Introduction to MATLAB

The ideal introduction for students of semantics, Lexical Meaning fills the gap left by more general semantics textbooks, providing the teacher and the student with insights into word meaning beyond the traditional overviews of lexical relations. The book explores the relationship between word meanings and syntax and semantics more generally. It provides a balanced overview of the main theoretical approaches, along with a lucid explanation of their relative strengths and weaknesses. After covering the main topics in lexical meaning, such as polysemy and sense relations, the textbook surveys the types of meanings represented by different word classes. It explains abstract concepts in clear language, using a wide range of examples, and includes linguistic puzzles in each chapter to encourage the student to practise using the concepts. 'Adopt-a-Word' exercises give students the chance to research a particular word, building a portfolio of specialist work on a single word.

Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838–1917) was a bibliographer and editor with a prodigious output of books and articles to his name. Brought up after the death of both his parents by his brother Benjamin Robert, himself a skilled bibliographer and cataloguer, Henry worked for many years for the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Arts; he was a founder member of the Library Association, and produced an edition of Pepys' diary which was not superseded until the 1970s. This 1879 work is one of two which he produced on the subject of indexing, and which led him to become known as 'the father of British indexing': the Wheatley Medal awarded by the Society of Indexers is named after him. This book shows the development of indexes, gives rules for their compilation and provides a bibliographical list of important indexes and concordances. It remains a fascinating introduction to the subject.

The Reinaert Fragments are a collection of seven pages of a Middle Dutch poem attributed to the fifteenth-century Flemish writer Hinrek van Alckmer, and printed in Antwerp in about 1487. This book, originally published in 1927, contains photographic reproductions of the pages, alongside clear transcriptions of the text and three beautiful woodcut illustrations. Karl Breul's detailed introduction sketches the history and development of the story of Reynard the Fox, from its origins in oral tradition and the medieval beast epic to Goethe's famous 'Reinecke Fuchs', indicating the place of the Reinaert poem amongst the various verse and prose versions. The book also includes a corrected version of the van Alckmer fragments, and examines their relationship with the Reinaert II and Reinke texts. The book will be useful to those studying Middle Dutch and Middle Low German literature or printing history, and others interested in the Reynard story.

Professor F. W. Maitland was the foremost Victorian scholar on English legal history, and Mary Bateson a Cambridge medieval historian. This 1901 volume was edited for the Corporation of Cambridge and the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. It provides a transcript and translation of the royal charters issued to the borough of Cambridge between the twelfth and the seventeenth centuries. Maitland lays stress on the considerable independence the medieval borough had. It was largely self-governing, royal charters bestowing or confirming liberties rather than regulating the town governance or providing a constitution. However, there were some limitations, chiefly relating to justice, for which royal permission was needed. It was not until the late seventeenth century that royal authority began to tighten its control of borough affairs. The introduction explains the conventions of such charters, and how the reader should interpret the information contained therein. A valuable source of local hist

Homology theory is a powerful algebraic tool that is at the centre of current research in topology and its applications. This accessible textbook will appeal to mathematics students interested in the application of algebra to geometrical problems, specifically the study of surfaces (sphere, torus, Mobius band, Klein bottle). In this introduction to simplicial homology - the most easily digested version of homology theory - the author studies interesting geometrical problems, such as the structure of two-dimensional surfaces and the embedding of graphs in surfaces, using the minimum of algebraic machinery and including a version of Lefschetz duality. Assuming very little mathematical knowledge, the book provides a complete account of the algebra needed (abelian groups and presentations), and the development of the material is always carefully explained with proofs given in full detail. Numerous examples and exercises are also included, making this an ideal text for undergraduate courses

'Youth', Heart of Darkness and 'The End of the Tether' make up Conrad's most celebrated collection of short narratives. Heart of Darkness forms its sombre centrepiece: set in the Congo of the 1890s, this haunting and widely influential Modernist masterpiece explores the limits of human experience as well as the nightmarish realities and consequences of imperialism. The Cambridge edition presents this trio of stories and Conrad's preface to the collection in forms more authoritative than any so far published. The introduction situates the stories in Conrad's publishing career, traces their sources and surveys contemporary reception. The edition includes detailed explanatory and contextual notes, a glossary of nautical terms, maps and illustrations. A textual essay and comprehensive apparatus reveal the history of each story's composition, revision and publication. This volume will allow scholars to see these familiar stories in a fresh light, by returning to Conrad's original texts.

