An informative introduction exploring our fascination with shells, complete with stunningly reproduced illustrations.

In 1811, architect, stone mason, and shell obsessive George Perry published his lavishly illustrated volume, Conchology or the Natural History of Shells. The work featured 348 beautifully illustrated mollusk shells with descriptions of species, many of which were new to science.

Despite the effort that went into producing it--and at a time when conchophilia, or shell fancying, was at its height--Perry's Conchology disappeared from scientific literature, after being suppressed by the leading conchologists of the day and then cruelly mocked for decades after.

Beautiful Shells reproduces the stunning, exquisitely drawn, and sometimes fanciful shell illustrations from this extraordinary forgotten volume. Following an introduction exploring our fascination with shells and their impact on human history, culture, and science, each of the sixty-one color illustrations is included alongside a description of notable shells and what is known of the mysterious organisms that make them. From the common limpet and razor clam to the valuable cowry and spectacular divine conch, the wide range of featured shells form a treasure trove of natural beauty from our oceans and shores.

A new kind of biography on Jane Austen examining the objects she encountered during her life alongside newer memorabilia inspired by the life she lived.

More than two hundred years after Jane Austen's death at the age of just forty-one, we are still looking for clues about this extraordinary writer's life. What might we learn if we take a glimpse inside the biographies of objects that crossed her path in life and afterward: things that she cherished or cast aside, that furnished the world in which she moved, or that have themselves been inspired by her legacy?

Among objects described in this book are a teenage notebook, a muslin shawl, a wallpaper fragment, a tea caddy, the theatrical poster for a play she attended, and the dining-room grate at Chawton Cottage where she lived. Poignantly, the last manuscript page of her unfinished novel and a lock of hair, kept by her devoted sister, Cassandra, are also featured. Objects contributing to Austen's rich cultural legacy include a dinner plate decorated by Bloomsbury artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Grayson Perry's commemorative pot from 2009, and even Mr Darcy's wet shirt, worn by Colin Firth in the 1995 BBC adaptation.

This is a different kind of biography, in which objects with their own histories offer shifting entry points into Jane Austen's life. Each object, illustrated in color, invites us to meet Austen at a particular moment when her life intersects with theirs, speaking eloquently of past lives and shedding new light on one of our best-loved authors.

Featuring some of the most ferocious and humorous book curses ever inscribed, this is a lively, engaging introduction to the history and development of bookish maledictions.

Have you ever wanted to protect your books from forgetful borrowers, merciless page-folders, or outright thieves? Perhaps you have even wished harm on those who have damaged your books--but would you threaten them with hellfire, hanging, or the plague?

This book contains a collection of some of the most ferocious and humorous book curses ever inscribed--from fearsome threats discovered emblazoned on stone monuments from the ancient Near East to elaborate manuscript maledictions and chilling warnings scribbled in printed books. Book curses are entertaining writings in themselves, but they also offer a tantalizing insight into how passionately texts and books have been valued by their owners and readers over the centuries. Here you will find an engaging introduction to the history and development of the book curse and perhaps some inspiration to pen a few of your own.

A haunting anthology of supernatural stories and the macabre.

First published in 1898, The Eerie Book is a chilling anthology featuring classic gothic authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Thomas de Quincey, and Hans Christian Andersen alongside well-known, influential fairy tales and folklore. All the macabre stories and extracts from longer works have hints of the supernatural and many include malevolent spirits and grotesque murders. Yet this varied selection also features melancholy hauntings and poignant memoirs in a fascinating mix of gothic horror and disturbing legend.

In this new compendium, each story is illustrated with a striking engraving by art nouveau artist W.B. Macdougall. Beautifully produced, carefully curated, and timeless, The Eerie Book is the perfect gift for anyone who likes to be haunted by ghost stories. Read it if you dare.

A detailed portrait of C.S. Lewis and the influence Oxford had on his fantastical fiction, including newly discovered letters and an unpublished poem.

The fantastical fictional land of Narnia, famously reached via a magical wardrobe, has many connections to the world in which its creator C.S. Lewis lived. The influence of Oxford can be seen not only in medieval buildings and towers but also in the literature that Lewis encountered there, through a lifetime's reading and teaching of classical, medieval, and Renaissance literature.

