Ministry and Leadership: Oxford E-Reference Works

This collection of fascinating, mysterious, and revealing tales captures the immense sweep and diversity of African mythology. The stories touch on virtually every aspect of belief: gods and goddesses, epic heroes and divine tricksters, along with epics of the world's origins, the struggle between the human and the divine, and much more. Entries cover the entire continent, from the mouth of the Nile to the Cape of Good Hope.

Here, for example, is the tale of Abu Zayd (from the Bani Hilal of Tunisia), an epic hero who battles a jinni; and here too is a myth of how the moon and the toad created the first man and woman, from the Soko of Congo. Each story is told, and information provided about the respective belief system, the main characters, and related stories or variants.

This magnificent collection not only provides hundreds of fascinating myths, but also recaptures their cultural contexts, in which story and storyteller, tradition and performance, all merge.

Meet the supreme Gautama Buddha, the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesa, and Chang O, the Lunar Toad who is Chinese goddess of the Moon. Journey to the sacred Cambodian ruins of Angkor and golden Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods. Discover myths like the Stone and the Banana and the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, and explore archetypal themes such as the hero quest, sacrifice, and descent to the underworld.

This dictionary features stories of revered deities, sacred places, key events and epics, with many recurring themes and traditions. Entries address the key mythologies of the regions we now call India, China, Tibet, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Japan, and broad overviews of specific cultures and their mythic traditions round out the coverage.

A comprehensive and accessible survey of the whole of Celtic mythology, legend, saga, and folklore. It covers the people, themes, concepts, places, and creatures of Celtic mythology, from both ancient and modern traditions, in 4,000 entries ranging from brief definitions to short essays.

Covering thousands of years of intricate creation tales, A Dictionary of Creation Myths is the first and most comprehensive work devoted to creation myths from cultures throughout the world. With an easy-to-use A-Z format, this around-the-world tour provides quick access to information on the beliefs (both exotic and ordinary) of ancient civilizations from Sumeria and Babylonia to Egypt, Greece, and ancient Rome, from India and China to Japan and Indonesia, as well as the rich mythological history of Native Americans, the indigenous peoples of Australia, and many other cultures. We read of the creation myth of the Diegueno tribe of southern California in which the creator, Tu-chai-pai, made the earth female and the sky male and then formed mud into people; the Norse creation story of the gods Odin, Vili, and Ve, who made man and woman out of two fallen trees–Odin breathed life into the new pair, Vili's gift to them was intelligence, and Ve gave the gifts of sight and hearing; and the myth of Japanese creation in which Izanagei, and his sister Izanami, watch the first land form from ocean water dripping from Izanagi's spear. Alongside these ancient beliefs are the more modern, such as Darwin's theory of evolution and the big bang theory.

Each entry identifies the culture associated with the myth, and each myth is retold in clear, eloquent prose, with extensive cross-referencing to guide readers to other entries. Throughout, the authors share insightful analyses of the surprisingly intricate relationship of certain myths across cultures, regions, and time. A Dictionary of Creation Myths is essential for anyone who has ever wondered how the world was created, where we came from, or why we are here at all.

This is the most wide-ranging and up-to-date dictionary of critical theory available, covering the whole range of critical theory, including the Frankfurt school, cultural materialism, gender studies, literary theory, hermeneutics, historical materialism, and sociopolitical critical theory. Entries clearly explain even the most complex of theoretical discourses, such as Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, deconstruction, and postmodernism. There are also biographies of important figures in the field, with feature entries for those who have heavily influenced areas of the discipline.

Covering all aspects of the subject from globalization and race studies, to queer theory and feminism, this multidisciplinary A-Z is essential for students of literary and cultural studies and is useful for anyone studying a humanity subject requiring a knowledge of theory.

An absorbing and entertaining guide to English folklore and an authoritative reference source on such legendary characters as Cinderella, Jack the Giant Killer, and Robin Hood. The dictionary gives entertaining and informative explanations of a wide range of subjects in folklore and includes articles on oral and performance genres such as cheese rolling, morris dancing, and rushbearing, superstitions such as crossing fingers and wishbones, beliefs like fairy rings and frog showers, and calendar customs from April Fool's Day to St. Valentine's Day.

