Essäer & Reportage

'Pain and pleasure are simple ideas, incapable of definition.' In 1757 the 27-year-old Edmund Burke argued that our aesthetic responses are experienced as pure emotional arousal, …

This authoritative edition was originally published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together an extensive collection …

Love and loyalty, hatred and revenge, fear, deprivation, and political ambition: these are the motives which thrust the characters portrayed in these three Sophoclean masterpieces …

The Pancatantra is the most famous collection of fables in India and was one of the earliest Indian books to be translated into Western languages. No other Indian work has had a …

'That was how things stood in the city at the time. With no one in charge, murders were taking place almost every day and the elections could not be held.' Books 36-40 of the Roman …

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 …

'any service I may have rendered my countrymen in my active life I may also extend to them... now that I am at leisure' Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), Rome's greatest orator, …

'The story goes that a sow who had delivered a whole litter of piglets loudly accosted a lioness. "How many children do you breed?" asked the sow. "I breed only one", said the …

William Wordsworth's Guide to the Lakes gives a first-hand account of his feelings about the unique countryside that was the source of his inspiration. He addresses concerns that …

Few individuals have shaped their country's civilization more profoundly than the Master Kong (Confucius, 551-479 BC). Compulsory reading in the late Imperial period for all who …