Two different versions of Romeo and Juliet were published during Shakespeare's lifetime: the second quarto of 1599, on which modern editions are usually based, and the first quarto of 1597. The latter version was long denigrated as a 'bad' quarto', but recent scholarship sees in it a crucial witness for the theatrical practices of Shakespeare and his company. The shorter of the two versions by about one quarter, the first quarto has high-paced action, fuller stage directions than the second quarto, and fascinating alternatives to the famous speeches in the longer version. The introduction to this edition provides a full discussion of the origins of the first quarto, before analysing its distinguishing features and presenting a concise history of the 1597 version. The text is provided with a full collation and commentary which alert the reader to crucial differences between the first and the second quartos.

First published in 1868, this volume contains a collection of twenty-four traditional stories from the southern Indian state of Maharashtra. Mary Eliza Isabella Frere (1845–1911) travelled to India in 1863 to stay with her father, Sir Bartle Frere, the Governor of Bombay. She became fascinated with Indian culture and transcribed these stories from her ayah (nanny and chaperone) Anna Liberata da Souza who had been told them by her grandmother. Expressive and detailed, these stories formed part of southern India's traditional oral culture, at risk of being lost. This volume includes an introduction by Sir Bartle Frere exploring the cultural background to the stories and a chapter by Anna Liberata da Souza describing her life and childhood. This volume was extremely popular, being reprinted in four editions by 1889 and encouraging the study of comparative mythology while revealing new information concerning Indian traditional culture.

The Charters of Grenoble Cathedral are also commonly known as the Charters of St Hugues (1053–1132), who was consecrated bishop of the see in the late eleventh century and remained there until his death. In this 1869 work, the editor gives a thorough introduction to the history of the cathedral and to St Hugues' Charters. Marion discusses the controversial question of whether or not the second charter is authentic by examining the historical sources, and he demonstrates that out of the three charters, two can definitely be ascribed to St Hugues. Although the third charter was possibly begun in St Hugues' lifetime, it was probably completed by his successors. The first charter, probably written around 1130, describes the history of southern France and its inhabitants, and is followed by the much less accomplished second charter. The final charter shows signs of having been considerably re-edited.

Homology theory is a powerful algebraic tool that is at the centre of current research in topology and its applications. This accessible textbook will appeal to mathematics students interested in the application of algebra to geometrical problems, specifically the study of surfaces (sphere, torus, Mobius band, Klein bottle). In this introduction to simplicial homology - the most easily digested version of homology theory - the author studies interesting geometrical problems, such as the structure of two-dimensional surfaces and the embedding of graphs in surfaces, using the minimum of algebraic machinery and including a version of Lefschetz duality. Assuming very little mathematical knowledge, the book provides a complete account of the algebra needed (abelian groups and presentations), and the development of the material is always carefully explained with proofs given in full detail. Numerous examples and exercises are also included, making this an ideal text for undergraduate courses

This 2006 book presents a systematic introduction to the theory of parametric stability of structures under both deterministic and stochastic loadings. A comprehensive range of theories are presented and various application problems are formulated and solved, often using more than one approach. Investigation of an elastic system's dynamic stability frequently leads to the study of dynamic behaviour of the solutions of parametrically excited systems. Parametric instability or resonance is more dangerous than ordinary resonance as it is characterised by exponential growth of the response amplitudes even in the presence of damping. The emphasis in this book is on the applications and various analytical and numerical methods for solving engineering problems. The materials presented are as self-contained as possible, with all of the important steps of analysis provided in order to make the book suitable as a graduate-level textbook and especially for self-study.