A Dictionary of the Bible is the most acclaimed, accessible, and up-to-date dictionary of its kind. Containing over 2,000 authoritative entries it provides clear and concise information about all of the important places, people, themes, and doctrines of the Bible. Terms range from earthquakes and mice to martyrs and art, and new to this edition are entries on Act of God, Old Testament and New Testament theology, Hanukkah, the Koran, mysticism, and many more.

This dictionary features a detailed bibliography, biographies of Bible scholars, a conversion table of measures, weights, and values, a chronology of important dates in Biblical history, and historical maps (showing Israel in Canaan; the near east in the time of the Assyrian Empire; Palestine under the Herods; the background of the New Testament; Rome and the East).

With lively and informative A-Z entries and an array of useful supplementary material, this dictionary is essential for students and teachers of theology and religious education, and it is an absorbing reference work for all readers of the Bible.

Since Plato first coined the term 'mythologia', mythology has come to hold greater significance and power as a crucial element of civilization as a whole. Written by a leading scholar of ancient civilizations, A Dictionary of World Mythology presents the powerful gods of Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia, the more mystical deities of Buddhist and Hindu India, and the stern spirits of the African and American continents. Drawing upon hundreds of myths from around the globe, it not only reveals the vast differences in these civilizations, but also demonstrates the unity of mankind in its fundamental need for explanations of the unknown.

An essential guide to authors and their works that focuses on the general canon of British literature from the fifteenth-century to the present.

There is also some coverage of non-fiction such as biographies, memoirs, and science, as well as inclusion of major American and Commonwealth writers.

This online-exclusive new edition adds 63,000 new words to the original text, including over 100 new entries dealing with authors who have risen to prominence in the last ten years, as well as fully updating the entries that currently exist. There are over 3,200 entries for writers in total with their nationality and birth/death dates, followed by a listing of their titles arranged chronologically by date of publication.

This is the first historical dictionary devoted to science fiction. It shows the development of science-fiction words and their associated concepts over time, with full citations and bibliographic information. Citations are drawn from science-fiction books and magazines, fanzines, screenplays, newspapers, comics, folk songs, and the Internet. The dictionary reveals how many words we consider to be everyday expressions, like ‘space shuttle’, ‘blast off’, and ‘robot‘, have their roots in imaginative literature and not in hard science. It also charts the transfer of science-fiction vocabulary to different subcultures and endeavours, such as neo-paganism, aerospace, computers, and environmentalism.

This authoritative dictionary draws on Oxford's unrivalled bank of reference and language resources in order to explore the stories behind names and sayings that can be found in classic literature or today's news. Questions it seeks to answer include: What are Anglo-Saxon attitudes? Who first tried to nail jelly to the wall? When was the Dreamtime? Would you want the Midas touch? Should you worry about grey goo? Answers cover a range of topics, such as classical and other mythologies, history, religion, folk customs, superstitions, science and technology, philosophy, and popular culture.

The foremost single volume authority on the English language, the Oxford Dictionary of English is at the forefront of language research, focusing on English as it is used today. It is informed by the most up-to-date evidence from the largest language research programme in the world, including the two-billion-word Oxford English Corpus.

This new edition includes thousands of brand-new words and senses, as well as up-to-date encyclopedic information, and extensive appendices covering topics such as countries, heads of state, and chemical elements.

New features include Word Trends which showcase language research based on the Oxford English Corpus and illuminate the extraordinary stories behind fast-changing words of everyday English.

Ideal for anyone who needs a comprehensive and authoritative dictionary of current English; for professionals, students, academics, and for use at work or at home.

English grammar has changed a great deal since the beginning of the twentieth century, and it is a subject that can provide a complex minefield of uncertainties within the language. This accessible and comprehensive dictionary comes to the aid of both the general reader and the student or teacher, offering straightforward and immediate access to 1,000 grammatical terms and their meanings. All the currently accepted terms of grammar are included, as well as older, traditional names, controversial new coinages, and items from the study of other languages. Concise definitions of the wider subject of linguistics, including phonetics and transformational grammar, are accompanied by examples of language in use, and frequent quotations from existing works on grammar.

