|
|
|
Книги издательства «Oxford University Press»
|
Some of our greatest blessings come from madness Phaedrus is widely recognized as one of Plato's most profound and beautiful works. It takes the form of a dialogue between Socrates and Phaedrus and its ostensible subject is love, especially homoerotic love. Socrates reveals it to be a kind of divine madness that can allow our souls to grow wings and soar to their greatest heights. Then the conversation changes direction and turns to a discussion of rhetoric, which must be based on truth passionately sought, thus allying it to philosophy. The dialogue closes by denigrating the value of the written word in any context, compared to the living teaching of a Socratic philosopher. The shifts of topic and register have given rise to doubts about the unity of the dialogue, doubts which are addressed in the introduction to this volume. Full explanatory notes also elucidate issues throughout the dialogue that might puzzle a modern reader. |
|
How well do you really know your favourite author? Ace literary detective turned quizmaster John Sutherland challenges the reader to find out. Starting with easy, factual questions that test how well you remember a novel and its characters, the quiz progresses to a level of greater difficulty, demanding close reading and interpretative deduction. What really motivates the characters, and what is going on beneath the surface of the story? From Bathsheba's valentine to Tess's favourite cows, the subjects range across six of Hardy's most popular novels. Designed to amuse and divert, the questions and answers take the reader on an imaginative journey into the world of Thomas Hardy, where hypothesis and speculation produce fascinating and unexpected insights. Whether you are an expert or enthusiast, So You Think You Know Thomas Hardy? guarantees you will know him much better after reading it. |
|
What does the future hold in store for the human race? Aliens from distant galaxies, telepathic horror, interstellar war, time-warps, the shriek of a rose, collision with an asteroid — the unknown lies around every corner, and the universe is a big place. These nine science-fiction stories offer possibilities that are fantastic, humorous, alarming, but always thought-provoking. This collection contains stories by Ray Bradbury, Bill Brown, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Jerome Bixby, Isaac Asimov, Brian Aldiss, Roald Dahl, and John Wyndham. |
|
What does it feel like to be a child? Learning how to negotiate with the unpredictable adult world, learning how to pick a path through life's traps and hazards, learning when the time has come to put away childish things. The writers of these short stories show us the world as seen from the far side of the child-adult divide, a gap that is sometimes small, and sometimes an unbridgeable chasm. This collection contains stories by John Updike, Graham Greene, William Boyd, Susan Hill, D. H. Lawrence, Saki, Penelope Lively, Bernard MacLaverty, Frank Tuohy, and Morley Callaghan. |
|
Deception is usually frowned on as morally unacceptable, but is it always wrong? Can hiding or distorting the truth sometimes have good effects, adding to the sum of human happiness? These ten stories are full of secrets and lies, from a light-hearted bit of fun to dark and desperate deceit; but whether harmless or evil, deception can sometimes lead to quite unexpected complications. |
|
What sad, appalling, and surprising things people do in the name of love and for the sake of love. These short stories give us love won and love lost, love revenged, love thrown away, love in triumph, love in despair. It might be love between men and women, children and parents, even humans and cats; but whichever it is, love is a force to be reckoned with. This collection contains stories by Maeve Binchy, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, H.E. Bates, Graham Greene, Fay Weldon, Patricia Highsmith, John Morrison, and Somerset Maugham. |
|
People love and need animals. They keep them in their homes and on their farms. They enjoy going to zoos, and watching animals on films and on TV. Little children love to play with toy animals. But people are a great danger to animals too. They take their land, and cut down the trees where animals have their homes. They pollute the rivers and seas, and kill big animals for their skins or for medicine. Now there are about 7,000 species of animals in danger. What can we do to protect the animals of the world — from us? |
|
Twenty-five million people come to England every year, and some never go out of London. But England is full of interesting places to visit and things to do. There are big noisy cities with great shops and theatres, and quiet little villages. You can visit old castles and beautiful churches — or go to festivals with music twenty-four hours a day. You can have an English afternoon tea, walk on long white beaches, watch a great game of football, or visit a country house. Yes, England has something for everybody — what has it got for you? |
|
Deep rivers, tall trees, strange animals, beautiful flowers — this is the rainforest. Burning trees, thick smoke, new roads and cities, dead animals, people without homes — this is the rainforest too. To some people the rainforests mean beautiful places that you can visit; to others they mean trees that they can cut down and sell. Between 1950 and 2000 half of the world's rainforests disappeared. While you read these words, somewhere in the world people are cutting down rainforest trees. What are these wonderful places that we call rainforests — and is it too late to save them? |
