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Catherine the Great ruled Russian from 1762 until her death in 1796. Her letters provide an intimate history of the Russian state as well as a portrait of her character and qualities.

An anthology of Italian tales covering the period roughly from 1370 to 1630, during which the novella was the dominant form of prose fiction.

Peer Gynt was Ibsen's last work to use poetry as a medium of dramatic expression, and the poetry is brilliantly appropriate to the imaginative swings between Scandinavian oral folk traditions, the Morrocan coast, the Sahara Desert, and the absurdist images of the Cairo madhouse. This translation is taken from the acclaimed Oxford Ibsen.John McFarlane is Emeritus Professor of European Literature at the University of East Anglia, and General Editor of the Oxford Ibsen.

One of Shakespeare's most rollicking and beloved comedies, The Taming of the Shrew was also one of his earliest, probably written about 1592. The introduction to this edition offers a full and original consideration of the play's textual problems, a study of sources, a survey of scholarship and criticism, with the editor's own critical appreciation, and a study of the comedy's fortunes in the theatre.

The Bible is the most important book in the history of Western civilization, and also the most difficult to interpret. It has been the vehicle of continual conflict, with every interpretation reflecting passionately-held views that have affected not merely religion, but politics, art, and even science. This unique edition offers an exciting new approach to the most influential of all English biblical texts - the Authorized King James Version, complete with the Apocrypha. Its wide-ranging Introduction and the substantial notes to each book of the Bible guide the reader through the labyrinth of literary, textual, and theological issues, using the most up-to-date scholarship to demonstrate how and why the Bible has affected the literature, art and general culture of the English-speakingworld.

In South Sea Tales Stevenson shows himself to be a virtuoso of narrative styles. But beyond their generic diversity the stories are linked by their concern with representing the multiracial society of which their author had become a member. In this collection--the first to bring together all his shorter Pacific fiction in one volume--Stevenson emerges as a witness both to the cross-cultural encounters of nineteenth-century imperialism and to the creation of the global culture which characterizes the post-colonial world.

Loosely connected with Part One and the German legend of Faust, Part Two is a dramatic epic rather than a strictly constructed drama. It is conceived as an act of homage to classical Greek culture and inspired above all by the world of story-telling and myth at the heart of the Greek tradition, as well as owing some of its material to the Arabian Nights tales. The restless and ruthless hero, advised by his cynical demon-companion Mephistopheles, visits classical Greece i search of the beautiful Helen of Troy. Returning to modern times, he seeks to crown his career by gaining control of the elements, and at his death is carried up into the unkown regions, still in pursuit of the `Eternal Feminine'. David Luke's translation of Part One won the European Poetry Translation Prize. Here he again imitates the varied verse-forms of the original, and provides a highly readable - and actable - translation, supported by an introduction, full notes, and an index of classical mythology.

The legend of Faust grew up in the sixteenth century, a time of transition between medieval and modern culture in Germany. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) adopted the story of the wandering conjuror who accepts Mephistopheles's offer of a pact, selling his soul for the devil's greater knowledge; over a period of 60 years he produced one of the greatest dramatic and poetic masterpieces of European literature. David Luke's recent translation, specially commissioned for The World's Classics series, has all the virtues of previous classic translations of Faust, and none of their shortcomings. Cast in rhymed verse, following the original, it preserves the essence of Goethe's meaning without sacrifice to archaism or over-modern idiom. It is as near an `equivalent' rendering of the German as has been achieved. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Stevenson's short novel, published in 1886, became an instant classic. It was a Gothic horror originating in a feverish nightmare, that has thrilled readers ever since. Also included in this edition are a number of short stories and essays of the 1880s and extracts from writings on personality disorder that set the works in their historical context.

These new translations of the Defence of Socrates, the Euthyphro, and the Crito present Plato's remarkable dramatizations of the momentous events surrounding the trial of Socrates in 399 BC, on charges of irreligion and corrupting the young. They form a dramatic and thematic sequence, raising fundamental questions about the basis of moral, religious, legal, and political obligation. The Introduction provides a stimulating philosophical and historical analysis of these texts, complemented by useful explanatory notes and an index of names.

Lucan's epic poem on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, unfinished at the time of his death, stands beside the poems of Virgil and Ovid in the first rank of Latin epic. This newly annotated, free verse translation conveys the full force of Lucan's writing and his grimly realistic view of the subject. The work is a powerful condemnation of civil war, emphasizing the stark, dark horror of the catastrophies which the Roman state inflicted upon itself. Both the introduction and glossary set the scene for readers unfamiliar with Lucan and explore his relationship with earlier writers of Latin epic, and his interest in the sensational.

