Oxford World's Classics is an imprint of

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. First established in 1901 by Grant Richards and purchased by OUP in 1906, this imprint publishes primarily dramatic and classic literature for students and the general public. Its competitors include

Penguin Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the Western ...

Everyman's Library Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division of Weidenfeld & Ni ...

, and the

Modern Library The Modern Library is an American book publishing imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Modern Library became an ...

. Most titles include critical apparatus – usually, an introduction, bibliography, chronology, and explanatory notes – as is the case with Penguin Classics.

History

Grant Richards

The World's Classics imprint was created by London publisher Grant Richards in 1901. Richards had an "ambitious publishing programme", and this ambition led to the liquidation of Grant Richards in 1905. Henry Frowde, manager of the Oxford University Press, purchased the series in October 1905. The Oxford World's Classics were classed as "the most famous works of the English Language" and many volumes contained introductions by distinguished authors, such as T. S. Eliot and

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

, among others.Oxford World's Classics blurb The books were marketed as a cheap and accessible series for the general public to read some of the greatest works of literature: :“Cheaply and in little shelf space, the general reader can build up a library of those books, which, having become part of himself, he wishes now to make a part of his home.” World's Classics were first published as 'pocket-sized hardbacks'.

Present day

In response to competition from Penguin, the series was relaunched in paperback format in 1980, with twenty-four initial titles. The World's Classics series was renamed in 1998 as ''Oxford World's Classics''. The new series initially had a dark blue and off-white colour scheme, but this was changed to red and off-white after Penguin Books USA brought a lawsuit in 1998, which argued that the new covers were similar in design to theirs, constituting an infringement on their 'trade dress' rights. A decade later, a major redesign (retaining the basic red and white colour scheme) of all titles was introduced. Many existing titles are reprints of texts established by the earlier Oxford English Novels series, with revisions to the critical material. Some of these titles have since been updated with new introductions and notes by different editors, while retaining the original base text. For example, the Oxford World's Classics edition of '' Emma'' has been updated twice with new introductions by different editors since it was first published in the series in 1980, while retaining the base text established by James Kinsley.

Series

Oxford English Drama

''Oxford English Drama'' editions offer a selection of plays, selected from an author's œuvre or as an anthology of plays linked by topic or theme (e. g. ''Four Revenge Tragedies''). Renaissance, Restoration and eighteenth-century plays have glossaries of archaic words appended, in addition to the usual array of critical material. The series' general editor is

Michael Cordner Michael Cordner is an academic, author and specialist in theatre and drama. His particular interests lie in English drama from c.1580–1720 and the development of the theatre in the UK in the second half of the twentieth century. A former Pro ...

of the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

. Scholar Anne Barton praised the series as a 'splendid and imaginative project', adding that it 'should reshape the canon in a number of significant areas'.

Major works

''Major Works'' are mini-anthologies of an author's most significant works and selected correspondence. For example, the Major Works edition of

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

includes the major poems like '' The Rape of the Lock'' and ''

The Dunciad ''The Dunciad'' is a landmark, mock-heroic, narrative poem by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times from 1728 to 1743. The poem celebrates a goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as they bri ...

'', alongside prose essays like '' Peri Bathous'', and an excerpt of his translation of

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

. Some editions include whole novels as well; the Major Works edition of

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

anthologises many of his plays and prose alongside the whole of ''

The Picture of Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical fiction, philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''Th ...

''. Most titles are often reprints (with revisions) of volumes from an earlier Oxford series, ''Oxford Authors'', under the general editorship of

Frank Kermode Sir John Frank Kermode, FBA (29 November 1919 – 17 August 2010) was a British literary critic best known for his 1967 work '' The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction'' and for his extensive book-reviewing and editing. He was ...

Classical texts

Oxford World's Classics feature multiple works from antiquity in new translations. One notable series consists of Latin standards including ''

The Golden Ass The ''Metamorphoses'' of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as ''The Golden Ass'' (''Asinus aureus''), is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. The protagonist of the novel is Lucius. At the end of the no ...

'' by

Apuleius Apuleius (; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day ...

, and ''The Satyricon'' by

Petronius Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter"
''Euripides series'' translated from the Greek by

James Morwood James Henry Weldon Morwood (25 November 1943 – 10 September 2017) was an English classicist and author. He taught at Harrow School, where he was Head of Classics,Harrow School Register 2002 8th edition edited by S W Bellringer & published by T ...

and

Robin Waterfield Robin Anthony Herschel Waterfield (born 1952) is a British classical scholar, translator, editor, and writer of children's fiction. Career Waterfield was born in 1952, and studied Classics at Manchester University, where he achieved a first clas ...

, including

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jason an ...

The Bacchae ''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. ...

and 17 other plays by

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...

. The series comprises five volumes, each with an introduction by the classicist

Edith Hall Edith Hall, (born 1959) is a British scholar of classics, specialising in ancient Greek literature and cultural history, and professor in the Department of Classics and Centre for Hellenic Studies at King's College, London. She is a Fellow o ...

References

External links

European website
(OUP.co.uk)
UK Higher Education website
– accessed April 2019 from the US, when the above redirects to the US site
United States website"The WORLD'S CLASSICS" and "OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS": A Guide to the Clothbound Editions (and Their Variants).
Compiled by J. Godsey, Geoffrey Milburn and Nicholas Murray. Draft. Western University, 16 April 2010
Archived here.Lise Jaillant, "'Introductions by Eminent Writers': T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf in the Oxford World's Classics Series.
The Book World: Selling and Distributing Literature, 1900–1940, ed. Nicola Wilson (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 52–80 Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Oxford University Press Oxford University Press_books Series of books British companies established in 1901 Publishing companies established in 1901 1901 establishments in England {{publish-corp-stub