|
In English-speaking countries around the world people celebrate Easter, Valentine's Day, Christmas, and other special days. Some celebrations are new, like Remembrance Day and Mother's Day; others, like the summer solstice, go back thousands of years. What happens on these special days? What do people eat, where do they go, what do they do? Why is there a special day for eating pancakes? Who is the 'guy' that children take onto the streets in November? And where do many people like to spend the shortest night of the year in England? Come on a journey through a year of celebrations, from New Year's Eve to Christmas. |
|
There are many different Irelands. There is the Ireland of peaceful rivers, green fields, and beautiful islands. There is the Ireland of song and dance, pubs and theatres — the country of James Joyce, Bob Geldof, and Riverdance. And there is the Ireland of guns, fighting, death, and the hope of peace. Come with us and visit all of these Irelands — and many more... |
|
What will we do when there is nowhere to put our rubbish? Every day, all over the world, people drop cans, boxes, paper, and bottles into bins and never think about them again. And the rubbish mountains get bigger and bigger. But there is another way — a way that makes old paper into houses, broken bottles into jewellery, and old cans into bridges. Anyone can recycle — it's easy, it saves money, and it's a way to say, I care about the Earth. Saving the world starts with you — here — now. |
|
What do you find in these two countries at the end of the world? One is an enormous island, where only twenty million people live — and the other is two long, narrow islands, with ten sheep for every person. One country has the biggest rock in all the world, and a town where everybody lives under the ground; the other has a beach where you can sit beside the sea in a pool of hot water, and lakes that are bright yellow, green, and blue. Open this book and start your journey — to two countries where something strange, beautiful or surprising waits around every corner. |
|
It is hard to imagine the modern world without information technology. At home, at work, and at play, mobile phones, e-mails and computers have become part of daily life. The story of information technology is a story of machines — from the ancient abacus to the small powerful computer chips of today. But it is also a story of people. Meet a woman who wrote computer programs two hundred years ago, a teenage millionaire, a man who began with a paperclip and ended with a house — and the criminals who want your name and your money. Come and discover the world of information technology. |
|
Everybody knows about the United States of America. You can see its films, hear its music, and eat its food just about everywhere in the world. Cowboys, jazz, hamburgers, the Stars and Stripes — that's the United States. But it's a country with many stories to tell. Stories of busy cities, and quiet, beautiful forests and parks. Stories of a country that fought against Britain, and then against itself, to make the United States of today. Stories of rich and poor, black and white, Native American and immigrant. And the story of what it is really like to be an American today... |
|
The United States in the 1950s and 60s was a troubled place. Black people were angry, because they did not have the same rights as whites. It was a time of angry words, of marches, of protests, a time of bombs and killings. But above the angry noise came the voice of one man — a man of peace. I have a dream, said Martin Luther King, and it was a dream of blacks and whites living together in peace and freedom. This is the story of an extraordinary man, who changed American history in his short life. |
|
The doctor took great care of his patients. Everybody agreed about that. And a lot of his women patients were old and ill, so it was only natural that a lot of them would die. Everyone agreed about that too. Until some of the women who died were not very old, or very ill — and someone began to ask questions about Dr Harold Shipman... Many great crimes end in a question. Not all the answers are known. Read about Dr Harold Shipman and discover the love, hate, death, money, and mystery behind this and other great crimes. |
|
In 1918 in the peaceful province of Transkei, South Africa, the Mandela family gave their new baby son the name Rolihlahla — troublemaker. But the young boy's early years were happy ones, and he grew up to be a good student and an enthusiastic sportsman. Who could imagine then what was waiting for Nelson Mandela — the tireless struggle for human rights, the long years in prison, the happiness and sadness of family life, and one day the title of President of South Africa? |
|
About a quarter of the people in the world today speak or use English. In homes and schools, offices and meeting rooms, ships and airports, people are speaking English... How has this happened? How did English begin, and what will become of it in the future? The history of the English language is a journey through space and time, from thousands of years ago to today and beyond, and to all parts of the world. Come on that journey and meet the monks and soldiers, the kings and scientists, the printers, poets, and travellers who have helped to make the English of today. |
|
Hank Morgan is a happy young man in Connecticut, USA, in 1879 until one day someone runs into his office and shouts, Come quickly, Boss! Two men are fighting. After this, something very strange happens to him, and his life changes forever. |
|
