Bücher der Reihe Oxford World's Classics

One of the most influential Gothic novels, The Castle of Otranto established the literary effects associated with the genre: an ancient castle, secret passages, supernatural visitations, an innocent girl threatened with violence, sudden revelations, terror, and excitement. This new edition explores the reasons for the novel's impact.

Great Expectations includes some of Dickens's most memorable characters - Magwitch, Miss Havisham, Estella - encountered by young Pip as he grows into adulthood. This edition features a wide-ranging introduction, Dickens's working notes, the original ending and the definitive Clarendon text.

The Gorgias is a vivid introduction to the central problems of moral and political philosophy. In the notes to his translation, Professor Irwin discusses the historical and social context of the dialogue, expounds and criticises the arguments, and tries above all to suggest the questions a modern reader ought to raise about Plato's doctrines. No knowledge of Greek is necessary.

Having been persuaded to view the match as imprudent, Anne Elliot broke off her engagement to a naval officer with no prospects. Seven years later, when they meet again, Anne has the chance to recover the happiness she had forgone. This new edition examines Persuasion against the background of the Napoleonic Wars and includes fuller notes and appendices on social rank, dancing, and the Navy.

Pride and Prejudice has delighted generations of readers with its unforgettable cast of characters, carefully choreographed plot, and a hugely entertaining view of the world and its absurdities. In this new edition Fiona Stafford considers the artistry with which Jane Austen creates her best-known story.

A brilliant new edition of one of the flagship's of Victorian fiction includes a new introduction and revised notes from one of the foremost Bronte scholars. This text is based on the definitive Clarendon edition, based on the original editions of Bronte's great work.

John Sutherland provides a fascinating introduction to a new edition of what T.S.Eliot called 'the first and greatest of all English detective novels'.

A landmark in the development of the twentieth-century novel, the Notebooks is the story of a young Danish aristocrat , told in a series of notes that explore Malte's life in Paris, childhood memories and reflections in highly crafted poetic prose. A radical departure from literary realism, it is an archetypal confrontation with the modern.

In his Enquiry Edmund Burke overturned the Platonic tradition in aesthetics and replaced metaphysics with psychology. His revolutions in method and sensibility influenced later philosophers and literary and artistic movements from the Gothic novel to Romanticism and beyond. This new edition guides the reader through Burke's arguments.

Orlando tells the tale of an extraordinary individual who lives through history first as a man, then as a woman. At its heart is the figure of Woolf's friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West, and Knole, the historic home of the Sackvilles. Orlando mocks the conventions of biography and history and wryly examines sexual double standards.

Regarded by many as Woolf's greatest achievement, The Waves follows a set of six friends from childhood to middle age. As the contours of their lives are revealed, a unique novel is unveiled. In this new edition David Bradshaw considers its spellbinding oddness and originality, helping the reader through this most poetic and haunting of novels.

A captivating fusion of elegy, autobiography, socio-political critique and visionary thrust, To the Lighthouse is the most accomplished of all Woolf's novels. This new edition includes a full contextualizing introduction and notes by David Bradshaw.

A fully revised translation of the great collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry known as the Poetic Edda, containing the narratives of the creation of the world and the coming of Ragnarok, the Doom of the Gods. Gods, giants, and human heroes populate the poems. This edition includes three new poems.

Daniel Deronda, George Eliot's last great novel, charts the intertwined lives of spirited Gwendolen Harleth and the idealistic Deronda. Both are damaged by their pasts, and alienated from the society around them, in a story set against the backdrop of economic crisis, political uncertainty, and proto-Zionism.

M. R. James's classic ghost stories are some of the finest in English, creating menace and terror in lonely country houses and remote inns. This is the only one-volume edition to include all James's published stories, an appendix of James's writings on the ghost story, and a critical introduction and notes.

Charlotte Bronte's letters are our most direct source of information about the Brontes and the life of the novelist. Vivid and passionate, they describe her inmost feelings as well as the world around her in Haworth, Belgium, and London. They offer insights into her novels and the development of her literary style.

In the Origin of Species (1859) Darwin challenged many of the most deeply held beliefs of the Western world. The present edition provides a detailed discussion of his theories and adds an account of the responses of readers to the book on first publication. These cast light on recent controversies, such as questions of design and descent.

'Heart of Darkness' is Conrad's finest tale and tells of Marlow's journey up the Congo River to meet Mr Kurtz. This volume also includes 'An Outpost of Progress', 'Karain', and 'Youth' in a revised edition using the English first edition texts and with new chronology and bibliography.

Oscar Wilde was already one of the best known literary figures in Britain when he was persuaded to turn his extraordinary talents to the theatre. Between 1891 and 1895 he produced a sequence of distinctive plays which spearheaded the dramatic renaissance of the 1890s and retain their power today.

This edition of Paradise Lost is introduced by Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials, whose debt to Milton he acknowledges in his personal tribute. Beautifully illustrated with the twelve engravings from the first illustrated edition of 1688, this is a special edition of Milton's epic poem.