Daniel Deronda, George Eliot's last great novel, charts the intertwined lives of spirited Gwendolen Harleth and the idealistic Deronda. Both are damaged by their pasts, and alienated from the society around them, in a story set against the backdrop of economic crisis, political uncertainty, and proto-Zionism.
This Very Short Introduction examines all the major aspects of Dante's work, emphasizing the features that have made him such an important point of reference for modern writers and their readers. Exploring and explaining The Divine Comedy, they also discuss his life and poetry as well as issues of truth, humanity, politics, and religion.
The Daodejing encapsulates the main tenets of Daoism, a philosophy and religion whose dominant image is the Way, a life-giving stream that enables individuals to achieve harmony and a more profound level of understanding. This new translation draws on the latest archaeological finds and brings out the word play and poetry of the original.
Darwin's theory that our ancestors were apes caused a furore in the scientific world and outside it when The Origin of Species was published in 1859. Analysing Darwin's major insights and arguments, this work reasserts the importance of his work for the development of modern biology.