This book examines the role Oxford, its colleges, libraries, chapels, clubs, common rooms, and pubs played in fostering the work of one of the twentieth century's most influential writers. It brings to light several new archival discoveries, including letters, tutorial reports, and even an unpublished poem, as well as offering new insights into Lewis's Oxford life, his transition to Cambridge, his Christian faith, and his contemporary global influence. It also takes a fresh look at his extensive involvement in Oxford's various clubs and societies, including the Coalbiters, the Socratic Club, and, of course, the Inklings, whose distinguished members coalesced around him and his great friend, J.R.R. Tolkien.

Written by an expert in medieval literature who teaches at Magdalen College where Lewis himself taught, C. S. Lewis's Oxford enables readers to understand this world-famous author as a student, scholar, and teacher in greater depth.

An exquisite edition of William Blake's Songs of Innocence, accompanied by an introduction to his life and work.

One of the most important books of illustrated poetry in English literature, William Blake's Songs of Innocence was meticulously relief-etched, printed, and colored in 1789. A unique work of composite art, Song of Innocence contains some of Blake's most enduring and popular poems, delicately illustrated with his exquisite and idiosyncratic designs.

This beautiful book reproduces, in color, the twenty-seven pages of the Bodleian Library's copy of Songs of Innocence together with page-facing transcriptions and an introduction on Blake, his life and work, his illuminated printing process, and the genre and continuing influence of Songs of Innocence. Including the much-loved Nurse's Song, Little Boy Lost, and Spring, Blake's captivating lyrics celebrate childhood as a period of harmony and spontaneity, where the defining traits of the world are compassion, empathy, and love.

An authoritative collection of essays celebrating Franz Kafka's life and work.

Franz Kafka died in 1924 when he was not yet forty-one years old. During his life, he published only seven small books, but he left behind three unfinished novels and a mass of stories, reflections, and personal writings that were published after his death. In particular, his novels, alongside short stories such as The Judgement and The Metamorphosis, have made him one of the most widely read, significant, and influential writers of the twentieth century.

Coinciding with the centennial of Kafka's death, this collection of essays, illustrated with manuscripts, archival material, postcards, and family photographs, contextualizes Kafka in his life and times while showing how his own experiences nourished his imagination. This book is a celebration not just of Kafka's achievements and creativity, but also of how--even a century after his death--he continues to inspire new literary, theatrical, and cinematic creations around the world.

A richly illustrated collection that maps twenty historical journeys.

Adventures in Maps features twenty awe-inspiring journeys, ranging in distances from a few miles to great treks across land, sea, air, and space. Some chart the route a traveler followed, while some are the fruits of exploration, and others were made to help future travelers find their way.

Among these maps are sea charts depicting the sixteenth-century adventures of Richard Hawkins sailing to South America, the surveys of Captain James Cook, and the route followed by pioneering solo yachtswoman Naomi James. On land, we travel North America's Route 66, follow the archaeological expeditions of David Hogarth along the Euphrates and Aurel Stein on the Silk Road, experience Thomas Cook's first package tour, and move with pilgrims making their way across Europe. By air and space, we learn the stories of the Arctic explorations needed to enable a Great Circle route by air over Greenland, the first flight from London to Manchester, and the surveys of the Moon that ultimately facilitated the first landing.

These inspirational accounts are drawn from diaries, letters, memoirs, and travelogues: all illustrated with fascinating, beautiful maps.

Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth explores the huge creative endeavor behind Tolkien's enduring popularity. Lavishly illustrated with three hundred images of his manuscripts, drawings, maps, and letters, the book traces the creative process behind his most famous literary works--The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion--and reproduces personal photographs and private papers, many of which have never been seen before in print.

Six essays introduce the reader to the person of J. R. R. Tolkien and to main themes in his life and work, including the influence of northern languages and legends on the creation of his own legendarium; his concept of Fa rie as an enchanted literary realm; the central importance of his invented languages in his fantasy writing; his visual imagination and its emergence in his artwork; and the encouragement he derived from his close friend C. S. Lewis and their literary group the Inklings.

The book brings together the largest collection of original Tolkien material ever assembled in a single volume. Drawing on the extensive archives of the Tolkien collections at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, which stretch to more than five hundred boxes, and Marquette University, Milwaukee, as well as private collections, this hugely ambitious and exquisitely produced book draws together the worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien - scholarly, literary, creative, and domestic--offering a rich and detailed understanding and appreciation of this extraordinary author.