This 1924 second edition of Gustav Freytag's Aus Dem Staat Friedrichs des Grossen was edited by Karl Breul of Cambridge University. The original edition, published in 1877, was compiled by Wilhelm Wagner. Breul, whilst preserving the majority of Wagner's work, has edited and updated the text's notes, as well as appending a number of poems on Frederick the Great to Freytag's text. Gustav Freytag was a scholar of German antiquity, early German literature and the origins of German drama. He was also a journalist, biographer and historian with a fervent political mind. His Aus Dem Staat Friedrichs des Grossen is a 'Picture of the German Past', a text where an individual's thoughts and motivations are imagined and presented within a historical framework. Freytag's text thus acts as an invaluable introduction to the life and characteristics of Frederick the Great and will appeal to students of German history and literature alike.

Trained at the École Royale des Chartes at the Sorbonne, Paul Marchegay (1812–1885) was the archivist for the department of Anjou. A native of the area, and a member of the Industrial Society of Angers, Marchegay dedicated his career to publishing manuscripts on the region's history. Published in 1871, Volume 2 contains notes on the manuscripts published in Volume 1, and alerts readers to other historical sources. The introduction is by Émile Mabille (1828–1874), a leading archivist in the manuscript department at the Bibliothèque National in Paris. The most important text in these volumes is the Gesta Consulum Andegavorum. It is the only printed version of this work available, however, modern scholars consider Marchegay's edition to be of poor quality. This book retains an interest for modern readers because it includes rare printed manuscripts, and also because descendants of the family, the Plantagenets, became the ruling monarchy in England.

Originally published in 1953, What Shall I Read Next? lists nearly 2000 works published after 1900, with the compiler's own appreciatory comments on selected items. It was a companion volume to Mr Seymour Smith's English Library. Both books are published on behalf of the National Book League. In his introduction, explaining the scope and purpose of the book, Mr Seymour Smith wrote: 'Some will find it useful merely as a shopping list, reminding them of books they know something about already, and serving as a remembrancer. To others, and particularly to younger readers, it may introduce books which have so far escaped their notice. It is hoped, too, that for booksellers and librarians it will have a practical use as a desk-book, for answering enquiries, for serving as a check list for stock, and for use as a reference book when memory fails'.

This book is unusual in several ways, most obviously because it is written along the lines of a Greek dialogue. It contains a great deal of highly condensed economic theory conveyed by means of a series of questions and answers, Professor Shackle aims questions at the undefended sectors of the economist's fortress, and presents in this form an extremely condensed version of a mass of accepted economic insights. The result is an introduction to economic theory which it is a pleasure to read. The questions which Professor Shackle asks are provocative and serve to focus the reader's attention. Professor Shackle strikes a happy balance between adopting a broad approach and providing instruction in basic economic concepts. His emphasis on the psychology of the individual decision maker and the innate uncertainties of the economic system provides the student with a much more mature view than most expositions.

A. R. J. Turgot (1727–81), one of the greatest thinkers of the century of the Enlightenment, is known to political historians as a pioneer of the doctrine of universal progress, which he first put forward when a student at the Sorbonne in a lecture on The Successive Advances of the Human Mind. He is also well known to economists as the author of Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Wealth, in which he anticipated - and in some respects surpassed - the theoretical system of classical political economy. In this volume, translations of these two works are printed together with a lesser-known work entitled On Universal History, which should be of great interest to sociologists. Professor Meek has prefaced his own translations of the three texts with an introduction in which he analyses the interesting interrelationship between Turgot's political, economic and sociological theories.

Wilamowitz-Moellendorff's edition of Herakles was published in 1895. The renowned German philologist delivers a detailed reading and translation of Euripides' classic tragedy, and also provides the reader with an introduction to the context in which the tragedy unfolds. Volume 1 is divided into three parts. The first is a thorough account of the origins of the story and a characterisation of the figure of Herakles as he first appears in Greek mythology. Herakles belongs to the Dorian tribe and deeply embedded in their self-understanding is, according to Moellendorff, the belief in the divineness of the righteous Dorian man. In the second part of this volume Moellendorff interprets Euripides' version of the Heraclian figure and explains where and how this version of the tragedy differs from the original mythological framework. Part 3 gives Euripides' Greek text and Moellendorff's translation of the drama into German.

