Oxford Paperbacks imprint: 70 books

The T�in B� Cuailnge, centre-piece of the eighth-century Ulster cycle of heroic tales, is Ireland's greatest epic. It tells the story of a great cattle-raid, the invasion of Ulster by the armies of Medb and Ailill, queen and king of Connacht, and their allies, seeking to carry off the great Brown...

In today's art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. In this book, Cynthia Freeland explains why innovation and controversy are valued in the arts, weaving together philosophy and art theory with many fascinating examples. She discusses blood, beauty, culture, money, museums, sex,...

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'. - ;'the first and greatest of English detective novels' T.S.Eliot A fabulous yellow diamond becomes the dangerous inheritance of Rachel Verinder....

The image of Poland has once again been impressed on European consciousness. Norman Davies provides a key to understanding the modern Polish crisis in this lucid and authoritative description of the nation's history. Beginning with the period since 1945, he travels back in time to highlight the long-term...

Niccolo Machiavelli taught that political leaders must be prepared to do evil that good may come of it, and his name has been a byword ever since for duplicity and immorality. Is his sinister reputation deserved? In answering this question Quentin Skinner focuses on three major works, The Prince,...

Drawing directly on her own unhappy experiences, Anne Bront--euml--;'s first-person narrative describes the almost unbelievable pressures endured by nineteenth-century governesses - the isolation, the frustration, and the insensitive and sometimes cruel treatment meted out by employers and their families....

The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was almost wholly neglected during his sane life, which came to an abrupt end in 1889. Since then he has been appropriated as an icon by an astonishingly diverse spectrum of people, whose interpretations of his thought range from the highly irrational...

A cipher message and a horrible murder in a Sussex village begin this dark and powerful tale as Holmes battles with the forces of the criminal mastermind, Professor Moriarty. Central to the novel lies the story of a terrorist brotherhood and the hold it acquired over an American mining valley. At the...

The Second World War is a compact but comprehensive and absorbing history of the war. It examines the causes of the war, how it was won and lost, and its far-reaching consequences for humanity. In tracing the key events of both the European and the Far Eastern wars, R. A. C. Parker outlines clearly...

The very first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet was also the first of Conan Doyle's books to be published. His two creations, Holmes, the master of the science of detection and Watson, the great detective's faithful companion, are immediately in fine form. The mystery itself, its solution plucked...

Nana opens in 1867, the year of the World Fair, when Paris, thronged by a cosmopolitan --eacute--;lite, was la Ville Lumi--egrave--;re, a perfect victim for Zola's scathing denunciation of hypocrisy and fin-de-si--egrave--;cle moral corruption. The fate of Nana, the Helen of Troy of the Second Empire,...

Ten years after the supposed death of Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls, Arthur Conan Doyle was to bow to popular pressure and breathe new life into his creation. To the astonishment of Dr Watson, and the delight of his readers, Holmes reappears in Baker Street to embark on a new series of adventures....

Kant is arguably the most influential modern philosopher, but also one of the most difficult. Roger Scruton tackles his exceptionally complex subject with a strong hand, exploring the background to Kant's work and showing why the Critique of Pure Reason has proved so enduring.

`The only novel of mine that I considered...at all to count'. Ford's study of the complex social and sexual relationship between an Edwardian English and American couple is narrated in such a seemingly haphazard way that it has perplexed and delighted readers since its publication in 1915. Despite its...