Oxford University Press strana 261 z 333

This book is intended to capture the interest of anyone who has been attracted to Russian culture through the greats of Russian literature, either through the texts themselves, or encountering them in the cinema, or opera. Rather than a conventional chronology of Russian literature, the book will explore the place and importance of literature of all sorts in Russian culture. How and when did a Russian national literature come into being? What shaped its creation? How have the Russians regarded their literary language? The book uses the figure of Pushkin, 'the Russian Shakespeare' as a recurring example, as his work influenced every Russian writer who came after him, whether poets or novelists. It will look at such questions as why Russian writers are venerated, how they've been interpreted inside Russia and beyond, and the influences of such things as the folk tale tradition, orthodox religion, and the West.

This is a helpful guide to the essentials students need in the first stages of learning English.

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

In the final years of the seventeenth century in a small New England town, the venerable Colonel Pyncheon decides to erect a ponderously oak-framed and spacious family mansion. It occupies the spot where Matthew Maule, `an obscure man', had lived in a log hut, until his execution for witchcraft. From the scaffold, Maule points his finger at the presiding Colonel and cries `God will give him blood to drink!' The fate of Colonel Pyncheon exerts a heavy influence on his descendants in the crumbling mansion for the next century and a half. Hawthorne called his novel a `Romance', drawing on the Gothic tradition which embraced and exploited the thrills of the supernatural. Unlike The Scarlet Letter, with its unrelentingly dark view of human natur e and guilt, Hawthorne sought to write `a more natural and healthy product of my mind', a story which would show guilt to be a trick of the imagination. The tension between fantasy and a new realism underpins the novel's descriptive virtuosity.

This new edition of one of Shakespeare's greatest history plays offers a helpful Introduction to the play's structure, language, and performance history, and notes that provide an illuminating commentary on details of the text.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.

An easy-to-teach course for pupils aged 10-14.

This concise, illustrated dictionary of Shakespeariana, compiled by one of the best-known authorities on his works, contains alphabetically arranged entries guiding the reader to a wealth of information on all aspects of Shakespeare in his own time and on his impact and influence on later ages. Stanley Wells provides clear entries on: Shakespeare's life and times, the sources and early publication of his works, their performance history on stage and screen, actors such as Edmund Kean and Kenneth Branagh, and writers especially associated with them, operas and other musical works deriving from them, theaters, editions, international Shakespeare organizations--in short, on all aspects of Shakespearean interest. The volume is complemented by a series of striking pronouncements about Shakespeare over the ages from Jane Austen to Bernard Levin, tables providing interesting facts about the plays, famous documents bearing Shakespeare's signature, and a useful guide to further reading.

Cross-curricular topics and colour photos make learning English through other subjects exciting with these new non-fiction graded readers for primary – 8-year-olds and up.

In the stories in this volume Dostoevsky explores both the figure of the dreamer divorced from reality and also his own ambiguous attitude to utopianism, themes central to many of his great novels. In White Nights the apparent idyll of the dreamer's romantic fantasies disguises profound loneliness and estrangement from 'living life'. Despite his sentimental friendship with Nastenka, his final withdrawal into the world of the imagination anticipates the retreat into the 'underground' of many of D ostoevsky's later intellectual heroes. A Gentle Creature and The Dream of a Ridiculous Man show how such withdrawal from reality can end in spiritual desolation and moral indifference and how, in Dostoevsky's view, the tragedy of the alienated indivi dual can be resolved only by the rediscovery of a sense of compassion and responsibility towards fellow human beings. This new translation captures the power and lyricism of Dostoevsky's writing, while the introduction examines the stories in relatio n to one another and to his novels.

This is a three-level course with a higher vocabulary load and more reading than most primary courses.

'Love is nothing without feeling. And feeling is still less without love.' Celebrated in its own day as the progenitor of 'a school of sentimental writers', A Sentimental Journey (1768) has outlasted its many imitators because of the humour and mischievous eroticism that inform Mr Yorick's travels. Setting out to journey to France and Italy he gets little further than Lyons but finds much to appreciate, in contrast to contemporary travel writers whom Sterne satirizes in the figures of Smelfungus and Mundungus. A master of ambiguity and double entendre, Sterne is nevertheless as concerned as his peers with exploring the nature of virtue; unlike other writers of sentimental fiction Sterne insists on the inseparability of desire and feeling. This new edition includes a selection from The Sermons of Mr Yorick, which shed light on the concerns of the Journey, The Journal to Eliza, which records Sterne's feelings as he languishes for the company of Eliza Draper, and A Political Romance, the satire on a local ecclesiastical squabble that was the catalyst for Sterne's literary career.

The four Walker children never meant to go to sea. They had promised their mother to stay safely in the harbour, and to be home on Friday in time for tea. But there they are in someone else's boat, drifting out to sea in a thick fog. When the fog lifts, they can turn round and sail back to the harbour. But then comes the wind and the storm, driving them out even further across the cold North Sea ...

Authoritative and up-to-the-minute, this edition of the Oxford Colour German Dictionary Plus has been revised to include the very latest vocabulary, covering over 100,000 words, phrases, and translations. Packed with extra features, the dictionary includes a fascinating A-Z of life and culture in the German-speaking world, handy sample letters and emails, and helpful guidance on grammar and pronunciation, making it the perfect reference for students and holiday-makers alike. In addition, it offers word games to help improve your dictionary skills and your vocabulary, German verb tables, and tips on usage. Colour headwords make the dictionary clear, accessible, and easy to use, and its durable cover means that it's ideal for use at home and school, and while travelling. This edition replaces the previous ISBN: 0-19-864561-9.

Part of the leading Oxford Paperback Reference series, A-Z Countries of the World is an up-to-date handbook providing a brief overview of each country in the world. Maps and geographical details, given along with the contemporary social, economic, religious and political issues that shape each country, give the reader a compact yet thorough understanding of all the countries in the world, from Argentina to Zimbabwe. Up-to-the-minute data on the main economic and social indicators of each country, such as GNP, life expectancy, and population growth and density, is also included. An important reference tool for anyone in need of current, vital statistics on any nation.

This story is set in England and Scotland in the 1500s. Two famous queens - Mary, the Catholic Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I, the Protestant Queen of England. It was an exciting and a dangerous time to be alive, and to be a queen. Mary was Queen of Scotland when she was one week old. At sixteen, she was also Queen of France. She was tall and beautiful, with red-gold hair. Many men loved her and died for her. But she also had many enemies - men who said: 'The death of Mary is the life of Elizabeth.'

In the mountains of Transylvania there stands a castle. It is the home of Count Dracula a dark, lonely place, and at night the wolves howl around the walls. In the year 1875 Jonathan Harker comes from England to do business with the Count. But Jonathan does not feel comfortable at Castle Dracula. Strange things happen at night, and very soon, he begins to feel afraid. And he is right to be afraid, because Count Dracula is one of the Un-Dead a vampire that drinks the blood of living people