This richly illustrated book explores over seven hundred years of European warfare, from the time of Charlemagne to the end of the middle ages (c.1500). The period covered has a distinctive character in military history. It was an age when organization for war was integral to social structure, when [...]

Wilkie Collins's fifth novel, The Dead Secret explores the relationship between a fallen woman, her illegitimate daughter and the recovery of a hidden secret. Set in rugged Cornwall, the novel blends romance with Gothic drama, and in characterization and setting, clearly anticipates the qualities of[...]

Armadale tells the devastating story of the independent, murderous, and adulterous Lydia Gwilt. This traditional melodrama also considers the modern theme of the role of women in society. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature f[...]

'This time the fiction is founded upon facts' stated Wilkie Collins in his Preface to Man and Wife (1870). Many Victorian writers responded to contemporary debates on the rights and the legal status of women, and here Collins questions the deeply inequitable marriage laws of his day. Man and Wife e[...]

At the center of Hide and Seek (1854) a secret waits to be revealed. Why should the apparently respectable painter Valentine Blyth refuse to account for the presence in his household of the beautiful girl known only as Madonna? It is not until his young friend Zack Thorpe--rebelling against his repr[...]

Generally considered the first English sensation novel, The Woman in White features the remarkable heroine Marian Halcome and her sleuthing partner, drawing master Walter Hartright, pitted against the diabolical team of Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde. A gripping tale of murder, intrigue, madnes[...]

"Amy . . . I'll be back." For eight years Amy Deverall clung to the words Rain Tallman had whispered as he kissed her and rode away. Smart as a whip and as eager for life as a young colt, Amy grew up along the mighty Wabash River, waiting for the handsome Shawnee-raised boy who had gone off to explo[...]

Short and oddly built, with a head too big for his body, extremely short-sighted, unable to stay still, dressed in colourful clothes, 'as if playing a certain part in the great general drama of life', Wilkie Collins looked distinctly strange. But he was none the less a charmer, befriended by the gre[...]

Classic / British English (Available April 2008) The Moonstone is an ancient Indian diamond which brings disaster to everyone who owns it. Rachel Verinder's uncle gives her the diamond as a birthday present, but that same night it is stolen The Moonstone is now seen as the first, and one of the bes[...]

The mysterious appearance of a woman dressed in all white leads Walter Hartright to the discovery of a complicated plot involving a stolen inheritance and an escape from a mental institution. Reprint.[...]