This landmark publication, produced on the occasion of a major exhibition at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford in 2018 and at the Morgan Library in New York in 2019, is set to become a standard work in the literature on J. R. R. Tolkien.

Reynard--a subversive, dashing, anarchic, aristocratic, witty fox from the watery lowlands of medieval East Flanders--is in trouble. He has been summoned to the court of King Noble the Lion, charged with all manner of crimes and misdemeanors. How will he pit his wits against his accusers--greedy Bruin the Bear, pretentious Courtoys the Hound, and dark and dangerous Isengrim the Wolf--to escape the gallows?

Reynard was once the most popular and beloved character in European folklore, as familiar as Robin Hood, King Arthur, or Cinderella. His character spoke eloquently for the voiceless and disenfranchised, but also amused and delighted the elite, capturing hearts and minds across borders and societal classes for centuries. Based on William Caxton's bestselling 1481 English translation of the Middle Dutch, this edition is an imaginative retelling of the Reynard story, expanded with new interpretations and innovative language and characterizations. With its themes of protest, resistance, and duplicity led by a personable, anti-heroic Fox, this gripping tale is as relevant and controversial today as it was in the fifteenth century.

A hilarious anthology of the funniest bits from Dickens' novels, with a foreword by bestselling author Nick Hornby.

Dickens: The Funny Bits is a brilliant anthology of the funniest extracts from Dickens' novels featuring his famous comic characters such as the Artful Dodger, Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Micawber, Dick Swiveller, Mr. Wopsle, and the Aged P.

Organized by novel, the extracts act as standalone vignettes or set pieces and are illustrated with the much-loved line drawings from the early editions, including work by George Cruikshank, Phiz, John Leech, and Marcus Stone. Complete with an introduction from author Nick Hornby, this work also includes passages from Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations, and A Christmas Carol, as well as the unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood. This work is a super gift for any Dickens fan as well as any reader with an appreciation of the power of humor.

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a ground-breaking proclamation: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This milestone document, made up of thirty articles, set out for the first time the fundamental human rights that must be protected by all nations.

The full text of that document is reproduced in this book alongside a foreword by human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. John Pinfold's general introduction explores the Declaration's origins, touching on the Four Freedoms described by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the role his wife Eleanor Roosevelt took on as chair of the Human Rights Commission and of the drafting committee, and the parts played by other key international members of the Commission. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a pioneering achievement in the wake of the Second World War. It continues to provide a basis for international human rights law, making the document's aims as relevant today as when they were first adopted.

A spellbinding collection of twenty-four divinatory techniques from around the world.

In Divination, Oracles & Omens, Michelle Aroney and David Zeitlyn explore our need to appeal to powers beyond our realm for prediction and clarification.

The past, present, and future are full of tantalizing mysteries: questions about our own and other people's lives that we long to answer. Across history, human cultures have devised a wide range of methods to discover what might lie ahead or to understand past events.

This fascinating book features twenty-four divinatory techniques from around the world that have been and are still used to uncover hidden information: from astrology, palmistry, and Tarot to egg divination and Chinese Yijing. Each chapter is beautifully illustrated with a wide range of associated objects, such as cards, dice, altars, candles and texts, and even mathematical tools including astrolabes and astronomical tables. While these practices are often seen as light-hearted entertainment, a soothsayer's uncannily accurate reading can catapult a client from skepticism to serious engagement.

From ancient times to the present day, this spellbinding collection explores our need to appeal to powers beyond the realm of our day-to-day understanding for prediction and clarification, and how the questions we ask can reveal more than the answers we are given.

A beautiful reproduction of naturalist Mark Catesby's flora and fauna illustrations of North America and the Caribbean.

Mark Catesby was an eighteenth-century naturalist and artist whose work on the natural history of North America and the Caribbean still resonates today. During several perilous trips, Catesby collected specimens and made extensive observations in the field, gathering material that would eventually become The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, which featured 220 elaborate, distinctive hand-colored illustrations.

With their striking combinations of animals and plants paired together with the first-hand observations he made, Catesby's stunning illustrations were widely appreciated in their time and catalyzed interest in the natural history of Colonial America. Ultimately, his work was established as a key reference for the scientific understanding of natural history. As an artist, Catesby meticulously recorded the environment, sifting fact from fiction about the lives of the plants and animals he observed. As a collector, he introduced many living plants to Britain, thereby changing European gardens forever.