In 1867, Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and Peter Guthrie Tate revolutionised physics with the publication of their Treatise on Natural Philosophy, in which they demonstrated the centrality of energy conservation to systems of dynamic movement. Popularly known as 'T&T' for its authors' initials, the Treatise became the standard textbook on natural philosophy, introducing generations of mathematicians to the 'new energy-based dynamics'. In Elements of Natural Philosophy (1873), they distil the portions of the Treatise not requiring higher calculus into a primer suitable for use in university courses. The first half covers the basic principles of kinematics and dynamics, including the motion of points, lines, and volumes, while the second half concerns questions of 'abstract dynamics', including particle attraction. The result of one of the most important collaborations in modern physics, this book remains a thorough introduction to the major principles of Thomson and Tait's lar

A London-born Wesleyan Methodist missionary, William Arthur Cornaby (1860–1921) spent over thirty years in China, where he edited The Chinese Christian Review, and, from 1905, the Ta Tung Pao, a weekly magazine targeted at Chinese officials and scholars. His many books on Chinese culture and civilisation, including A String of Chinese Peach-Stones (1895) and Rambles in Central China (1896), provide detailed sketches of Chinese rural life and customs. The later China Under the Search-Light, first published in 1901, uses Western clichés about China as a point of departure to offer a more nuanced understanding of the underlying facts and problems specific to Chinese society. In this book, Cornaby discusses contemporary topics such as overcrowding in Shanghai, mandarins, and Buddhism. He also scrutinises newspapers, novels, and aesthetic traditions, offering an elementary introduction to Chinese culture as perceived by a nineteenth-century British missionary.

As real estate forms a significant part of the asset portfolios of most investors and lenders, it is crucial that analysts and institutions employ sound techniques for modelling and forecasting the performance of real estate assets. Assuming no prior knowledge of econometrics, this book introduces and explains a broad range of quantitative techniques that are relevant for the analysis of real estate data. It includes numerous detailed examples, giving readers the confidence they need to estimate and interpret their own models. Throughout, the book emphasises how various statistical techniques may be used for forecasting and shows how forecasts can be evaluated. Written by a highly experienced teacher of econometrics and a senior real estate professional, both of whom are widely known for their research, Real Estate Modelling and Forecasting is the first book to provide a practical introduction to the econometric analysis of real estate for students and practitioners.

On 1 January 1999 eleven EU Member States adopted a new currency - the euro. The introduction of the euro was a remarkable feat in the history of European monetary, financial, economic and political integration. It was an event of worldwide significance. Despite much criticism and predictions that it would quickly collapse, the first decade of the euro has been a remarkable success. The euro area has now expanded to 16 members with a combined population of 326 million and contributes 16 per cent of global output. This 2010 book was the first to provide a wide-ranging strategic review of the first decade of the euro. Written by an impressive line-up of academic and professional economists, The Euro: The First Decade is an invaluable reference for scholars and policy makers who wish to know more about the successes and failures of the euro and the challenges that lie ahead.

This 2010 book was the first devoted to the theory of p-adic wavelets and pseudo-differential equations in the framework of distribution theory. This relatively recent theory has become increasingly important in the last decade with exciting applications in a variety of fields, including biology, image analysis, psychology, and information science. p-Adic mathematical physics also plays an important role in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, the theory of strings, quantum gravity and cosmology, and solid state physics. The authors include many new results, some of which constitute new areas in p-adic analysis related to the theory of distributions, such as wavelet theory, the theory of pseudo-differential operators and equations, asymptotic methods, and harmonic analysis. Any researcher working with applications of p-adic analysis will find much of interest in this book. Its extended introduction and self-contained presentation also make it accessible to graduate students appr

