Books in Oxford Pocket Classics series

Emma Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her affairs bring her disappointment and the consequences are devastating. Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of Emma Bovary caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857. It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi'.

Oscar Wilde was at once a family man and a homosexual outsider, a socialite, socialist, and Irish nationalist. His contradictions inspired him to ponder the roles and masks donned in conventional society, and his acute and wry insights are wonderfully displayed in this collection of his essential plays. Known not only for his brilliant, epigrammatic language, but also for his sense of theatrical design, color, and staging, Wilde created an enduring body of finely crafted works, whose delights and ironies still speak to modern audiences. In addition to Lady Windermere's Fan, Salomé, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, A Florentine Tragedy, and The Importance of Being Earnest, this edition contains an introduction, notes and commentaries, and an excised scene from The Importance of Being Earnest.

Walter Longcluse is clever, cunning and rich. Having insinuated himself into the affections of the Arden family, he becomes devoted to the beautiful young Alice, although she cannot bring herself to like this strange and mysterious friend of her brother's. Then Longcluse visits a gambling club with Alice's brother, Richard, and finds himself confronting the indiscreet Monsieur Lebas, with whom he had been mixed up in the past. Later the same evening Lebas is found stabbed. What is the secret of Longcluse's disfigurement and the 'dark' past which he reveals to no one? Why did Mrs Tansey, the Ardens' housekeeper, react so strongly when she recognized Longcluse's voice? What is it that Longcluse so fears?

In these short stories Hardy's love of the eerie and the supernatural is brought out in full measure, as is his skill in depicting topographical detail. In the title story, set in Casterbridge, a young Hussar captain comes to the town when his regiment is posted to the barracks there. Before long he becomes engaged to Laura, said to be a born 'player of hearts'. Handsome and coveted by all the young maidens, Captain Maumbry seems the perfect match for Laura, who has long desired to enter heart and soul into a military romance. But then a new parson comes to town and though he first irritates the Captain by requesting a stop to regimental band-playing on Sundays, the two later become close friends. When the Captain subsequently announces his intention of resigning his commission and entering the Church as a curate, it causes consternation all round. What changes will it wreak on the small community, on Laura, and not least on Maumbry himself?

This early works is a fascinating novel of the period and still an interesting read today. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.