"Anyone who is addicted to the richness of the English language or simply intrigued by the origin and meaning of an idiom like ‘teach your grandmother to suck eggs’ will relish this work" – Library Journal

Did you know that ‘flavour of the month’ originated in a marketing campaign in American ice-cream parlours in the 1940s, when a particular flavour would be specially promoted for a month at a time? And did you know that ‘off the cuff’ refers to the rather messy practice of writing impromptu notes on one's shirt cuff before speaking in public? These and many more idioms are explained and put into context in this third edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms.

The volume takes a fresh look at the idiomatic phrases and sayings that make English the rich and intriguing language that it is. This major new edition contains entries for over 6,000 idioms, including 700 entirely new entries, based on Oxford's language monitoring and the ongoing third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. These include a range of recently established idioms such as ‘the elephant in the corner’, ‘go figure’, ‘like a rat up a drainpipe’, ‘sex on legs’, ‘step up to the plate’, ‘too posh to push’, ‘a walk in the park’, ‘win ugly’. This edition also features a greatly increased number of cross-references, making it ideal for quick reference.

Many entries include additional features which give more detailed background on the idiom in question. For example, did you know that ‘taken aback’ was adopted from nautical terminology that described a ship unable to move forward because of a strong headwind pressing its sails back against the mast?

Based on The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, the principal authority on the origin and development of English words, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology contains a wealth of information about the English language and its history. Find out where the words 'bungalow' and 'assassin' came from, what 'nice' meant in the Middle Ages and much more.

This invaluable reference work offers the best advice on English usage, drawing on the unrivalled resources of Oxford's English Dictionaries programme and language monitoring. This second edition of the 'Pocket Fowler' harks back to the original 1926 edition of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by Henry Fowler, born 150 years ago in 1858. Updated with the use of the Oxford English Corpus, a database of over two billion words of 21st century English, the new edition answers your most frequently asked questions about language use.

Should you use a split infinitive or a preposition at the end of a sentence? Is it infer or imply? Who or whom? What are the main differences between British and American English? Over 4,000 entries offer clear recommendations on issues of grammar, pronunciation, spelling, confusable words, and written style. Real examples are drawn from classic and contemporary literary sources, newspapers and magazines, and the Internet. Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage is an indispensable companion for anyone who wants to use the English language effectively.

Based on the acclaimed Oxford Companion to the English Language, this is the most compact, authoritative, and up-to-date source of information about the English language. With contributions from more than 130 experts worldwide, the language is viewed from an international perspective, covering Cockney to Creole, Aboriginal English to South Asian English. The historical range of the work is large - Beowulf rubs shoulders with Ebonics, Chaucer sits alongside Chomsky, Latin, and the World Wide Web. Substantial entries are given on key subjects such as American and British differences, computing, etymology, pidgin, poetry, sexism, Shakespeare's language, and slang. Features include pieces on place-names, borrowings from other languages, the evolution of the alphabet, and the story of the expression 'OK'.

A major new edition of the most authoritative dictionary of quotations available brings you the wit and wisdom of past and present – from the ancients of East and West to the global village of the 21st century. Find that half-remembered line in a browser's paradise of over 20,000 quotations for all occasions. Whether you lean towards the words of Jane Austen: ‘Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure’, or the advice of Paris Hilton: ‘Dress cute wherever you go. Life is too short to blend in’, the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations provides the ultimate answer to the questions ‘Who said that? (and when, and why)’.

Drawing on Oxford's unrivalled dictionary research programme and unique language monitoring, almost 1,000 new quotations have been added to this seventh edition from over 500 authors, from Mary Wollstonecraft and Sarah Palin to Herman Hesse and William Hazlitt. These include classic quotations from established names for which new evidence of current usage has been found, such as ‘The worth of a soul cannot be told’ (the African writer and former slave Olaudah Equiano) and ‘Work first – love next’ (American writer and feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman), as well as earlier quotations used by well-known literary authors from around the English-speaking world, including the maxim of Confucius for a ruler, ‘If you desire what is good, the people will be good’ (quoted by Thoreau), and the view of the Phrygian Stoic philosopher Epictetus that ‘Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men’ (cited by Laurence Sterne).

