The story opens with a familiar Biblical image-of Mary being visited by the angel Gabriel. In Brian Wildsmith's imagining of this scene, Mary is shown with her cherished cat and dog. When Mary and Joseph set out for Bethlehem, her pets are left behind. But the cat and dog miss their mistress and decide to make the journey to find her. Along the way, they stop to help various other animals who join them on the road to Bethlehem. Arriving at the stable, the animals share in the joy of the birth of Jesus. Mary is delighted to be reunited with her pets and be able to present her new baby to them. This appealing story from one of our most internationally acclaimed picture-book writers and artists has deservedly become an enduring favourite with children at Christmas time.

Oxford First French Flashcards are an ideal tool to give young children a head start in learning French in an engaging and interactive way. 50 double-sided cards show an illustration, French word, and English translation. Words include key everyday nouns as well as opposites, numbers and shapes, and transport. Ideal for using across the creative curriculum in school. Instructions for games and activities help reinforce learning in an engaging way. Ideal to use in MFL teaching in the classroom, afterschool clubs, and at home for an early introduction to French, or preparing for a holiday abroad.

'Thus, gentle Reader, I have given thee a faithful History of my Travels for Sixteen Years, and above Seven Months; wherein I have not been so studious of Ornament as of Truth.' In these words Gulliver represents himself as a reliable reporter of the fantastic adventures he has just set down; but how far can we rely on a narrator whose identity is elusive and whoses inventiveness is self-evident? Gulliver's Travels purports to be a travel book, and describes Gulliver's encounters with the inhabitants of four extraordinary places: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the country of the Houyhnhnms. A consummately skilful blend of fantasy and realism makes Gulliver's Travels by turns hilarious, frightening, and profound. Swift plays tricks on us, and delivers one of the world's most disturbing satires of the human condition. This new edition includes the changing frontispiece portraits of Gulliver that appeared in successive early editions.

Wobble Bear has just learnt to walk on his wibbly, wobbly toes. His crawling days are over and he walks and walks and walks all through the day. Even when he goes to the park, Wobble walks on the see-saw and walks down the slide — it's exhausting just watching him! So it's really no surprise that when bedtime comes Wobble Bear has finally run out of energy and he whispers to Mummy, 'Can't walk, too tired, carry me up to bed.' A very loveable little bear is ready to entertain in this fun-filled rhyming story — perfect for toddlers who have just mastered the art of being mobile and in this board-book format, it's perfect for little hands, too.

This is the reissued Oxford Colour Italian Dictionary. This dictionary is an effective and practical reference tool for students, adult learners, or travellers. It is especially user-friendly, with a clear colour design that makes it easy to find the word you are looking for quickly. It also has usage notes, giving you help with tricky and frequently occurring words, verb lists and grammar notes. The up-to-date centre section helps you build your vocabulary. We have identified the Italian words you most need to know, and they are laid out clearly for you here; these are marked with a handy key symbol in the A-Z text of the dictionary. Also included are word games so that you can practise your dictionary skills and learn vocabulary while having fun. The centre section also contains a calendar of holidays and festivals and an A-Z guide to Italian life and culture — ideal for the traveller and those learning about life in Italy.

'I made him know his Name should be Friday, which was the Day I saved his Life... I likewise taught him to say Master'. Robinson Crusoe's seafaring adventures are abruptly ended when he is shipwrecked, the solitary survivor on a deserted island. He gradually creates a life for himself, building a house, cultivating the land, and making a companion from the native whose life he saves. Daniel Defoe's enthralling story-telling and imaginatively detailed descriptions have ensured that his fiction masquerading as fact remains one of the most famous stories in English literature. On one level a simple adventure story, the novel also raises profound questions about moral and spiritual values, society, and man's abiding acquisitiveness. This new edition includes a scintillating Introduction and notes that illuminate the historical context.

La Reine Margot (1845) is a novel of suspense and drama which recreates the violent world of intrigue, murder and duplicity of the French Renaissance. Dumas fills his canvas with a gallery of unforgettable characters, unremitting action and the engaging generosity of spirit which has made him one of the world's greatest and best-loved story-tellers. This revised edition of the classic translation of 1846 is richly annotated. An introduction sets Dumas and his work in their literary, historical and cultural context.

On the Genealogy of Morals (1887) is a book about interpretation and the history of ethics which raises profoundly disquieting issues about the violence of both. This is the most sustained of Nietzsche's later works and offers one of the fullest expressions of his characteristic concerns. The introduction places his ideas within the cultural context of his own time and stresses the relevance of his work for a contemporary audience.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) has long been one of the best-known and best-loved English poets. The Lyrical Ballads, written with Coleridge, is a landmark in the history of English romantic poetry. His celebration of nature and of the beauty and poetry in the commonplace embody a unified and coherent vision that was profoundly innovative. This volume presents the poems in their order of composition and in their earliest completed state, enabling the reader to trace Wordsworth's poetic development and to share the experience of his contemporaries. It includes a large sample of the finest lyrics, and also longer narratives such as The Ruined Cottage, Home at Grasmere, Peter Bell, and the autobiographical masterpiece, The Prelude (1805). All the major examples of Wordsworth's prose on the subject of poetry are also included.

