Robert Burns, the most celebrated of all Scottish poets, is remembered with great devotion - his birthday on 25th January provokes fervour and festivity among Scots and many others the world over. Born in 1759 into miserable rustic poverty, by the age of 18 Burns had acquired a good knowledge of both classical and English literature. In June 1786 his first collection of verse, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, which included To a Mouse and The Cotter's Saturday Night, was greeted with huge acclaim by all classes of society. His later poems and ballads include Auld Lang Syne, the beautiful song My Love is Like a Red Red Rose, Highland Mary, Scots Wha Hae and his masterpiece, Tam o'Shanter. 672 page paperback.

With an Introduction and Bibliography Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson may fairly be regarded as Australia's national poet. 'Waltzing Matilda', 'Clancy of the Overflow' and 'The Man from the Snowy River' still strike a chord in the hearts of Australians wherever they may be, evoking, as they do, the rough life and values of the outback. The apparent simplicity of the ballad form which 'Banjo' embraced so wholeheartedly is balanced by many syllabic irregularities and internal rhyme. This harks back to the old ballads of the English and considerable ingenuity of stress and Scottish borders, as well as the heroic songs of Ireland. Banjo Paterson's poetry is the authentic voice of a frontier society in which song and campfire recitation were the only entertainment open to tired stockmen and drovers. 288pp. Paperback.

With an Introduction by Tim Cook. Shakespeare's sonnets have an intensity of both feeling and meaning unmatched in English sonnet form. They divide into two parts; the first 126 sonnets are addressed to a fair youth for whom the poet has an obsessive love and the second chronicles his love for the notorious 'Dark Lady'.In addition to the sonnets, this volume includes Shakespeare's two lengthy narrative poems on classical themes, 'The Rape of Lucrece' which looks forward to the dark imagery of Macbeth, and 'Venus and Adonis' which mixes ribaldry and tragedy in unique Shakespearean manner. 'The Phoenix and the Turtle' is a beautiful metaphysical and allegorical short elegy, and takes its place with Shakespeare's better known poetry. 208pp. Paperback.

Gwendolen Harleth, George Eliot's most remarkable heroine, marries for money and power rather than love, but finds marriage a trap and her husband's sadistic use of power constricting. The upper class Victorian society in which she moves is juxtaposed with that of the hero, Daniel Deronda. The warmth and profound moral fervour of his newly discovered community of English Jews casts a harsh light on the superficiality and hypocrisy of Gwendolen's world. Daniel's influence is a redemptive force that breaks new ground for the English novel with the unusual form and content of this extraordinary tale which conveys the full, painful complexity of love and life. 675pp. Paperback.

Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) is the philosopher who has had most influence on the development of western culture - natural sciences, philosophical topics of logic, metaphysics and ethics. To the poet Dante he was simply the master of those who know. The Ethics contains his views on what makes a good human life. The Ancient Greek thinker outlines his own understanding of morality and virtue in the practical contexts of humanity and society. And yet, he also poses questions, analyzing potential counterviews and disagreements to his own treatise. For anyone seeking to get to the root of one of philosophy's age-old questions. Paperback. 320pp.

A tinker, sailor, Baptist minister, prisoner and writer of outstanding narrative genius, this must be John Bunyan's greatest work. It is an allegory of the Christian life of true brilliance and is presented as a dream which describes the pilgrimage of the hero, Christian, from the City of Destruction via the Slough of Despond, the Hill of Difficulty, the Valley of the Shadow of Death and Vanity Fair over the River of the Water of Life and into the Celestial City. 272pp. Paperback.

Inspired by the insatiable Victorian appetite for party games, tricks and conundrums, Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) wrote many works of humorous, witty, whimsical and nonsensical verse. The Hunting of the Snark as well as dozens of other verses, stories, acrostics and puzzles are all included in this omnibus volume. Oxford scholar, Church of England Deacon, university lecturer, academic author, gifted pioneer of portrait photography and yet a shy and pedantic man, Lewis Carroll stands pre-eminent in the pantheon of inventive literary geniuses. With an introduction by Alexander Woollcott, this is a facsimile reprint by Wordsworth. 1232 pages with index of first lines. Paperback.

Hailed as the finest book ever written on the nature of democracy, it continues to be an influential text on both sides of the Atlantic, above all in the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. De Tocqueville examines the structures, institutions and operation of democracy, and shows how Europe can learn from American successes and failures. His central theme is the advancement of the rule of the people, but he also predicts that slavery will bring about the most horrible of civil wars, foresees that the USA and Russia will be the superpowers of the 20th century, and is 150 years ahead of his time in his views on the position and importance of women. Paperback reprint.

If Shakespeare had died at the age Marlowe died, there would have been no question that Marlowe would have been the leading figure in English Renaissance drama. This edition of all his plays shows why. The plays give us a clear picture of Marlowe as a radical theatrical poet of great linguistic and dramatic daring, whose characters constantly strive to break out of the social, religious, and rhetorical bonds within which they are confined. Accused during his lifetime of blasphemy and homosexuality, Marlowe still has the power to challenge our assumptions about conventional morality through his innovative theatricality. By placing less known plays such as The Massacre at Paris and Dido Queen of Carthage alongside the acknowledged masterpieces Edward II and Dr Faustus, this edition gives a full picture of Marlowe's distinctive and provocative talent. 546pp. Paperback.

Wilde, glamorous and notorious, invites readers of his verse to meet an unknown and intimate figure. The poetry of his formative years includes the haunting elegy to his young sister and the grieving lyric at the death of his father. The religious drama of his romance with Rome is captured here, as well as its resolution in his renewed love of ancient Greece. He explores forbidden sexual desires, pays homage to the great theatre stars and poets of his day, observes cityscapes with impressionistic intensity. His final masterpiece, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, tells the painful story of his own prison experience, and calls for universal compassion. 192pp paperback.