Oxford World's Classics is an imprint of Oxford University Press. First established in 1901
by Grant Richards and purchased by the Oxford University Press in 1906, this imprint publishes
primarily dramatic and classic literature for students and the general public. Its competitors
include Penguin Classics, Everyman's Library, and the Modern Library. 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, viz. T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf, amongst others. 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. 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 notable works and selected correspondence. For example, the Major Works edition of Alexander
Pope 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. Some editions include
whole novels as well; the Major Works edition of Oscar Wilde anthologises many of his plays
and prose alongside the whole of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Most titles are often reprints
(with revisions) of volumes from an earlier Oxford series, Oxford Authors, under the general
editorship of Frank Kermode.
== See also == Penguin Classics
Western canon Classic book
List of Radical Thinkers releases