This new translation is the first to represent all the main fable collections in ancient Latin and Greek derived from the legendary Aesop, arranged according to the fables' contents and themes. It includes 600 fables, many of which come from sources never before translated into English.

A comprehensive anthology of Swift's writing, including The Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books, writing on politics, religion, and Ireland, as well as a generous selection from his correspondence. Formerly published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series.

Much more than a series of battle scenes, the Iliad is a work of extraordinary pathos and profundity that concerns itself with issues as fundamental as the meaning of life and death.

Editorial censorship has long obscured Goethe's Roman Elegies, which were inspired by Goethe's sexual liberation in Italy and his love for the woman he took as his unofficial wife on his return to Germany. They are here presented as Goethe boldly conceived them, together with the long-supressed narrative poem known as The Diary. Completing the edition is a selection from Goethe's more light-hearted and much censored cycle of erotica, the Venetian Epigrams. An illuminating Introduction by Hans Vaget provides the background to these poems, as well as showing some of the profound and little-known connections between them.

The Old English Baron (1778) is an ambitious rewriting of Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto, transporting the trappings of the Gothic to medieval England. The noble hero endures many adventures of romantic horror in order to obtain his rightful heritage, and the story concludes with a dramatic day of retribution. Reeve's book is increasingly recognized as a major influence on the development of Gothic fiction.

Mr Verloc, the secret agent, is involved in an anarchist plot to blow up the Greenwich Observatory which goes disastrously wrong. Based on the text which Conrad's first English readers enjoyed, this new edition includes a critical introduction which describes Conrad's great London novel as the realization of a 'monstrous town', a place of idiocy, madness, criminality, and butchery.

This new edition of one of Shakespeare's greatest history plays offers a freshly considered text fully alert to its intense theatrical aspects. A helpful Introduction discusses the play's structure, language, and performance history, and the notes provide an illuminating commentary on details of the text.

This groundbreaking new translation of The Interpretation of Dreams is the first to be based on the original text published in November 1899. It restores Freud's original argument, unmodified by revisions he made following the book's critical reception. Reading the first edition reveals Freud's original emphasis on the use of words in dreams and on the difficulty of deciphering them and Joyce Crick captures with far greater immediacy and accuracy thanprevious translations by Strachey's Freud's emphasis and terminology. An accessible introduction by Ritchie Robertson summarizes and comments on Freud's argument and relates it to his early work. Close annotation explains Freud's many autobiographical, literary and historical allusions and makes this the firstedition to present Freud's early work in its full intellectual and cultural context.

The Rainbow chronicles the lives of three generations of the Brangwen family over a period of more than 60 years, setting them against the emergence of modern England. In her introduction to this edition Kate Flint illuminates Lawrence's aims and achievements against the background of the burgeoning century.

The poems have been rendered into vigorous contemporary English. A selection of Michelangelo's letters, many of them to important contemporaries such as Vasari and Duke Cosimo, is accompanied by the `Life' of the great artist written by his pupil Ascanio Condivi.

The modern, unacademic idiom of A.D. Melville's translation opens the way to a fresh understanding of Ovid's unique and elusive vision of reality.

Frederick Ahl's new translation captures the excitement, poetic energy, and intellectual force of Virgil's epic poem in a way that has never been done before. Echoing the Virgilian hexameter the verse stays almost line for line with the original in a thrillingly accurate and engaging style.

Louise de la Valli re is the middle section of The Vicomte de Bragelonne, or, Ten Years After. Against a tender love story, Dumas continues the suspense which began with The Vicomte de Bragelonne and will end with The Man in the Iron Mask. Set during the reign of Louis XIV and filled with behind-the-scenes intrigue, the novel brings the aging Musketeers and d'Artagnan out of retirement to face an impending crisis within the royal court of France. This new edition of the classic English translation is richly annotated and places Dumas's invigorating tale in its historical and cultural context.

Thomas Hardy is among the best loved of the great English poets. The new selection of his work made by Samuel Hynes represents all of Hardy's verse collections and gives generous samples from his finest.

This volume contains new translations of four of Pushkin's best works of fiction. The Queen of Spades has long been acknowledged as one of the world's greatest short stories, in which Pushkin explores the nature of obsession. The Tales of Belkin are witty parodies of sentimentalism, while Peter the Great's Blackamoor is an early experiment with recreating the past. The Captain's Daughter is a novel-length masterpiece which combineshistorical fiction in the manner of Sir Walter Scott with the devices of the Russian fairy-tale. The introduction provides close readings of the stories and places them in their European literary context.