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Since World War II and especially since the election of Pope John XXIII in 1958, the papacy--the oldest of all Western institutions--has attracted steadily growing interest from non-Christians as well as Christians. Written for people of every religious allegiance and none, J.N.D. Kelly's biographical dictionary presents a wealth of information about the papacy and the astonishing succession of churchmen who have loomed large on the world scene for almost two thousand years. It contains concise accounts not only of all the officially recognized popes from St. Peter to John Paul II, but also of all their irregularly elected rivals, the so-called antipopes. It also includes an appendix which records the once generally accepted, but long since discarded, legend that at some date in the ninth, tenth, or eleventh century a female pope called Joan existed. The Dictionary provides an entry for each pope and antipope which covers--except where (as in the early centuries) information is unavailable--his family and social background and pre-papal career, as well as his activities in office. Each entry has a separate select bibliography, usually including references to the primary source for the pope's life and his official acts. Arranged chronologically, the volume places each pope in the proper historical context and offers, in effect, a continuous history of the papacy. Based on careful research, but eminently readable, this reference work reveals an extraordinarily diverse group of men who have designated themselves as St. Peter's successors, and records their varying involvement in great power politics, personal or family aggrandizement, patronage of the arts, theological controversy, or spiritual leadership. It presents a graphic and moving picture of the fluctuating fortunes of the Christian Church centered in Rome, sometimes submerged by secular forces, but at other times, staging a spectacular revival and confronting the world (as today) with a daunting challenge.

I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.' Great Expectations charts the progress of Pip from childhood through often painful experiences to adulthood, as he moves from the Kent marshes to busy, commercial London, encoutering a variety of extraordinary characters ranging from Magwitch, the excaped convict, to Miss Havisham, locked up with her unhappy past and living with her ward, the arrogant, beautiful Estella. In this compelling story, Dickens shows the dangers of being driven by desire for wealth and social status. Pip must establish his own sense of self against the plans which others seem to have for him, and thus discover a firm set of values and priorities. Whether such values will allow one to prosper in the complex world of early Victorian England is, however, the major question posed by Great Expectations, one of Dicken's most fascinating, and disturbing, novels. This edition use the text of the Clarendon edition, with a new Introduction and Explanatory Notes. The Appendices give the original, discarded ending, Dicken's brief working notes, and the serial instalments and chapter divisions in different editions.

On a quiet sea, the biggest ship in the world is waiting. There is no noise from the engines. Up in the night sky there are hundreds of stars. Behind the ship, an iceburg - a great mountain of ice - goes slowly away into the black night. In the beautiful first-class rooms, rich passengers eat and listen to music. Down in the third-class cabins, families sleep. An exciting new life is waiting for them in America. But for many of the people in this small 'city on the sea', this is their last night alive...

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is the series of short stories that made the fortunes of the "Strand" magazine, in which they were first published, and won immense popularity for Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The detective is at the height of his powers and the volume is full of famous cases, including "The Red-Headed League", "The Blue Carbuncle", and "The Speckled Band". Although Holmes gained a reputation for infallibility, Conan Doyle showed his own realism and feminism by having the great detective defeated by Irene Adler - a woman - in the very first story, "A Scandal in Bohemia".

A two-year course, starting with listening and speaking and introducing the written word in the second year.

Based on Chaucer's Knight's Tale, the central themes of this humourous and moving play are the claims of love and friendship. The introduction to this new edition offers an illuminating account of Shakespeare's collaboration with his younger colleague John Fletcher, and there are full and helpful notes on unfamiliar words, stage business, allusions, and the play's often complex language.

New and improved edition of the challenging secondary course that prepares students for school-leaving exams.

Eugenia, Baroness M

Michael Allaby has thoroughly revised this bestselling volume, offering the most authoritative and up-to-date zoology dictionary available today. Allaby covers all aspects of the study of animals in more than 5,250 clearly written entries--many new to this edition, including alarm pheromone, Fick's laws, manometer, and synanthrope. Illustrated with many line drawings, the book defines terms from animal behavior, evolution, earth history, zoogeography, genetics, and physiology, provides full taxonomic coverage of arthropods and other invertebrates, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, and introduces new material on behavioral ecology and conservation biology. In many entries, he recommends web links, which are kept up to date through the Dictionary of Zoology's companion website. Finally, the book includes detailed appendices covering the universal genetic code, endangered animals, the geologic time scale, and SI units. An invaluable dictionary for students of zoology and the related fields of biological and biomedical sciences, A Dictionary of Zoology is also ideal for amateur naturalists and anyone with an interest in animals.

