Companions and guides
 
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The Cambridge Concise Guide to Literature in English
Synopsis
Derived from the parent Guide to Literature in English, this volume offers in concise form over 4000 entries on literature in English from cultures throughout the world. Writers and major works from the UK and the USA are represented, as are those from Canada, the Caribbean, Australia, India and Africa. The coverage is broad, from the classics of English literature, to the best of modern writing; living writers mingle with those of the past. Additionally, the Guide has a wealth of entries on literary movements, groups or schools in literature and criticism, literary magazines, genres and sub-genres, critical concepts and rhetorical terms. While users of a concise volume want a handy and cheap source of reference, they nevertheless have wide-ranging needs. The Concise Guide has been designed to meet those requirements by abbreviating the entries as crisply as possible.

 

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The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English

Synopsis
Substantially enlarged and updated for this edition, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English is a guide to the vast and rich heritage of literature written in English. It covers all the major novelists, poets and dramatists - from Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Austen, Dickens and Conrad - to contemporary writers from all over the English-speaking world - Saul Bellow, Adrienne Rich, Les Murray, Wole Soyinka and Janet Frame. Over 100 specialist contributors provide detailed biographical and critical articles not only on writers and their works, but also on the critics, philosophers, historians and biographers who need to be consulted in a literary context. Substantial coverage is also given to such literary genres as popular fiction, science fiction, detective novels and children's classics. Literary concepts such as structuralism, tragedy and irony are described, and full explanations are provided for movements from neo-classicism and Romanticism to modernism and post-modernism.

 

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Chambers Dictionary of Science and Technology
Synopsis
Covering a diverse range of subjects including astronomy, behaviour, civil engineering, mineral extraction, textiles and zoology, this updated dictionary has over 50,000 entries, and 100 new panel entries to present topics in more detail.

 

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The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music
Synopsis
Derived from the full Oxford Dictionary of Music (see below), this is the most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of music available in paperback. Fully revised and updated for this new edition, it is a rich mine of information for lovers of music of all periods and styles. Over 10,000 entries on musical terms, works, composers, librettists, musicians, singers, and orchestras * Comprehensive work-lists for major composers * Generous coverage of living composers and performers * Important ballets and operas * Musical instruments and their history This book is intended for music lovers, concert goers, amateur musicians, and students from the 6th Form upwards.

 

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Dictionary of the Internet and CD-ROM Bundle
Synopsis
This dictionary of the Internet provides 4,000 terms on the Web, software technology, jargon, e-commerce, security and the technical and organizational infrastructure of the Internet. By concentrating on the Internet and its structure, the reference work does not cover basic computing terms. A free CD-ROM included with the book contains the full dictionary entries in a browsable format with hyperlinks between entries. There are also links to relevant websites. The dictionary is supported by a separate website where updates for downloading are posted. Sample entries from the text are also be displayed.

 

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Dictionary of Printing and Publishing
Synopsis
This updated edition covers all aspects of printing and publishing. It includes terms from the various stages of book, magazine and newspaper production including editing, design, printing and distribution. Topics include printing machines, paper, ink, binding, typesetting, typefaces, DTP, commercial publishing and bookselling, editing, proofreading, layout, commissioning, and contracts and rights. It also includes coverage of electronic publishing and publishing on the internet, incorporating the programming languages, file formats, and standards used in electronic publishing.

 

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A Dictionary of Writers and Their Works
Synopsis
A quick-reference guide to authors and their works. The focus is on the general canon of British literature from the 15th century to the present. There is also some coverage of non-fiction, such as biographies, memoirs, and science, as well as the inclusion of major American, Commonwealth, and other foreign writers. The dictionary is in three sections: Section I contains an A-Z listing of authors, with nationality and birth/death dates, followed by a listing of their titles arranged chronologically by date of publication. Section II has an A-Z listing of titles included in Section I, with date of publication and author's name. Section III consists of an index of selected literary characters, focusing on major works from Sections I and II. Users should be able to identify authors from a known title; verify or establish publication date of a particular work; review the main output of a particular author at a glance; verify/establish birth/death dates of an author; and locate well-known literary characters in the works in which they appear.

 

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A Dictionary of Zoology
Synopsis
This dictionary is a comprehensive reference work on all aspects of the study of animals. Fully revised for this edition, with over 5000 entries, it provides wide coverage of topics including animal behaviour, ecology, physiology, genetics, cytology, evolution, and Earth history. There is taxonomic coverage of arthropods, other invertebrates, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals. The text has been revised to incorporate the discovery of 'extremophiles' - organisms living in environments formerly considered impossibly hostile - and the toxonomic reclassification that this has entailed.

 

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The Oxford Companion to English Literature
Synopsis
Based on the text of Margaret Drabble's 1995 edition, this edition has been completely reworked and expanded. There are nearly 600 entirely new entries to reflect the figures and issues of English literature in the 21st century and the existing entries have been revised and updated to incorporate ongoing scholarship. But this edition remains faithful to Sir Paul Harvey's original vision of a work placing English literature from the Classical world, Europe, Latin America, and beyond. In addition to the coverage of writers, works, literary theory, allusions and characters, there are 16 featured essay-style entries on key topics including black British literature, fantasy fiction, and modernism.

 

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Oxford Companion to Western Art
Synopsis
Essentially a replacement for Harold Osborne's Oxford Companion to Art (1970), this work has over 2,500 entries, alphabetically arranged. Almost half of them cover artists, from classical times to the 20th century. Other entries discuss art styles and movements, art forms (such as battle painting, caricature, or stained glass), specialist terms, and materials and techniques in all media. There is a strong emphasis on location as a focus for art; not only are there regional and cultural surveys, but also entries on specific places of importance such as Urbino or Nancy. In addition, entries on museums and galleries are arranged under the their city headword so that the reader can easily survey the major sites within a particular locality, such as New York, Boston, or Madrid. Patronage is an important new area of interest. Here, rather than focusing on a limited number of individual patrons, this work has entries on towns and cities as centres of patronage and collecting - such as Nuremberg, Dresden, or Prague.

 

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The Oxford Dictionary of Music
Synopsis
This revised and expanded edition encompasses musical subjects of all kinds: composers; performers in all fields; orchestras; titles and descriptions of individual works, operas, and ballets; musical forms and terms; instruments; institutions; and writers and scholars.

 

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