As Oxford's flagship American dictionary, the New Oxford American Dictionary sets the standard of excellence for lexicography in this country. With more than 350,000 words, phrases, and senses, and hundreds of explanatory notes, this dictionary provides the most comprehensive and accurate coverage of American English available.

The dictionary draws on the two-billion-word Oxford English Corpus and the unrivaled citation files of the world-renowned Oxford English Dictionary to provide the most accurate and richly descriptive picture of American English ever offered in any dictionary. The Third Edition offers a thoroughly updated text, with revisions throughout and approximately 2,000 new words, phrases, and meanings. Many new words relate to fast-moving areas such as computing, technology, current affairs, and ecology, while others have recently entered the popular lexicon. Usage notes have been updated in light of the most recent Corpus evidence, and a completely new in-text feature on Word Trends charts usage for rapidly changing words and phrases such as carbon, mobile, or tweet.

One of the hallmarks of the New Oxford American Dictionary is the way it reflects the living language. Unlike in more traditional dictionaries, where meanings are ordered chronologically according to the history of the language, each entry plainly shows the principal meaning or meanings of the word, organized by importance in today's English. Thus readers can be confident that the first definition they see is the one most likely to be used by people today, and is not a sense that has been obsolete for two centuries.

Offering clear, authoritative, and precise information, with the in-depth and up-to-date coverage that users need and expect, the New Oxford American Dictionary is the benchmark by which all other American dictionaries are measured.

What is the singular of 'paparazzi'? Is 'graffiti' singular or plural? Should I say 'empathic' or 'empathetic'? What is the correct pronunciation of 'concierge'?

In this book of crisp, precise and often witty pronouncements on modern American English, Bryan Garner decisively answers these and hundreds of other questions that bedevil those who care about the language. Garner draws on a host of evidence to support his judgements, citing thousands of examples - good, bad, and ugly - from sources such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek.

With nearly 6,000 quotations, this volume offers a stimulating picture of American culture and life. Up-to-date and thoroughly researched, the Dictionary gives readers a nutshell history of what great (and not-so-great) Americans had to say about many topics. This thoughtfully laid out compilation represents Americans ranging from the famous to the infamous, and from the distant as well as recent past, from George Abbott to Fran Lebowitz to Frank Zappa and numerous personalities, presidents, and analysts.

This is an essential browser-friendly reference not only for writers, editors, teachers and students, but also for anyone interested in the great people and ideas of American history.

This up-to-date collection offers a vivid picture both of the world today, and of the landmark events and key voices leading to it. From Scott's Antarctic Expedition in 1912 to the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001, it charts watersheds such as two World Wars as well as the ebbs and flows of popular culture.

Containing over 5,000 quotations from authors as diverse as Elizabeth Arden, Billy Connolly, Bertolt Brecht, Linda Evangelista, Eddie Izzard, Alison Lurie, Carl Sagan, William Shatner, and Desmond Tutu, the dictionary is author-organized with generous cross-referencing. Special categories for film taglines and cartoon captions have been added to accompany misquotations, official advice, newspaper headlines, and many more. Informative and entertaining, this book is a vital part of the modern reference shelf, perfectly designed to answer the questions, ‘Who said that...and when...and why?’

The Encyclopedia includes essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists, as well as major works and essays on literary movements, periods, and themes. No mere catalog of dates, events, and synopses, the Encyclopedia's articles offer historical perspective and social context along with a range of possibilities with regard to critical approach.

Includes substantial accounts of individual authors (e.g., Spenser, Pope, Austen) and detailed histories of particular themes, movements, genres, and institutions, whose impact upon the writing or the reading of literature was significant (e.g., The Stationers' Company, the sonnet, the ‘School of Night, ’ or the Sublime).

With a global perspective that pays attention to significant international trends and the multicultural expansion of the field, it includes brief biographies of every major author and illustrator. Also included are feature essays on all genres of children's literature, individual works, and prominent trends and themes, as well as general essays on the traditions of children's literature in many countries throughout the world.

