The Peloponnesian War (Oxford World's Classics)

George Cawkwell

The "Greek Wars" treats of the whole course of Persian relations with the Greeks from the coming of Cyrus in the 540s down to Alexander the Great's defeat of Darius III in 331 BC. Cawkwell discusses from a Persian perspective major questions such as why Xerxes' invasion of Greece failed, and how important a part the Great King played in Greek affairs in the fourth century. Cawkwell's views are at many points original: in particular, his explanation of how and why the Persian invasion of Greece failed challenges the prevailing orthodoxy, as does his view of the importance of Persia in Greek affairs for the two decades after the King's Peace. Persia, he concludes, was destroyed by Macedonian military might but moral decline had no part in it; the Macedonians who had subjected Greece were too good an army, but their victory was not easy Lire plus…

Edward Gibbon, David P. Womersley, David P. Womersley

Commonly acknowledged as one of the earliest first-hand written accounts of history, this classic work chronicles the war between Athens and Sparta during the fifth century B.C. Its author, Thucydides, dispassionately and accurately describes the events of this ancient Greek war in a strict chronology which includes the causes of the conflict, descriptions of battlefield strategy, political opinions, and all other aspects of the war in the brilliant detail of an intellectual and observant eyewitness. Himself an Athenian general who served in the war, Thucydides relates the invasions, treacheries, plagues, amazing speeches, ambitions, virtues, and emotions of the conflict between two of Greece's most dominant city-states in a work that has the feel of a great tragic drama. Though, in part an analysis of war policy, "The History of the Peloponnesian War" is also a dramatic account of the rise and fall of Athens by an Athenian. As such, it provides a historical warning for modern military, political, and international relations Lire plus…

Millican, Peter J. R.;hume, David

This volume earns the names "thin" and "compendious" at the same time. In typical Oxford fashion, it contains not merely the original text and modern notes, but a collection of further relevant appendices, including an abstract from the later "Treatise of Human Nature", an essay on the "soul" intended for the Enquiry but published separately later, posthumous dialogues concerning the subject matter, excerpts from Hume's letters which address the Enquiry, a short autobiography published in the year of Hume's death, and glossaries and multiple indices. Hume appears to have regretted his publication at such an unripe age of the Enquiry, which at first did not sell well and brought still-dangerous accusations of atheism. Indeed, the accusation of atheism could still be lethal in contemporary Europe, and Hume always approaches the subject indirectly, including pro-forma acknowledgements of a Creator, with his more daring work published separately as anonymous or posthumous essays. Nevertheless, his early work built up a following in later years and ultimately rendered him financially independent. The fundamental achievement of this work must be its strong philosophical case for empiricism as the basis of all knowledge of the world that is worth the name. "When we run over libraries, persuaded of these principles, what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any volume, of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance, let us ask, 'Does it contain any abstract reasoning... Lire plus…

Aristotle, Lesley Brown, David Ross

A student of Plato and a teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle is one of the towering figures in Western thought. A brilliant thinker with wide-ranging interests, he wrote important works in physics, biology, poetry, politics, morality, metaphysics, and ethics. In the Nicomachean Ethics , which he is said to have dedicated to his son Nicomachus, Aristotle's guiding question is what is the best thing for a human being? His answer is happiness. "Happiness," he wrote, "is the best, noblest, and most pleasant thing in the world." But he means not something we feel, not an emotion, but rather an especially good kind of life . Happiness is made up of activities in which we use the best human capacities, both ones that contribute to our flourishing as members of a community, and ones that allow us to engage in god-like contemplation. Contemporary ethical writings on the role and importance of the moral virtues such as courage and justice have drawn inspiration from this work, which also contains important discussions on responsibility, practical reasoning, and on the role of friendship in creating the best life. This new edition combines David Ross's classic translation, lightly revised by Lesley Brown, with a new and invaluable introduction and explanatory notes. A glossary of key terms and comprehensive index, as well as a fully updated bibliography, add further value to this exceptional new edition. Lire plus…

