Darwin's writings as an independent naturalist on the HMS Beagle between 1831 and 1836 capture the natural world's beauty in his own sublime language. In a travel journal which takes us from the coasts and interiors of South America to the South Sea Islands, his descriptive powers are constantly challenged, but never once overcome. Here is his speculative mind at work, posing questions about the Earth's structure, animal forms, anthropology and the origins of life itself. 480 page reprint in paperback. Line illus.

Perhaps the greatest book ever written about war. Oppression soldier von Clauswitz had witnessed at first hand the immense destructive power of French Revolutionary armies which swept across Europe between 1792 and 1815. His response was to write a comprehensive text covering every aspect of warfare - a philosophical and practical work with highly controversial passages. His arguments are illustrated with vivid examples from the campaigns of Frederick the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. Abridged and with an Introduction by Louise Willmot. Translated by Constance Garnett, with an Introduction and Notes by Agnes Cardinal, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Kent. 373 page paperback.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is one of the most important and innovative figures of the European Middle Ages. Writing his Comedy (the epithet Divine was added by later admirers) in exile from his native Florence, he aimed to address a world gone astray both morally and politically. At the same time, he sought to push back the restrictive rules which traditionally governed writing in the Italian vernacular, to produce a radically new, all-encompassing poetic work In Inferno, Dante's protagonist - and his reader - is presented with a graphic vision of the dreadful consequences of sin, and encounters an all-too-human array of noble, grotesque, beguiling, ridiculous and horrific characters. 224pp. Paperback.

The Moonstone, a priceless Indian diamond which had been brought to England as spoils of war, is given to Rachel Verrinder on her 18th birthday. That very night, the stone is stolen. Suspicion then falls on a hunchbacked housemaid, an Rachel's cousin Franklin Blake, on a troupe of mysterious Indian jugglers, and on Rachel herself. The phlegmatic Sergeant Cuff is called in, and with the help of Betteredge, the Robinson Crusoe-reading loquacious steward, the mystery of the missing stone is ingeniously solved. 448pp. Paperback.

A collection of twenty of the very best tales from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 56 short stories featuring the arch-sleuth. Within these pages the reader will encounter the greatest collection of villains and the weirdest and most puzzling mysteries ever seen in print. And there at the centre, in a London swathed in eddies of fog and illuminated by gaslight, is to be found the remarkable chracter of Sherlock Holmes and his staunch companion and chronicler, Doctor John H. Watson. 416pp. Paperback.

Set in the reign of Richard I, Coeur de Lion, Ivanhoe is packed with memorable incidents - sieges, ambushes and combats and equally memorable characters. Scott explores the conflicts between the Crown and the powerful Barons, between the Norman overlords and the conquered Saxons, and between Richard and his scheming brother, Prince John. 400pp. Paperback.

The ideas of Plato (c.429-347BC) have influenced Western philosophers for over 2,000 years. The Republic deals with the great range of Platonic thought combining argument and myth to advocate a life organised by reason rather than dominated by desires and appetites. Regarded by some as the foundation document of totalitarianism, it remains a challenging and intensely exciting work. 400 page paperback.

John Locke (1632-1704) was a key figure in 17th century philosophy, politics and society. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding was his greatest achievement, and encompasses a broad spectrum of his thought. In the Essay, Locke makes clear the critical and sceptical routes by which philosophy was to develop as a study distinct from the natural sciences, and he argues on views on society, religion, language, education and progress that have subsequently become widely influential in the mainstream of European thought. His political writings embody the spirit of the Revolution of 1688. Locke's natural modesty combines felicitously with his passionate concern for freedom, integrity and human happiness. His supremely intelligent and commonsense approach is as stimulating now as it was in the 17th century. 426pp. Paperback.

Benedict de Spinoza lived a life of blameless simplicity as a lens-grinder in Holland. And yet in his lifetime he was expelled from the Jewish community in Amsterdam as a heretic, and after his death his works were first banned by the Christian authorities as atheistic, then hailed by humanists as the gospel of Pantheism. His Ethics Demonstrated in Geometrical Order shows us the reality behind this enigmatic figure. First published by his friends after his premature death at the age of 44, the Ethics uses the methods of Euclid to describe a single entity, properly called both 'God' and 'Nature', of which mind and matter are two manifestations. In ways that are strikingly modern, discover the identity of mind and body, the necessary causation of events and actions, and the illusory nature of free will. 400pp. Paperback.

In 1869 a young Russian was strangled, shot through the head and thrown into a pond. His crime? A wish to leave a small group of violent revolutionaries, from which he had become alienated. Dostoevsky takes this real-life catastrophe as the subject and culmination of Devils, a title that refers to the young radicals themselves and also to the materialistic ideas that possessed the minds of many thinking people in Russian society at the time. The satirical portraits of the revolutionaries, with their naivety, ludicrous single-mindedness and readiness for murder and destruction, might seem exaggerated - until we consider their all-too-recognisable descendants in the real world ever since. 720 page paperback.