This is an introduction to programming using Microsoft's Visual Basic.NET 2010, intended for novice programmers with little or no programming experience or no experience with Visual Basic. The text emphasizes programming logic and good programming techniques with generous explanations of programming concepts written from a non-technical point of view. It stresses input, processing, and output and sequence, selection, and repetition in code development. File I/O and arrays are included. Later chapters introduce objects, event programming, and databases. By taking a slow and steady approach to programming ideas, this book builds new concepts from what the reader has already learned. VB tips and quips inject both humor and insight. The book includes numerous programming examples and exercises, case studies, tutorials, and 'fixing a program' sections for an in-depth look at programming problems and tools. Quizzes and review questions throughout each chapter get students to think about the

This is an introduction to programming using Microsoft's Visual Basic.NET 2010, intended for novice programmers with little or no programming experience or no experience with Visual Basic. The text emphasizes programming logic and good programming techniques with generous explanations of programming concepts written from a non-technical point of view. It stresses input, processing, and output and sequence, selection, and repetition in code development. File I/O and arrays are included. Later chapters introduce objects, event programming, and databases. By taking a slow and steady approach to programming ideas, this book builds new concepts from what the reader has already learned. VB tips and quips inject both humor and insight. The book includes numerous programming examples and exercises, case studies, tutorials, and 'fixing a program' sections for an in-depth look at programming problems and tools. Quizzes and review questions throughout each chapter get students to think about the

This Annotated Catalogue presents the most ambitious and comprehensive research ever carried out on the first editions of Chopin's music. It begins with an in-depth introduction to these unique sources and the publishing practices that gave rise to them. A detailed description then follows of each Chopin first edition and the later impressions produced by the original publishers or their successors. The Annotated Catalogue facilitates identification of the Chopin scores held in libraries and private collections around the world by attempting to reconstruct the creative history of each edition. It features entries on 1,552 distinct impressions – of which some 4,830 copies are individually described – along with explanatory essays, appendices and facsimiles of over 200 title pages which illustrate their respective catalogue entries. Musicians and musicologists alike will gain an unprecedented understanding of the creative history of each Chopin edition and the music within it.

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology constitutes a breakthrough in the design of wireless communications systems, and is already at the core of several wireless standards. Exploiting multipath scattering, MIMO techniques deliver significant performance enhancements in terms of data transmission rate and interference reduction. This 2007 book is a detailed introduction to the analysis and design of MIMO wireless systems. Beginning with an overview of MIMO technology, the authors then examine the fundamental capacity limits of MIMO systems. Transmitter design, including precoding and space-time coding, is then treated in depth, and the book closes with two chapters devoted to receiver design. Written by a team of leading experts, the book blends theoretical analysis with physical insights, and highlights a range of key design challenges. It can be used as a textbook for advanced courses on wireless communications, and will also appeal to researchers and practitioners working

This edition collects all the surviving evidence for the fifth-century BCE Athenian sophist Antiphon and presents it together with a translation and a full commentary, which assesses its reliability and significance. Although Antiphon is not as familiar a figure as sophists such as Protagoras and Gorgias, substantial fragments have survived from his major works, On Truth and On Concord, including extensive remains preserved on papyrus. In addition, information about his doctrines is preserved by ancient writers ranging in time from Aristotle to Simplicius and beyond. The introduction provides a brief sketch of Antiphon, his works, and his place in the fifth-century BCE sophistic movement, including his important contribution to the contemporary debate over the relation of law (nomos) and nature (physis). It also deals with the controversial question of the identity of Antiphon the sophist in relation to Antiphon of Rhamnus and other men of the same name.

Although African literatures in English and French are widely known outside Africa, those in the African languages themselves have not received comparable attention. In this book a number have been selected for survey by fourteen specialist writers, providing the reader with an introduction to this very wide field and a body of reference material which includes extensive bibliographies and biographical information on African authors. Theoretical issues such as genre divisions are discussed in the essays and the historical, social and political forces at work in the creation and reception of African literature are examined. Literature is treated as an art whose medium is language, so that both the oral and written forms are encompassed. This book will be of value not only to readers concerned with the cultures of Africa but to all those with an interest in the literary phenomena of the world in general.

