrait of Richelieu and Olivares, as personalities and as statesmen, drawn through study of their policies and their mutual struggle. This book also offers insights into 17th-century Europe and the nature of power and statesmanship.

This is a lively collection of ten biographies of aristocratic ladies of the Byzantine empire in its final years. The stories of their lives offer a new perspective on the Byzantine empire, and a fascinating insight into the lives of women in past times.

'Grahame Clark studies the human animal in a vast perspective of space and time, showing how the adventure of human exploration has shaped our understanding of the world and of our place in it. It is a remarkable survey, taking a broad sweep, and probably only Grahame Clark, author of World Prehistory, could have written a work so comprehensive in its scope.' Colin Renfrew

This concise study of Disraeli, aimed at the general reader as much as at the student, stands in contrast to the many full-length studies which continue to appear. It focuses on the substantial reassessment of Disraeli's career and personality which is currently taking place.

In the first full study of an extraordinary person, Beatrice Forbes Manz examines Tamerlane as the founder of a nomad conquest dynasty and as a supremely talented individual, raising many current questions about the mechanisms of state formation, the dynamics of tribal politics, and the relations of tribes to central leadership.

This account of the Pastons' England reveals an age of historical transition as it was played out in the daily challenges of individual lives.

The Magus, a legendary magician of superhuman powers, is an archetype central to myth and religion across many cultures. Identifying its anthropological origins in ancient rituals, E. M. Butler goes on to trace its subsequent development.

Peter Brown's fascinating study examines the factors which proved decisive and the compromises which made the emergence of the Christian 'thought world' possible: how the the old gods of the Roman Empire could be reinterpreted as symbols to further the message of the Church.

Isaac Newton was indisputably one of the greatest scientists in history. His achievements in mathematics and physics marked the culmination of the movement that brought modern science into being. Richard Westfall's biography captures in engaging detail both his private life and scientific career, presenting a complex picture of Newton the man, and as scientist, philosopher, theologian, alchemist, public figure, President of the Royal Society, and Warden of the Royal Mint. An abridged version of his magisterial study Never at Rest (Cambridge, 1980), this concise biography makes Westfall's highly acclaimed portrait of Newton newly accessible to general readers.

Ian Watt examines the myths of Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan and Robinson Crusoe, as the distinctive products of a modern society. The four figures each pursue their own view of what they should be, raising strong questions about their heroes' character and the societies whose ideals they reflect.

The Nazi holocaust haunts the modern imagination as a compelling example of organised human atrocity on a mass scale. This authoritative account of the evolution of Nazi Jewish policy seeks to answer fundamental questions about what actually happened, and why, between the outbreak of war and the emergence of the Final Solution.

Owen Chadwick's acclaimed lectures on the secularisation of the European mind trace the declining hold of the Church and its doctrines on European society in the nineteenth century, identifying and exploring both the social and the intellectual aspects of this momentous change.

What purpose, if any, do pets really serve? Are they simply an outlet for misplaced love? Or four-legged friends who help us to satisfy vital emotional needs? Exploring the phenomenon of pet-keeping across history and between cultures, this thought-provoking study reassesses our relationships with animals and the natural world.

Uniquely authoritative account of Japan's economic resconstruction after World War II.

Captain Bligh and the mutiny on the Bounty have become proverbial in their capacity to evoke the extravagant and violent abuse of power. But William Bligh was one of the least violent disciplinarians in the British navy. It is this paradox which inspired Greg Dening to ask why the mutiny took place. Part of the key lies in the curious puzzle of Mr Bligh's bad language.

The rapid spread of divorce since the 1960s has dramatically affected family life in Western society. Roderick Phillips, author of the highly acclaimed magisterial history of divorce, Putting Asunder, has now abridged his fascinating and wide-ranging study for a general readership.

The English Stage tells the story of drama through its many changes in style and convention from medieval times to the present day. With a wide sweep of coverage, John Styan analyses the key features of staging, including early street theatre and public performance, the evolution of the playhouse and the private space, and the pairing of theory and stagecraft in the works of modern dramatists.

In The Meanings of Death, John Bowker offers a major contribution to debates about the value of death and its place in both Western and Eastern religions.

Owen Chadwick paints a detailed cameo of nineteenth-century English rural life, in the extraordinary battle of wills between squire and parson in a Norfolk village.

John Polkinghorne examines the nature of scientific inquiry itself and the human context in which science operates. The book looks to issues of meaning and value, as well as more practical aspects of the discipline.

This is a firsthand account, translated into English, of Gerhard von Breuning, the son of one of Beethoven's oldest friends and a favourite of the ageing composer, which provides us with telling details about Beethoven's daily life, his personality, his relationships with family and friends, his sickroom and ultimately his death.

Reliable Knowledge offers at once a valuably clear account and a radically challenging investigation of the credibility of scientific knowledge, searching widely across a range of disciplines for evidence about the perceptions, paradigms and analogies on which all our understanding depends.

This second edition underlines the drastic changes in the challenges which face the world, in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse and the end of the Cold War, stressing the ever tighter linking of the global economy with the ecology in which we live, and the problems which this poses for the survival of civilization.

John Postgate's fascinating exploration of the invisible world of microbes provides new clues to the origin and evolution of terrestrial life, and reveals the remarkable resilience and potential of life itself.