Books in the Oxford World's Classics series

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (commonly known as Fanny Hill), the most famous erotic novel in English, was denounced by its author as 'a Book I disdain to defend, and wish, from my soul, buried and forgot'. Cleland's critics too condemned the 'infamous' and 'poisonous' novel when it first appeared in 1748-9. But the proliferation of editions, adaptations, and translations since then bears witness not only to the popularity of scandalous novels, but also to the book's literary merit. Recounted with a lively use of metaphor and some curiously moral asides, Fanny Hill's boisterous education as a London prostitute never quite effaces the ingenuous charm of her country upbringing, and her story places her among the great heroines of eighteenth-century literature. 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.

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.

This new translation successfully combines a feeling for the formal proprieties of Dumas's style with a supple and colloquial liveliness that once again proves this story irresistible.

Alexandre Dumas's novels are notable for their suspense and excitement, their foul deeds, hairsbreadth escapes, and glorious victories. In The Black Tulip (1850), the shortest of Dumas's most famous tales, the real hero is no Musketeer, but a flower. The novel - a deceptively simple story - is set in Holland in 1672, and weaves the historical events surrounding the brutal murder of John de Witte and his brother Cornelius into a tale of romantic love. The novel is also a timeless political allegory in which Dumas, drawing on the violence and crimes of history, makes his case against tyranny and puts all his energies into creating a symbol of justice and tolerance: the fateful tulipa negra.This new edition reprints the first, classic English translation. David Coward sets the novel in the context of its author's life, the turbulent history of the Dutch Republic, and the amazing `tulipmania' of the seventeenth century which brought wealth to some and ruin to many.

The De Doctrina Christiana ("On Christian Teaching") is one of Augustine's most important works on the classical tradition. Undertaken at the same time as the Confessions, it sheds light on the development of Augustine's thought, especially in the areas of ethics, hermeneutics, and sign-theory. This completely new translation gives a close but updated representation of Augustine's thought and expression, while a succinct introduction and select bibliography present the insights of recent research.

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.

This authoritative edition was formerly published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Wordsworth's poetry and prose - all the major poems, complemented by important letters, prefaces, and essays - to give the essence of his work and thinking.

The Doctor's Wife is Mary Elizabeth Braddon's rewriting of Flaubert's Madame Bovary in which she explores her frustrated heroine's sense of entrapment and alienation in middle-class provincial life. This is the only edition of a fascinating work, and reproduces uncut the first edition of 1864.

Book Two of Rumi's Masnavi is concerned with the challenges facing the follower of Sufi enlightenment. It interweaves stories and homilies in order to instruct followers of Rumi, the great thirteenth-century Muslim mystic. Jawid Mojaddedi's sparkling new verse translation follows his prize-winning edition of Book One.

''My empire is of the imagination.'' These are the words of Ayesha, the mysterious white queen of a Central African tribe, whose dread title, ''She-who-must-be-obeyed'', testifies to her undying beauty and magical powers; but they serve equally well to describe the hold of her author, Henry Rider Haggard, on generations of readers. Writing ''at white heat'', and in the flush of success after the publication of King Solomon''s Mines, Haggard drew again on his knowledge of Africa and of ancient legends, but also on something deeper and more disturbing. To the Englishmen who journey through shipwreck, fever, and cannibals to her hidden realm, ''She'' is the goal of a quest bequeathed to them two thousand years before; to Haggard''s readers, ''She'' is the embodiment of one of the most potent and ambivalent figures ofWestern mythology, a female who is both monstrous and desirable - and, without question, deadlier than the male. 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.

''Thus, gentle Reader, I have given thee a faithful History of my Travels for Sixteen Years, and above Seven Months; wherein I have not been so studious of Ornament as of Truth.''In these words Gulliver represents himself as a reliable reporter of the fantastic adventures he has just set down; but how far can we rely on a narrator whose identity is elusive and whoses inventiveness is self-evident? Gulliver''s Travels purports to be a travel book, and describes Gulliver''s encounters with the inhabitants of four extraordinary places: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the country of the Houyhnhnms. A consummately skilful blend of fantasy and realism makesGulliver''s Travels by turns hilarious, frightening, and profound. Swift plays tricks on us, and delivers one of the world''s most disturbing satires of the human condition.This new edition includes the changing frontispiece portraits of Gulliver that appeared in successive early editions. 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.

