Oxford World's Classics is an imprint of

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press 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 (trade name), imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English language, English, Spanish language, Spanish, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Korean language, Korean amon ...

, Everyman's Library, and the

Modern Library The Modern Library is an American book publishing Imprint (trade name), 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, Moder ...

. 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 and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

, 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 of the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

. 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 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early ...

includes the major poems like '' The Rape of the Lock'' and '' The Dunciad'', alongside prose essays like '' Peri Bathous'', and an excerpt of his translation of

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient 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. Despite doubts about his autho ...

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

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

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

The Picture of Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is an 1890 philosophical fiction and Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American period ...

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

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'' (Latin: ''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 ...

'' by

Apuleius Apuleius ( ), also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (c. 124 – after 170), was a Numidians, Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He was born in the Roman Empire, Roman Numidia (Roman province), province ...

, and ''The Satyricon'' by Petronius translated and with introductions by P.G.Walsh. Another is the ''Euripides series'' translated from the Greek by James Morwood and

Robin Waterfield Robin Anthony Herschel Waterfield (born 6 August 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 f ...

, including

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; ; ) is the daughter of Aeëtes, King Aeëtes of Colchis. Medea is known in most stories as a sorceress, an accomplished "wiktionary:φαρμακεία, pharmakeía" (medicinal magic), and is often depicted as a high- ...

, The Bacchae and 17 other plays by

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

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

Edith Hall Edith Hall, (born 4 March 1959) is a British scholar of classics, specialising in ancient Greek literature and cultural history, and professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University. She is a Fellow of the Bri ...

References

{{Reflist

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 Book series British companies established in 1901 Publishing companies established in 1901 1901 establishments in England