It came to me first of all, quite suddenly, as a sort of legendary tale, suggested by my recollection of having once, in early childhood, seen a linen-weaver with a bag on his back; but, as my mind dwelt on the subject, I became inclined to a more realistic treatment. Falsely accused, cut off from his past, Silas the weaver is reduced to a spider-like existence, endlessly weaving his web and hoarding his gold. Meanwhile, Godfrey Cass, son of the squire, contracts a secret marriage. While the village celebrates Christmas and New Year, two apparently inexplicable events occur: Silas loses his gold and finds a child on his hearth. The imaginative control George Eliot displays as her narrative gradually reveals causes and connections has rarely been surpassed. Silas Marner (1861) is the shortest and most immediately accessible of Eliot's novels. She takes the materials of legend and fairy tale and provides them with a historically precise setting, drawing on some of the most advanced ideas of her day in order to represent states of mind and belief at the limits of rational perception. This edition, which is based on the carefully corrected text George Eliot prepared a few months after the first edition, is accompanied by an introduction which illuminates the intellectual context of what has often been presented as a nostalgic, sentimental tale.

This novel, which has always been regarded as one of Scott's finest, opens with the Edinburgh riots of 1736. The people of the city have been infuriated by the actions of John Porteous, Captain of the Guard, and when they hear that his death has been reprieved by the distant monarch they ignore the Queen and resolve to take their own revenge. At the cente of the story is Edinburgh's forbidding Tolbooth prison, known by all as the Heart of Midlothian.

Graded 'read and do' fiction and non-fiction readers that teach children about the world around them.

Michael Allaby has thoroughly revised this bestselling volume, offering the most authoritative and up-to-date zoology dictionary available today. Allaby covers all aspects of the study of animals in more than 5,250 clearly written entries--many new to this edition, including alarm pheromone, Fick's laws, manometer, and synanthrope. Illustrated with many line drawings, the book defines terms from animal behavior, evolution, earth history, zoogeography, genetics, and physiology, provides full taxonomic coverage of arthropods and other invertebrates, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, and introduces new material on behavioral ecology and conservation biology. In many entries, he recommends web links, which are kept up to date through the Dictionary of Zoology's companion website. Finally, the book includes detailed appendices covering the universal genetic code, endangered animals, the geologic time scale, and SI units. An invaluable dictionary for students of zoology and the related fields of biological and biomedical sciences, A Dictionary of Zoology is also ideal for amateur naturalists and anyone with an interest in animals.

Zola wrote that 'my title speaks not merely of a war, but also of the crumbling of a regime and the end of a world'. The penultimate novel of the Rougon-Macquart cycle, La Débâcle (1892) takes as its subject the dramatic events of the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune of 1870-71. During Zola's lifetime it was the bestselling of all his novels, praised by contemporaries for its epic sweep as well as its attention to historical detail. The novel seeks to explain why the Second Empire ended in a crushing military defeat and revolutionary violence. It focuses on ordinary soldiers, showing their bravery and suffering in the midst of circumstances they cannot control. Zola's descriptions are some of the most powerful he ever wrote. He skilfully integrates his narrative of events and the fictional lives of his characters to provide the finest account of this tragic chapter in the history of France. Often compared to War and Peace, La Débâcle has been described as a 'seminal' work for all modern depictions of war.

With complete and authoritative notes by the translator, this intensely personal narrative tells of St. Augustine's rise from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of power at the imperial court in Milan. The lucid, modern language of this new translation makes this classic of Western literature accessible to today's audience.

Of all Jack London's fictions none have been so popular as his dog stories. In addition to The Call of the Wild, the epic tale of a Californian dog's adventures during the Klondike gold rush, this edition includes White Fang, and five famous short stories - 'Batard', 'Moon-Face', 'Brown Wolf', 'That Spot', and 'To Build a Fire.