"First published 1982 as Love and death, by the Folio Society"--T.p. verso.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is an archetypal American story of escape from home and family which traces a young man's rite of passage through a series of terrible brushes with death during a fateful sea voyage. But the plot also goes much deeper, as Pym encounters various interpretative dilemmas, and then leaves the reader with a broken-off ending that defies solution.

In this almost documentary account of his own experience of penal servitude in Siberia, Dostoevsky describes the physical and mental suffering of the convicts, the squalor, the degradation, in relentless detail - even down to the intricate procedure whereby the men strip for the bath without removing their ten-pound leg-fetters. The steam-bath scene itself, where the livid branded bodies seem to burn in the fires of Hell, is an extraordinary tour de force, compared by Trugenev to passages from Dante's 'Inferno.'

Sidney was in his early twenties when he wrote his 'Old' Arcadia for the amusement of his younger sister, the Countess of Pembroke. A romantic story in the manner of Shakespeare's early comedies, the 'Old' Arcadia also includes over 70 poems in a variety of meters and genres. This edition contains a Glossary and an Index of First Lines.

EVELINA TELLS THE STORY OF A YOUNG GIRL, FRESH FROM THE PROVINCES, WHOSE INITIATION INTO THE WAYS OF THE WORLD IS FREQUENTLY PAINFUL, THOUGH IT LEADS TO SELF-DISCOVERY, MORAL GROWTH, AND FINALLY, HAPPINESS. THIS NOVEL REVEALS SUPERBLY THE LIFE AND TEMPER OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND, AS SEEN THROUGH THE CURIOSITY OF IT YOUNG HEROINE.

''The woman is no good to me. Who''ll have her?''Michael Henchard is an out-of-work hay-trusser who gets drunk at a local fair and impulsively sells his wife Susan and baby daughter. Eighteen years later Susan and her daughter seek him out, only to discover that he has become the most prominent man in Casterbridge. Henchard attempts to make amends for his youthful misdeeds but his unchanged impulsiveness clouds his relationships in love as well as his fortunes in business. Although Henchard is fated to be a modern-day tragic hero, unable tosurvive in the new commercial world, his story is also a journey towards love.This edition is the only critically established text of the novel, based on a comprehensive study of the manuscript and Hardy''s extensive revisions. 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.

In this new translation the brilliant and impassioned descriptions of Augustine''s colourful early life are conveyed to the English reader with accuracy and art. Augustine tells of his wrestlings to master his sexual drive, his rare ascent from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of high power at the imperial court of Milan, and his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage as he recovered the faith that his mother had taught him. It was in a Milan garden that Augustine finally achieved the act of will to Christian conversion, which he compared to a lazy man in bed finally deciding it is time to get up and face the day. 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.

Aurora Leigh, now available in the first critically edited and fully annotated edition for almost a century, is the foremost example of the mid-nineteenth century poem of contemporary life. It is an amazing verse novel which provides a panoramic view of the early Victorian age in London. The dominant presence in the work however, is the narrator Aurora Leigh, as she develops her ideas on art, love, God, the "Woman Question," and society.

This new edition of Defoe's masterpiece includes a lively introduction by Tom Keymer, full notes and useful appendices, including a chronology of the action of the story and Defoe's most sustained commentary on it.

This edition brings together Jonson's four great comedies: Volpone, Epicene, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair. The texts of the plays have been newly edited, and there is a scholarly introduction, detailed annotation, and a glossary.

Following the fortunes of a group of painters and decorators and their families, and the attempts to arouse their political will by the Socialist visionary Frank Owen, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is both a highly entertaining story and a passionate appeal for a fairer way of life. Intellectually enlightening, deeply moving and gloriously funny (complete with exploding clergyman), The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a book that changes lives.

Widely regarded as one of Trollope's most successful later novels,He Knew He Was Right is a study of marriage and of sexual relationships cast against a background of agitation for women's rights.