Entries provide information on Chaucer's life and times, his works and the characteristics of them, his language and metre, his reading and the creative uses he made of it, and his major moral and literary themes. Extensive reference is also made to the development of critical opinion about his works over the centuries.

Written by such authorities as Edward D Hoch, Sara Paretsky, and the late Julian Symons, entries cover biographies of great mystery writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe, Rex Stout, and Ruth Rendell, as well as favourite sleuths, such as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade, and Adam Dalgliesh, and master criminals, such as Professor Moriarty and Fu Manchu.

Character types, such as the country constable or the femme fatale, are discussed along with other components of mystery writing, including famous clues, authorial ingenuity, and how ‘The Butler Did It’. The Companion also features extended essays on the development of the genre and related schools of writing.

A period when novels in Britain were produced more cheaply, and read more widely, than ever before. All of the classics of the period are explored: Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, Henry James's The Golden Bowl, E M Forster's A Room with a View, Conrad's Lord Jim, and D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. The Companion also surveys a huge variety of neglected and forgotten books, and covers genres such as spy fiction and feminist fiction, and institutions such as the suburb, the publishing trade, and the literary agent.

Significant social developments and themes are examined in topic entries, which allow the reader to explore all the novels in a particular genre. Notably, women writers make up nearly half of the biographical entries, reflecting the unprecedented number of women who began to publish during the period

It provides full coverage of stories and characters, from Ali Baba, Aladdin, and Cinderella, to Hansel and Gretel, the Moomins, and Tom Thumb, along with the writers who wrote and reworked them, such as Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkein, A. S. Byatt, and Gabriel García Marquez, and the artists who illustrated them, including Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, and Maurice Sendak. The Companion also examines related topics such as Disney, opera, science fiction, music, even advertising. Special survey articles explore the development of the fairy-tale tradition in individual countries, focusing particularly on the European and North American traditions.

Written by a team of 67 specialist contributors from around the world, this is an essential companion for anyone interested in literature, film, or art, or for anyone who values the traditions of storytelling.

Designed to be a reliable source of information on the whole sweep of literature from German‐speaking countries from the eighth century onwards, the Companion now comes right up to the mid–1990s, including recent works such as Günter Grass's controversial novel about the unification of East and West Germany, Ein weites Feld (1995). The entries cover authors and their major works, as well as historical, intellectual, and cultural backgrounds. Subjects include Kafka and Kleist, Werther and Christa Wolf, Nietzsche and the Nibelungenlied, Jung and Jelinek, Rilke and Die Reformation. For this new edition much of the original material has been reworked in the light of recent scholarship, and many completely new entries have been added, for example those on Rose Ausländer, Günter de Bruyn, and Yiddish.

This is an indispensable reference book for everyone with an interest in the literature and literary culture of the German‐speaking world.

The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature takes a broad view of what constitutes literature, covering historical writing, travel writing, theatre, and philosophy as well as the novel, poetry, literary dialogues, and critical theory. Providing generous coverage of canonical figures — from Dante and Petrarch to Montale and Calvino — it also contains a wealth of short entries on significant minor figures. The Companion also explores Latin literature written by Italian authors — a major feature of Renaissance culture — and Italian dialect literature. A range of contextual entries places writers and works in their wider social, historical, artistic, and political circumstances.

Written by expert contributors, the entries reflect the current state of international scholarship, which has developed in many different and exciting directions in recent years.

It covers translations out of many languages, from Greek to Korean, Swahili to Russian. For some works (e.g. Virgil's Aeneid) which have been much translated, the discussion is historical and critical; with less familiar literatures, the Guide examines the extent to which translation has done justice to the range of work available. It contains entries on individual texts (such as the Thousand and One Nights), writers (Ibsen or Proust), genres (Chinese poetry), or national literature (for example, Hungarian). These entries are complemented by more substantial essays on theoretical questions, a pioneering outline of the history of translation into English, and discussions of the problems raised by specific types of text (for example, poetry or oral literature).

Recent years have seen a boom in translation studies, and this is the first comprehensive guide to this essential element of literature in English.