Catesby's Natural History reproduces all the original plates and shows how Catesby's practical field experience shaped his work in all areas. Whether through the now-extinct species he recorded or the cultural changes he witnessed, his research continues to be relevant, demonstrating the vulnerability and fragility of the natural world.

A fascinating collection examining the spread of books in Jewish vernacular languages and Hebrew characters.

From Cairo Genizah to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, the spread of books in Jewish vernacular languages and Hebrew characters offers an extraordinary insight into the linguistic richness of Jewish life. For over two millennia, Jewish communities have used languages other than Hebrew for daily oral communication, including Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-French, Judeo-Italian, Yiddish, and Ladino. However, they used the Hebrew alphabet to write these languages down and developed sophisticated systems to transmit texts in them. Many of these vernacular languages also became languages of book culture.

The Bodleian Libraries' collections host an unparalleled collection of texts in Judeo-languages, giving a picture of how these works were produced and communicated. As some of these languages are now extinct or moribund, these writings are also important testimonies to lost cultures. Generously illustrated and ranging in time from the Middle Ages to the Emancipation, this collection of essays showcases important hallmarks in the intellectual and social history of Jewish culture.

An extraordinary account of Oxford's role in the Second World War.

Oxford played a unique part in the national endeavor to defend Britain in the Second World War. Thanks to its proximity to London, the city provided an alternative base for civil servants from the Ministry of Food, the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Home Security, the Ministry of Information, and the Ministry of Works. The Admiralty, the War Office, the Air Ministry, MI5, and Bletchley Park all also had a presence in Oxford. Colleges became military hospitals, evacuee centers, and both cadet and senior officer schools. Students fit for active service took shortened degree courses and underwent military training while they studied. Grassy quadrangles were converted into vegetable plots and the New Bodleian Library provided underground storage for treasures from Parliament and national museums.

Drawing on first-hand narratives and the University of Oxford's archival material, this pioneering account reveals the essential role Oxford played in producing military intelligence, creating propaganda, and developing radar and the atomic bomb. It also explores how the university provided sanctuary for academics fleeing fascism who in turn made significant contributions in their fields of expertise, painting an astonishing picture of the war's profound impact on an ancient seat of learning.

Whether you look upon the city with admiration, disgust, or an incongruous combination of the two, Chicago has captured the imagination of generations of poets, novelists, journalists, and commentators who have visited or called it home. Chicago in Quotations offers a compendium of the most colorful impressions that citizens of--or visitors to--the Second City will appreciate.

An intimate account of Albert Einstein's visit to Oxford in the 1930's, casting new light on why he continues to be the world's most famous scientist.

In 1931, Albert Einstein visited Oxford to receive an honorary degree and lecture on relativity and the universe. While teaching, he naturally chalked equations and diagrams on several blackboards. Today, one of these boards is the most popular object in Oxford's History of Science Museum. Yet Einstein tried to prevent its preservation because he was modest about his legendary status. Having failed, he complained to his diary: Not even a cart-horse could endure so much!

Nevertheless, he came back to Oxford in 1932 and again in 1933--then as a refugee from Nazi Germany. In many ways, the city appealed deeply and revealed him at his most charismatic as he participated in its science, music, and politics, and wandered its streets alone. Einstein in Oxford is an eye-opening exploration of the world's most famous scientist, told through the personal writings he left behind from an important period of his life. From the pages of his diary entries, poem, and other written observations, readers gain a deeper understanding of the unique man--and humor--who continues to fascinate the world.

This beautiful edition of Charles Dickens's perennial seasonal favorite offers exquisite illustrations of Marley's ghost, Bob Cratchit's slide down icy Cornhill, Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig's dance, and Ebenezer Scrooge himself. Arthur Rackham's color wash drawings and silhouettes, first published during the First World War, bring a threatening and haunting atmosphere to Scrooge's ghostly story. Rackham was a leading illustrator in the golden age of book illustration when groundbreaking techniques for color printing were developing fast. He illustrated over sixty books and specialized in children's classics and fairy tales.

This landmark edition of A Christmas Carol helped to consolidate the idea of the Dickensian Christmas and the tradition of the Christmas gift book. It is a beautiful version of a classic story, which never ceases to be relevant to our times.