Charles Dickens, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Charles Dickens

perhaps Dickens's Best-loved Work, great Expectations Tells The Story Of Pip, A Young Man With Few Prospects For Advancement Until A Mysterious Benefactor Allows Him To Escape The Kent Marshes For A More Promising Life In London. Despite His Good Fortune, Pip Is Haunted By Figures From His Past—the Escaped Convict Magwitch, The Time-withered Miss Havisham, And Her Proud And Beautiful Ward, Estella—and In Time Uncovers Not Just The Origins Of His Great Expectations But The Mystery Of His Own Heart. A Powerful And Moving Novel, great Expectations Is Suffused With Dickens's Memories Of The Past And Its Grip On The Present, And It Raises Disturbing Questions About The Extent To Which Individuals Affect Each Other's Lives. This Edition Reprints The Definitive Clarendon Text. Robert Douglas-fairhurst's New Introduction Ranges Widely Across Critical Issues Raised By The Novel: Its Biographical Genesis, Ideas Of Origin And Progress And What Makes A Gentleman, Memory, Melodrama, And The Book's Critical Reception. The Book Includes Four Appendices And The Fullest Set Of Critical Notes In Any Mass-market Edition. july 20, 1861 - Saturday Review mr. Dickens May Be Reasonably Proud Of These Volumes.... He Has Written A Story That Is New, Original, Powerful And Very Entertaining.... It Is In His Best Vein, And Although It Is Too Slight, And Bears Many Traces Of Hasty Writing, It Is Quite Worthy To Stand Beside martin Chuzzlewit And david Copperfield . Lire plus…

Simon Hornblower

This is the first volume of a three-volume historical and literary commentary on the eight books of Thucydides, the great fifth-century BC historian of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Of the three books covered in this volume, Book I presents Thucydides' aims in writing the work and the historical background to the war. Books II and III describe the main events of the first five years of the war (431-426) and include Pericles' funeral oration, the plague of Athens, the revolt of Mytilene, the destruction of Plataea, and civil war in Corcyra. Thucydides intended his work to be "an everlasting Possession" and the continuing importance of his work is undisputed. Simon Hornblower's commentary, by translating every passage or phrase of Greek commented on, for the first time allows the reader with little or no Greek to appreciate the detail of Thucydides' thought and subject-matter. It is the first complete commentary written by a single author this century and explores both the historical and literary aspects of the work. A full index is provided at the end of the volume. Lire plus…

Herodotus; Thucydides; Xenophon; Polybius; M. I Finley; George Rawlinson; Richard Crawley; J. S Watson; Evelyn S Shuckburgh

Essential passages from the works of four fathers of history-Herodotus's History , Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War , Xenophon's Anabasis , and Polybius's Histories . Lire plus…

René Descartes; Translated With An Introduction And Notes By Michael Moriarty

Here is a brilliant new translation of Descartes's Meditations , one of the most influential books in the history of Western philosophy, including the full texts of the Third and Fourth Objections and Replies, and a selection from the other exchanges. Discovering his own existence as a thinking entity in the very exercise of doubt--in the famous formulation cogito, ergo sum --Descartes goes on to develop new conceptions of body and mind, capable of serving as foundations for a new science of nature. Subsequent philosophy has grappled with Descartes's ideas, but his arguments set the agenda for many of the greatest philosophical thinkers, and their fascination endures. This new translation pays particular attention to Descartes's terminology and style, with its elaborate but beautifully lucid syntax, careful balancing, and rhetorical signposting. The wide-ranging introduction places the work in the intellectual context of the time and discusses the nature of the work, its structure, key issues, and its influence on later thinkers. The book also includes notes, an up-to-date bibliography, a chronology, and an index. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum 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, voluminous notes to... Lire plus…

Thucydides; With An English Translation By Charles Forster Smith

Thucydides of Athens, one of the greatest of historians, was born about 471 BCE. He saw the rise of Athens to greatness under the inspired leadership of Pericles. In 430, the second year of the Peloponnesian War, he caught and survived the horrible plague which he described so graphically. Later, as general in 423 he failed to save Amphipolis from the enemy and was disgraced. He tells about this, not in volumes of self-justification, but in one sentence of his history of the war—that it befell him to be an exile for twenty years. He then lived probably on his property in Thrace, but was able to observe both sides in certain campaigns of the war, and returned to Athens after her defeat in 404. He had been composing his famous history, with its hopes and horrors, triumphs and disasters, in full detail from first-hand knowledge of his own and others. The war was really three conflicts with one uncertain peace after the first; and Thucydides had not unified them into one account when death came sometime before 396. His history of the first conflict, 431–421, was nearly complete; Thucydides was still at work on this when the war spread to Sicily and into a conflict (415–413) likewise complete in his awful and brilliant record, though not fitted into the whole. His story of the final conflict of 413–404 breaks off (in the middle of a sentence) when dealing with the year 411. So his work was left unfinished and as a whole unrevised. Yet in brilliance of description and depth of... Lire plus…

Edward Gibbon, David Womersley (Ed.)

