Books in the OPUS series

Concentrates on the ideas and practices which constitute the common heritage of the different traditions of Buddhism. From the narrative of the story of the Buddha, through discussions of aspects such as textual traditions, the framework of the Four Noble Truths, this work provides an introduction to Buddhism.

In this survey, Mary Warnock considers the contributions made to Existentialism by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Husserl, and discusses at length the works of Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre. This revised edition includes a postscript reviewing the status of Existentialism in the 1990s, and has a thoroughly updated bibliography.

An analysis of a number of different cultures which takes particular interest in the individual and collective pursuit of self-interest. Singer looks at whether or not selfishness is in our genes and how we may find greater satisfaction in an ethical lifestyle. This volume is one of the OPUS series.

Covering the time since the end of World War II, this book offers a survey of the fortunes and features of East and West Germany - how the two states drifted apart; the differences between their economies, politics, and cultures; and the problems and events surrounding their unification.

This acclaimed book provides a sound, reliable, and balanced introduction to Plato's work that also enables the reader to understand who the man was, the world he lived in, what he was attempting to do, and the reasons why his writings are still important today.

The later years of Elizabeth and the reign of James I were the age of Shakespeare, but also the age of Sidney, Spenser, and Donne, of dramatists Marlowe, Jonson, and Webster, and of prose writers Nashe, Bacon and Burton. This study examines the social conditions which produced this array of talent.

In the OPUS series, second revised edition of a history of France from the Wars of Religion to the death of Louis XIV. Incorporating new material drawn from recent scholarship, describes the major political events and analyses the factors influencing the evolution of state and society in this decisive period of French history.

In this title, P.S. Atiyah introduces the reader to a number of fundamental issues about the law, the legal profession, and the adjudicative process. He also discusses the effect of membership of the EC on our law, the recent controversy over the independence of the judiciary, and the problems arising from the cost of legal services and legal aid.

Introduces the reader to the benefits of applying precise analytical methods to the criticism of texts. This revised and updated edition contains more 20th-century texts and examples for analysis and discussion, and an expanded section on the reader's role in literary criticism.

A handbook for those who are interested in the novel and American culture. It provides an examination of the modern American novel, offering an account of the multiplicity and variety of contemporary American fiction, along with a critical survey of the fictional scene from the 1890s to the early 1990s.

The 20th century has been a time of tremendous social change and development in Japan. This study outlines the role of the ordinary Japanese citizen in modern Japanese history, exploring the rapidly altering relationship between the state and its people.

This book provides an up-to-date introduction to aesthetics for the general reader, with particular emphasis on literature.

A study not of the institution of the Church but of Christianity itself, this book explores the Christian people, their beliefs, and their way of life, providing a new understanding of Western Christianity at the time of the Reformation.

This highly influential study takes a fresh look at one of the most fertile periods in English literature, a period wich produced writers such as Blake, Keats, Coleridge, and Austen. Marilyn Butler shows that one of the most dynamic and stressful periods of modern history fostered a literature that was itself various and contradictory.

The long 18th century was characterized by the gradual erosion of consensual politics: the transfer from a cross-class consensus based on the Whig/Tory divide to divisions based instead on the notion that the state privileged the interests of certain social groups over others.

This work describes the income and wealth of Britain between 1830-1914, its growth, and how that wealth was produced by and distributed between different people in the population. Britain's role as the world's major trading nation, was an exceptional time in the history of the country.