This is the first extensive one-volume selection of Bacon's English writings in over 90 years. The latest addition to The Oxford Authors series, it includes all the major literary writings on which his reputation rests—the Advancement of Learning, the Essays (in their first and last versions), and the New Atlantis. It also includes sixteen other works not reprinted for over a century, which show Bacon's remarkable all-round abilities in politics, law, theology, and poetry. The selections are annotated in more detail than in any other edition, with particular emphasis on explaining Bacon's language.