Edward Gibbon FRS (8 May 1737] – 16 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its polemical criticism of organised religion.Spanning thirteen centuries from the age of Trajan to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, "Decline & Fall" is one of the greatest narratives in European Literature. David Womersley's masterly selection and bridging commentary enables the reader to acquire a general sense of the progress and argument of the whole work and displays the full variety of Gibbon's achievement. Lire plus…

Franz Kafka; Translated By Joyce Crick; With An Introduction And Notes By Ritchie Robertson

It is one of the most memorable first lines in all of literature: When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into some kind of monstrous vermin. So begins Kafka's famous short story, The Metamorphosis. Kafka considered publishing More ... it with two of the stories included here in a volume to be called Punishments. The Judgment explores an enigmatic power struggle between a father and son, while In the Penal Colony examines questions of power, justice, punishment, and the meaning of pain in a colonial setting. These three stories are flanked by two very different works. Meditation, the first book Kafka published, consists of light, whimsical, often poignant mood-pictures, while the autobiographical Letter to his Father analyzes his difficult relationship with his father in devastating detail. This new translation by Joyce Crick pays particular attention to the nuances of Kafka's style, and the Introduction and notes by Ritchie Robertson provide guidance to this most enigmatic and rewarding of writers. There is also a Biographical Preface, an up-to-date bibliography, and a chronology of Kafka's life. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum 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,... Lire plus…

M. A. S. Abdel Haleem (Trans.)

One of the most influential books in the history of literature, recognized as the greatest literary masterpiece in Arabic, the Qur'an is the supreme authority and living source of all Islamic teaching, the sacred text that sets out the creed, rituals, ethics, and laws of Islam. Yet despite the growing interest in Islamic teachings and culture, there has never been a truly satisfactory English translation of the Qur'an, until now.This superb new translation of the Qur'an is written in contemporary language that remains faithful to the meaning and spirit of the original, making the text crystal clear while retaining all of this great work's eloquence. The translation is accurate and completely free from the archaisms, incoherence, and alien structures that mar existing translations. Thus, for the first time, English-speaking readers will have a text of the Qur'an which is easy to use and comprehensible. Furthermore, Haleem includes notes that explain geographical, historical, and personal allusions as well as an index in which Qur'anic material is arranged into topics for easy reference. His introduction traces the history of the Qur'an, examines its structure and stylistic features, and considers issues related to militancy, intolerance, and the subjection of women.Clearly written and filled with helpful information and guidance, this brilliant translation of the Qur'an is the best available introduction to the faith of Moslems around the world. About the Series: For... Lire plus…

Wharton, Edith

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton's most famous novel, is a love story, written immediately after the end of the First World War. Its brilliant anatomization of the snobbery and hypocrisy of the wealthy elite of New York society in the 1870s made it an instant classic, and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. Newland Archer, Wharton's protagonist, charming, tactful, enlightened, is a thorough product of this society; he accepts its standards and abides by its rules but he also recognizes its limitations. His engagement to the impeccable May Welland assures him of a safe and conventional future, until the arrival of May's cousin Ellen Olenska. Independent, free-thinking, scandalously separated from her husband, Ellen forces Archer to question the values and assumptions of his narrow world. As their love for each other grows, Archer has to decide where his ultimate loyalty lies. Stephen Orgel's introduction and notes set the novel in the context of the period and discusses Wharton's skilfull weaving of characters and plot, her anthropological exactitude, and the novel's autobiographical overtones. Lire plus…

Nathaniel Hawthorne; Edited With Notes By Brian Harding; With A New Introduction By Cindy Weinstein