As the change in title implies, it presents an authoritative guide not only to ten centuries of literature produced in the territory now called France, but also to the rich literary output of other French‐speaking countries around the world. Written by an international team of specialists, entries cover individual authors and works from the troubadours to Césaire, and from La Princesse de Clèves to La Vie mode d'emploi. Substantial essay‐entries reflect the latest scholarship on topics such as chivalry, Occupation and Resistance in wartime France, scholasticism, the sciences, literary movements and genres, as well as opera, cinema, and press.

Adventurous and wide‐ranging, The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French is an indispensable and hugely enjoyable reference work for all scholars, students and general readers.

Each entry includes details of the title, author, date of writing, date of first performance, genre, setting, and composition of cast; there is also a summary of the play's plot, and a brief commentary. Around 80 major plays are treated in detail, for example The Oresteia and Waiting for Godot. Genres covered include: burlesque, comedy, farce, historical drama, kabuki, masque, melodrama, morality play, mystery play, No, romantic comedy, tragicomedy, satire, and tragedy.

All the great literary figures are included, whether American or Australian, British, Irish, or Indian, African or Canadian or Caribbean, among them Samuel Beckett, Edith Wharton, Patrick White, T S Eliot, Derek Walcott, D H Lawrence, Tennessee Williams, Vladimir Nabokov, Wole Soyinka, Sylvia Plath, as well as a wealth of less obviously canonical writers, from Anaïs Nin to L M Montgomery, Bob Dylan to Terry Pratchett. Fiction, plays, poetry, and a whole range of non-fictional writing are explored; also included are entries on literary movements, periodicals, and over 400 individual works. This is the most comprehensive single-volume guide to modern (and postmodern) literature in English.

There are biographical entries on poets, novelists, and playwrights, such as Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Kate Chopin, Maya Angelou, Wendy Wasserstein, and Tama Janowitz, as well as writers who have made contributions in other fields, such as Betty Friedan, Rachel Carson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B Anthony. Written by a team of experts, the Companion includes Susan Faludi writing on backlash, Jane Gallop on Lacanian psychoanalysis, and Trudier Harris on Toni Morrison. Personal, cultural, and historical issues, such as AIDS, racism, sexual harassment, and the Civil War, are examined alongside accounts of women publishing and contemporary literary theory, such as black feminism, lesbian literary theory, and deconstruction.

‘the finest reference book of its kind: a brilliant and meticulous interweaving of anecdote and quotation … it provides the ideal way to plan any kind of literary pilgrimage in Britain or Ireland … a book of quite extraordinary evocative power … permanent magic’ Richard Holmes, The Times

It invites the reader to explore the places where their favourite writers - from Jane Austen to Philip Pullman - were born, lived, were educated, worked, and drew inspiration. The entries elegantly interweave information with anecdote and quotation, to build a vivid picture of the day-to-day lives of the writers. The Guide is the ideal resource and companion for any literary pilgrimage in Britain or Ireland, and for the armchair literary traveller.

New to this edition are special feature entries on writers particularly associated with places, including the Brontes, Walter Scott, and James Joyce, contributed by high-profile authors including Margaret Drabble and John Sutherland. The Guide also provides an index of author names, with mini biographies, enabling the reader to track down all the places associated with their favourite writers.

It contains entries on a vast range of theatrical styles, dramatists, performers, and directors, as well as information on theatres, festivals, and such technical topics as lighting, sound, and method acting. Entries on people and places include Athol Fugard, Anthony Hopkins, Glenda Jackson, Derek Jacobi, Harvey Fierstein, Helen Mirren, Trevor Nunn, Peter O'Toole, Willy Russell, and Stephen Sondheim, Barbican Theatre, The English Shakespeare Company, Michael Gambon, The Swan at Stratford, and the Shubert theatre in New York.

There are over 2,000 biographical profiles of important American authors (with information regarding their style, subjects, and major works) and influential foreign writers as well as other figures who have been important in the nation's social and cultural history. There are more than 1,100 full summaries of important American novels, stories, essays, poems (with verse form noted), plays, biographies and autobiographies, tracts, narratives, and histories.

It provides unrivalled coverage of all aspects of English literature ― from writers, their works, and the historical and cultural context in which they wrote, to critics, literary theory, and allusions.