Sparkling with the witty dialogue between Beatrice and Benedicts, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's most enjoyable and theatrically successful comedies. This edition offers a newly edited text and an exceptionally helpful and critically aware introduction. Paying particular attention to analysis of the play's minor characters, Sheldon P Zitner discusses Shakespeare's transformation of his source material. He rethinks the attitudes to gender relations that underlie the comedy and determine its view of marriage.

«This is an entirely new selection of Keats's finest poetry containing all his best known work as well as a sample of less familiar pieces. Keats published three volumes of poetry before his death at age twenty-five of tuberculosis and, while many of his contemporaries were prompt to recognize his greatness, snobbery and political hostility led the Tory press to vilify and patronize him as a «Cockney poet.» Financial anxieties and the loss of those he loved most had tried him persistently, yet he dismissed the concept of life as a vale of tears and substituted the concept of a «vale of Soul-making.» His poetry and his remarkable letters reveal a spirit of questing vitality and profound understanding and his final volume, which contains the great odes and the unfinished Hyperion, attests to an astonishing maturity of power.»

The novel that set the pattern for the modern Western, Riders of the Purple Sage was first published in 1912, immediately selling over a million copies. In the remote border country of southern Utah, a man is about to be whipped by the Mormons in order to pressure Jane Withersteen into marrying against her will. The punishment is halted by the arrival of the hero, Lassiter, a gunman in black leather, who routs the persecutors and then gradually recounts his own history of an endless search for a woman abducted long ago by the Mormons. Secrecy, seduction, captivity, and escape: out of these elements Zane Grey fashioned his magnificent classic of the American West.

The most famous of Shakespeare's Roman tragedies, Julius Caesar was written and first performed in 1599, and was apparently one the plays his contemporaries enjoyed most. Recounting the death of Caesar on the steps of the Senate house, the play offers some of Shakespeare's finest scenes: Antony's skillful speech at Caesar's funeral, and the quarrel and reconciliation between Brutus and Cassius with the news of Portia's death. This edition includes a fresh consideration of the play's date and its place in the Shakespeare canon and examines how Shakespeare reshaped his sources (primarily North's translation of Plutarch's Lives).

«This Victorian bestseller, along with Braddon's other famous novel, Aurora Floyd, established her as the main rival of the master of the sensational novel, Wilkie Collins. A protest against the passive, insipid 19th-century heroine, Lady Audley was described by one critic of the time as «high-strung, full of passion, purpose, and movement.» Her crime (the secret of the title) is shown to threaten the apparently respectable middle-class world of Victorian England.»

Sybil, or The Two Nations is one of the finest novels to depict the social problems of class-ridden Victorian England. The book's publication in 1845 created a sensation, for its immediacy and readability brought the plight of the working classes sharply to the attention of the reading public. The 'two nations' of the alternative title are the rich and poor, so disparate in their opportunities and living conditions, and so hostile to each other that they seem almost to belong to different countries. The gulf between them is given a poignant focus by the central romantic plot concerning the love of Charles Egremont, a member of the landlord class, for Sybil, the poor daughter of a militant Chartist leader.

This is a new verse translation of Lucretius's only known work, a didactic poem written in six books of hexameters. Melville's particularly literal translation of the use of metaphor is especially helpful to those looking at the text from a scientific or philosophical point of view.

This is the story of the Ramsays, based on Virginia Woolf's own family. Written in the stream-of-consciousness style, the book examines family relationships, the traditional roles of the sexes, the tensions and love between husband and wife and the resentment children can feel for their parents.

«Oscar Wilde was already famous as a brilliant wit and raconteur when he first began to publish his short stories in the late 1880s. Admired by George Orwell and W. B. Yeats, the stories include poignant fairy-tales such as «The Happy Prince» and «The Selfish Giant» the extravagant comedy of «Lord Arthur Savile's Crime» and «The Canterville Ghost» and the daring narrative experiments of «The Portrait of Mr. W. H.» Wilde's fictional investigation into the identity of the dedicatee of Shakespeare's sonnets. John Sloan's Introduction argues for Wilde's originality and literary achievement as a short-story writer, emphasizing his literary skill and sophistication, and arguing for the centrality of Wilde's shorter fiction in his literary career. The collection includes a useful and up-to-date bibliography and extensive and helpful explanatory notes, and an Appendix reprints an important passage from the book-length version of «The Portrait of Mr. W. H.» on the Neo-Platonic ideal of friendship between men, an important key to the short story's meaning.»

«The fifth volume of Chekhov short stories completes the publication in the World Classics series of his entire work as a mature fiction-writer. Here are 22 stories, including «The Steppe» Chekhov's first short story to be published in a serious Russian literary journal. All the texts are taken from the highly-acclaimed translation by Ronald Hingley.»

Wobble Bear is learning to talk and his mum is trying to teach him about colours. But the only colour he will say is 'yellow'. Yellow to the pink soap, yellow to the red towel, yellow to his green pyjamas... until finally he gets it right and says yellow to the harvest moon at bedtime. Parents and toddlers everywhere will love watching Wobble Bear learn and will relate to all his little triumphs and disasters as they follow his antics. A very loveable little bear is ready to entertain in this fun-filled celebration of language — perfect for toddlers who are just starting to build up their own vocabulary.