Thou And Thine, Hester Prynne, Belong To Me. With These Chilling Words A Husband Claims His Wife After A Two-year Absence. But The Child She Clutches Is Not His, And Hester Wears A Scarlet A Upon Her Breast, The Sign Of Adultery Visible To All. Under An Assumed Name, Her Husband Begins His Vindictive Search For Her Lover, Determined To Expose What Hester Is Equally Determined To Protect. Defiant And Proud, Hester Witnesses The Degradation Of Two Very Different Men, As Moral Codes And Legal Imperatives Painfully Collide. Set In The Puritan Community Of Seventeenth-century Boston, The Scarlet Letter Also Sheds Light On The Nineteenth Century In Which It Was Written, As Hawthorne Explores His Ambivalent Relations With His Puritan Forebears. The Text Of This Edition Is Taken From The Centenary Edition Of Hawthorne's Works, The Most Authoritative Critical Edition. It Includes A New, Wide-ranging Introduction That Sheds Light On The Novel's Autobiographical, Historical, And Literary Contexts, A Comprehensive And Up-to-date Bibliography, And Thorough Notes That Provide Essential Information On Puritan And Nineteenth-century Life. - Publisher. Introduction -- Note On The Text -- Select Bibliography -- A Chronology Of Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter -- Explanatory Notes. Nathaniel Hawthorne ; Edited With Notes By Brian Harding ; With A New Introduction By Cindy Weinstein. First Published As An Oxford World's Classics Paperback In 1990. Includes Bibliographical References... Lire plus…

Cornelius Tacitus, Anthony A. Barrett

Here is a lively new translation of Cornelius Tacitus' timeless history of three of Rome's most memorable emperors. Tacitus, who condemns the depravity of these rulers, which he saw as proof of the corrupting force of absolute power, writes caustically of the brutal and lecherous Tiberius, the weak and cuckolded Claudius, and "the artist" Nero. In particular, his gripping account of the bloody reigns of Tiberius and Nero brims with plots, murder, poisoning, suicide, uprisings, death, and destruction. The Annals also provides a vivid account of the violent suppression of the revolt led by Boudicca in Britain, the great fire of Rome under Nero, and the subsequent bloody persecution of the Christians. J. C. Yardley's translation is vivid without sacrificing accuracy, and is based on the recent Latin Heubner text, with variations noted in an appendix. Anthony A. Barrett's introduction and notes provide invaluable historical and cultural context. This superb edition also includes maps, a glossary of Roman terms and place names, and a full index of names and places. Lire plus…

Polybius, Robin Waterfield, Brian Mcging

Here is the first new translation for over thirty years of Polybius' Histories, the major source for our knowledge of the Eternal City's early rise to power, covering the years of the Second Punic War, the defeat of Hannibal, and Rome's pivotal victories in the Mediterranean. Polybius, himself a leading Greek politician of the time, attributes Rome's success to the greatness of its constitution and the character of its people, but also allows Fortune a role in shaping world events. This new translation by Robin Waterfield includes the first five books in their entirety, and all of the fragmentary Books 6 and 12. Brian McGing's lucid introduction discusses the period covered by the Histories, Polybius' major role in the reconstruction of Greece after the defeat of the Achaean League, the themes and subject matter of the individual books, Polybius' outspoken views on how (and how not), and his significance for historiography. The book also includes succinct, clear notes, maps, a glossary, and an index of proper names.About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum 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, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. Lire plus…

Edited And Translated With Introduction And Notes By Stephanie Dalley

The ancient civilization of Mesopotamia thrived between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates over 4,000 years ago. The myths collected here, originally written in cuneiform on clay tablets, include parallels with the biblical stories of the Creation and the Flood, and the famous Epic of Gilgamesh, the tale of a man of great strength, whose heroic quest for immortality is dashed through one moment of weakness.Recent developments in Akkadian grammar and lexicography mean that this new translation--complete with notes, a glossary of deities, place-names, and key terms, and illustrations of the mythical monsters featured in the text--will replace all other versions.About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum 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, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. Lire plus…

Herodotus, David Lateiner (Translator), G.c. Macauley (Translator)

The Histories , by Herodotus , is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics : New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. The world's first great narrative history, Herodotus 's The Histories vividly describes how the Greeks—few in number, poor, and disunited—managed to repulse a massive invasion by the powerful Persian army in the 5th century b.c. This amazing upset victory changed the course of western civilization, as the cities that led the resistance—Athens and... Lire plus…

Giorgio Vasari; Translated With An Introduction And Notes By Julia Conaway Bondanella And Peter Bondanella

These biographies of the great quattrocento artists have long been considered among the most important of contemporary sources on Italian Renaissance art. Vasari, who invented the term "Renaissance," was the first to outline the influential theory of Renaissance art that traces a progression through Giotto, Brunelleschi, and finally the titanic figures of Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, and Raphael. This new translation, specially commissioned for the World's Classics series, contains thirty-six of the most important lives and is fully annotated. Lire plus…