For the seventh edition, the Companion has been thoroughly revised and updated to meet the needs and concerns of today's students and general readers. Over 1,000 new entries have been added, ranging from new writers ― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Patrick Marber, David Mitchell, Arundhati Roy ― to increased coverage of writers and literary movements from around the world. Coverage of American literature has been substantially increased, with new entries on writers such as Cormac McCarthy and Amy Tan and on movements and publications.

Contextual and historical coverage has also been expanded, with new entries on European history and culture, post-colonial literature, as well as writers and literary movements from around the world that have influenced English literature.

The Companion has always been a quick and dependable source of reference for students, and the new edition confirms its pre-eminent position as the A-Z resource of first choice. All entries have been reviewed, and details of new works, biographies, and criticism have been brought right up to date. So also has coverage of the themes, approaches and concepts encountered by students today, from terms to articles on literary theory and theorists. There is increased coverage of writers from around the world, as well as from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and of contextual topics, including film and television, music, and art. Cross-referencing has been thoroughly updated, with stronger linking from writers to thematic and conceptual entries.

Meanwhile coverage of popular genres such as children's literature, science fiction, biography, reportage, crime fiction, fantasy or travel literature has been increased substantially, with new entries on writers from Philip Pullman to Anne Frank and from Anais Nin to Douglas Adams.

The seventh edition of this classic Companion ― now under the editorship of Dinah Birch, assisted by a team of 28 distinguished associate editors, and over 150 contributors ― ensures that it retains its status as the most authoritative, informative, and accessible guide to literature available.

From the ogam alphabet in the 4th century, to contemporary writers such as Roddy Doyle and Seamus Heaney, there is a wealth of information on writers and their works, movements, genres, topics, folklore, and historical, religious, and cultural events.

It contains entries on a vast range of theatrical styles, dramatists, performers, and directors, as well as information on theatres, festivals, and such technical topics as lighting, sound, and method acting. Entries on people and places include Athol Fugard, Anthony Hopkins, Glenda Jackson, Derek Jacobi, Harvey Fierstein, Helen Mirren, Trevor Nunn, Peter O'Toole, Willy Russell, and Stephen Sondheim, Barbican Theatre, The English Shakespeare Company, Michael Gambon, The Swan at Stratford, and the Shubert theatre in New York.

The Companion's two-part structure presents forty-two essays on major topics, by leading international experts, cross-referenced to an extensive alphabetical section covering all the principal figures, events, and movements in the broad culture of the period. Aimed at students and general readers as well as scholars, the essays constitute an accessible, pluralistic, and modern social history of the epoch; the alphabetical entries can either be used alongside them, for deeper information on specific subjects, or as a free-standing reference tool. The volume as a whole embraces both high and low culture, and explores its subject across the whole breadth of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.

In keeping with the original, entries cover fiction, prose, poetry, drama, prominent writers, literary magazines, publishers, and more general topics. From The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz to the Rebel Angles, Sandra Birdsell to Eric Wright, Caribbean-Canadian literature to War literature, this completely revised edition is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Canadian literature.

It contains more than 1,500 entries on writers, novels, plays, poetry, journals, periodicals, anthologies, literary movements, and professional organisations. The generous range of plot summaries and author entries will prove invaluable to students and the interested lay reader alike.

From the conjectured identity of the Dark Lady of the Sonnets to the misprints in the First Folio, from Shakespeare's favourite figures of speech to the staging of Othello in South Africa, a team of 100 internationally renowned scholars provides a lucid, stimulating, and authoritative guide to Shakespeare's plays and poems, and their interpretation around the world over the last four centuries. Special feature entries on every play are included.

Written by more than 250 scholars from some 20 nations and embracing a wide variety of perspectives, the Companion offers over seven hundred entries, ranging from brief identifications--who is Dives? where is Pisgah?--to extensive interpretive essays on topics such as the influence of the Bible on music or law.