Theodor Koch-Grünberg (1872–1924) was a noted German ethnologist and explorer whose work on the indigenous peoples of Brazil and Venezuela is still consulted by anthropologists, ethnologists and linguists today. His most important publication was this five-volume account of his expedition of 1911–1913 from the sandstone mountains bordering Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana through uncharted territory westwards to the Orinoco. Volume 5 contains 185 photographs of individuals and groups selected from around 350 taken by the author. His intention was to provide data on the physical characteristics of the tribes he encountered before the distinctions between them became blurred or vanished. Exact measurements and precise ages are not provided, but the author explains how individuals are related, gives their indigenous and 'Christian' names and social status, and provides a 'pen-portrait' for people he came to know personally. A short introduction provides contextualising information about geogr

The Exagoge is a drama on the theme of the Jewish Exodus, written in Greek in the form of a Greek tragedy by a Jew living in Alexandria probably at some time during the second century BC. It survives in 269 lines - not isolated verses but forming several continuous passages - enough to give the shape of the play and to reveal Ezekiel as a tragedian of significance. For the student of Jewish literary history and thought Ezekiel is a most important source, of interest for being one of the earliest examples of Jewish exegesis and paraphrase of the Bible. Professor Jacobson accompanies the text of the play with a translation. In the commentary he examines the fragments line by line, comparing them with the biblical account and other accounts in related Jewish sources. The substantial and readable introduction examines the historical, social and intellectual background to Ezekiel and the Exagoge.

This volume, first published in 1991, provides a useful and informative introduction to basic pharmacological principles and practice in the context of tropical medicine and diseases. The author discusses the cultural and environmental factors that affect the use of drugs in the tropics. The book highlights the potential inconsistencies and incompatibilities arising from the use of traditional and orthodox medicine, which can account for the extensive misuse of modern drugs among populations where the two systems are practised. Whilst emphasis is primarily given to the treatment of a wide range of tropical diseases, such as malaria, bilharzia and sickle-cell disease, the underlying principles are also fully explained to provide a conceptual framework for the academic exploration of cultural, genetic, environmental and nutritional factors affecting drug use in the tropics. The author also gives a concise treatment of systematic pharmacology. This makes the volume a useful text for stude

The animal communities in plant-held water bodies, such as tree holes and pitcher plants, have become models for food-web studies. In this book, Professor Kitching introduces us to these fascinating miniature worlds and demonstrates how they can be used to tackle some of the major questions in community ecology. Based on thirty years' research in many parts of the world, this work presents much previously unpublished information, in addition to summarising over a hundred years of natural history observations by others. The book covers many aspects of the theory of food-web formation and maintenance presented with field-collected information on tree holes, bromeliads, pitcher plants, bamboo containers and the axils of fleshy plants. It is a unique introduction for the field naturalist and a stimulating source treatment for graduate students and professionals working in the fields of tropical and other forest ecology, as well as entomology.

This book presents a theoretical treatment of nonlinear behaviour of solids and structures in such a way that it is suitable for numerical computation, typically using the Finite Element Method. Starting out from elementary concepts, the author systematically uses the principle of virtual work, initially illustrated by truss structures, to give a self-contained and rigorous account of the basic methods. The author illustrates the combination of translations and rotations by finite deformation beam theories in absolute and co-rotation format, and describes the deformation of a three-dimensional continuum in material form. A concise introduction to finite elasticity is followed by an extension to elasto-plastic materials via internal variables and the maximum dissipation principle. Finally, the author presents numerical techniques for solution of the nonlinear global equations and summarises recent results on momentum and energy conserving integration of time-dependent problems. Exercise

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. Edited and introduced by William C. Carroll, this edition of Love's Labour Lost features a lively account of the play's performance history from 1632 to the present day. Stage and screen productions of the late twentieth century receive particular attention and a range of international performances are also explored. New trends in the scholarly criticism are discussed in the introduction, as are the play's sources and historical contexts. Carroll's text is freshly edited from the First Quarto, published in 1598, and presents a highly readable modernised edition of Love's Labour Lost; a play known for its unorthodox ending and extraordinary use of language.

