Our love of art, writes John Barrow, is the end product of millions of years of evolution. How we react to a beautiful painting or symphony draws upon instincts laid down long before humans existed. Now, in this enhanced edition of the highly popular The Artful Universe, Barrow further explores the close ties between our aesthetic appreciation and the basic nature of the Universe.

Though critical opinion of the literary merit of Edgar Allan Poe's writing has varied widely since his death in 1849, his tales have remained popular for their gothic sensibilities and evocative explorations of human vice and desire. Poe's influence on subsequent generations of science fiction and horror writers cannot be understated. This new collection of full-length critical essays explores the enduring works of this esteemed writer and the often-shadowy worlds he brings to life.

The next century will see more than half of the world’s 6,000 languages become extinct, and most of these will disappear without being adequately recorded. Written by one of the leading figures in language documentation, this fascinating book explores what humanity stands to lose as a result.

The mythic status of the Oxbridge man at the height of the British Empire continues to persist in depictions of this small, elite world as an ideal of athleticism, intellectualism, tradition, and ritual. In his investigation of the origins of this myth, Paul R. Deslandes explores the everyday life of undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge to examine how they experienced manhood...

This book explores implications for applied linguistics of recent developments in technologies used in second language teaching and assessment, language analysis, and language use.