Ranging far beyond the scope of a traditional Bible dictionary, the Companion features, in addition to its many informative, factual entries, an abundance of interpretive essays. Here are extended entries on religious concepts from immortality, sin, and grace, to baptism, ethics, and the Holy Spirit. The contributors also explore biblical views of modern issues such as homosexuality, marriage, and anti-Semitism, and the impact of the Bible on the secular world (including a four-part article on the Bible's influence on literature).

It is the first time so much information about the family has been gathered together in an accessible A-Z volume.

In-depth surveys of the Brontes’ lives and works and supplemented by entries on their friends and acquaintances, pets, literary and political heroes; on the places they knew and the places they imagined; on their letters, drawings, and paintings.

Extensive coverage of their juvenilia sheds light on their early imaginative worlds, while entries on the sequels and adaptations in film,theatre, and television convey the myriad ways their works live on.

Celebrated poets offer intriguing views on their fellow poets, such as Tom Paulin on Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney on Robert Lowell, and Anne Stevenson on Sylvia Plath. 1,500 poets are covered from W.H. Auden to Benjamin Zephaniah. There is worldwide coverage, including America, Britain and Ireland, New Zealand, Trinidad and Zimbabwe. There are also entries on magazines, movements, and critical terms.

This Companion includes essays on the world's major mythological traditions (Greek, Native American, Indian, Japanese, Sumerian, Egyptian), along with retellings of better-known myths, and entries on mythological types, motifs, and figures (such as the Descent to the Underworld, the Hero, Creation, Odysseus, Spider Woman, and Inanna), and related subjects (such as fairly tales and legends). The Companion locates myth firmly in our lives today by exploring language patterns, psychology, religion, politics, art, and gender attitudes.

Over 400 entries cover Conrad's Conrad's life (health, Polish inheritance, the sea, ships and voyages), people (Borys Conrad, Apollo and Ewa Korzeniowski, J. M. Barrie, Stephen Crane, Stefan Zeromski), places (America, Bangkok, Berdyczow, Congo, Cracow, Marseilles), novels (Almayer's Folly, Lord Jim, Nostromo), stories, essays, and reviews (‘An Anarchist’, ‘Typhoon’, ‘Autocracy and War‘, ‘Legends’, ‘Tales of the Sea’), influences and sources (James Brooke, Alighieri Dante, Charles Dickens, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emile Zola), characters (Almayer family, Mr Jones, Jim, Captain Mitchell, Nostromo, the Professor, Edith Travers), reputation (biographies, films, influences on other writers, portraits and other images, translations), and historical context (First World War, Polish question, women's suffrage movement).

Written in a lucid, easy style, The Oxford Reader’s Companion to Dickens draws together an unparalleled diversity of information on one of our greatest writers: his life, his works, his reputation, and his cultural context.

Dr Paul Schlicke and his distinguished team of contributors have created a unique volume that offers a more extensive and comprehensive range of information than any other reference work on Dickens, indispensible for students and general readers alike.

Under the editorial guidance of John Rignall, over 50 literary scholars from a variety of backgrounds offer here the latest thinking and expertise on George Eliot, providing a rich diversity of information and critical insight into her fiction and its contexts, invaluable for both students and general readers.

Norman Page, with the help of his team of expert contributors, presents here in one volume a unique synthesis of understanding and insight into the life and works of Thomas Hardy. By incorporating different national interests and traditions of scholarship, The Oxford Reader’s Companion to Hardy gives the assurance of sound knowledge, which is indispensable for students and general lovers of Hardy’s work.

Interest in the writing of Thomas Hardy never seems to falter, not just in scholarly circles but also among readers of Victorian fiction. Hardy was a prolific writer of both prose and poetry, he started writing in his teens and continued literally until the day of his death. His work is valued not only in terms of literature, but also in terms of the history, sociology, philosophy, folklore, and religion of his times.

The Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope encompasses all the latest scholarship on this fascinating writer in one single volume. Thirty-six contributors have come together to bring a wealth of biographical, bibliographical, and historical information to illuminate the wider literary and cultural context of Trollope's life and work. Over 500 A-Z entries cover Trollope's literature; his work as biographer, journalist and travel writer; subsequent criticism and praise of his work; his family members, friends, and acquaintances; the social context of his life; his influences and the things he influenced; his interests and ideas.