The British physicist Sir Joseph John Thomson, the discoverer of the electron, published the first edition of his Elements of the Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism in 1895; this fourth edition was issued in 1909, three years after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases. In this book for students his intention is to give 'an account of the fundamental principles of the mathematical theory of electricity and magnetism and their more important applications, using only simple mathematics.' Starting at the basic level of describing electrical phenomena such as rubbing a stick of sealing wax with cloth to produce a charge, he guides the reader through electrostatics, induction, magnetism, thermoelectric currents and the theory of light. This textbook, by one of the greatest scientists of his day, is still a fascinating introduction to the topic.

This book, published in 1881, was the result of many years of experimentation and observation by Darwin in the open-air laboratory of his garden at Down House in Kent. As he wrote in his introduction, the subject of soil disturbance by worms 'may appear an insignificant one, but we shall see that it possesses some interest'. He goes on to demonstrate the immensity – in size and over time – of the accumulated tiny movements of soil by earthworms, and their vital role in aerating the soil and breaking down vegetable material to keep the topsoil, the growing medium for all plant life and thus vital to human existence, fertile and healthy. At a time when there is huge interest in growing food organically and without using artificial fertilisers, Darwin's insights are as important, and his descriptions of his experiments as fascinating, as they were in the late nineteenth century.

T.G. Tucker was the founding professor of Classics and English at Auckland University College before moving to Melbourne in 1885. His 1924 edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets, with full commentary and notes, illuminates the power and beauty of the poetry for the reader. Tucker's detailed introduction contains discussion of key issues including the publication history of the Sonnets, the question of whether they are autobiographical, the arrangement of the First Series and factors of punctuation, spelling and misreadings or misprints. Recognising the significance of any corruptions of the text – however small – such as wrong emphasis or attaching the incorrect meaning to a word or phrase, Tucker aims to clear up as many as possible of the obscurities left by earlier commentators. Concise and accessible notes draw key comparisons between different editions, demonstrating for the reader the many possible variations and their effect on the meaning, and our understanding, of the Sonnets.

Propertius, though his works are small in volume, is one of the foremost poets of the Augustan age and his writing has a certain appeal to modern tastes. Book II is especially suitable for the reader wanting a representative selection of Propertius' poetry. It stands on its own, having appeared in the first place as a separate collection; it reflects a distinct phase of the poet's activity (and of his emotional development); and it is the book which made his reputation. This edition is designed for the pocket of the university student, but it should find a wider audience among classicists of all ages. The introduction provides the necessary historical and critical background and relates Book II to the rest of the elegies; the notes are helpful and to the point; and the text has a reasonable minimum of apparatus. There are no modern editions of this size and scope.

The Philosophy of Death is a discussion of the basic philosophical issues concerning death, and a critical introduction to the relevant contemporary philosophical literature. Luper begins by addressing questions about those who die: What is it to be alive? What does it mean for you and me to exist? Under what conditions do we persist over time, and when do we perish? Next, he considers several questions concerning death, including: What does dying consist in; in particular, how does it differ from ageing? Must death be permanent? By what signs may it be identified? Is death bad for the one who dies? If so why? Finally he discusses whether, and why, killing is morally objectionable, and suggests that it is often permissible; in particular, (assisted) suicide, euthanasia and abortion may all be morally permissible. His book is a lively and engaging philosophical treatment of a perennially fascinating and relevant subject.

The Philosophy of Death is a discussion of the basic philosophical issues concerning death, and a critical introduction to the relevant contemporary philosophical literature. Luper begins by addressing questions about those who die: What is it to be alive? What does it mean for you and me to exist? Under what conditions do we persist over time, and when do we perish? Next, he considers several questions concerning death, including: What does dying consist in; in particular, how does it differ from ageing? Must death be permanent? By what signs may it be identified? Is death bad for the one who dies? If so why? Finally he discusses whether, and why, killing is morally objectionable, and suggests that it is often permissible; in particular, (assisted) suicide, euthanasia and abortion may all be morally permissible. His book is a lively and engaging philosophical treatment of a perennially fascinating and relevant subject.