`Look at her, she is the image of our beautiful Italy.' Corinne, or Italy (1807) is both the story of a love affair between Oswald, Lord Nelvil and a beautiful poetess, and an homage to the landscape, literature and art of Italy. On arriving in Italy, Oswald immediately falls under Corinne's magical spell as she is crowned a national genius at the Captitol. Yet, on returning to England, he succumbs to convention and honours his late father's wish by marrying the dutiful English girl, Lucile, despite having learned that Corinne is Lucile's Italian half-sister. Corinne dies of a broken heart and Lord Nelvil is left with a seared conscience. Stael weaves discreet French Revolutionary political allusion and allegory into her romance, and its publication saw her order of exile renewed by Napoleon. Indeed, the novel stands as the birth of modern nationalism, and introduces to French usage the word `nationalitie'. It is also one of the first works to put a woman's creativity centre stage. Sylvia Raphael's new translation preserves the natural character of the French original and the edition is complemented by notes and and introduction which serve to set an extraordinary work of European Romanticism in its historical and political contexts. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Vietnam has attained a strong record of economic growth and poverty reduction since the adoption of market-based economic reforms and pro-poor policies starting in the mid-1980s. Much of this achievement was driven by an untapped, rapidly-growing labour force and the enablement of greater labour participation in higher-productivity sectors of the economy. Yet, as Vietnam has restructured its economic activity towards manufacturing, more mechanised primary sector production and increasingly, services, and as the labour force is projected to expand at a markedly lower rate than before, finding new sources of productivity improvements has become the key to sustaining economic growth going forward. Improvements in freight logistics can unlock productivity gains across the Vietnamese economy for years to come. The shippers and carriers that operate the supply chains that connect Vietnam to the global economy generally perceive that logistics costs in Vietnam - those incurred when moving, storing and inspecting goods - are more onerous than in peer economies like China, Malaysia and Thailand, even as they are also perceived to be more competitive than those in other developing Asian countries. While many factors may contribute to costly logistics, the main source of underperformance in Vietnam's logistics sector appears to be the inventory-carrying implications of unreliable freight itineraries, unpredictable inspection and clearance procedures and an uncertain planning, legal and regulatory framework. By making commerce more predictable, particularly for regional and inter-continental trade, more efficient logistics can lower the cost of doing business, boost competitiveness, attract investment and generate employment. In short, efficient logistics can become a driver of lasting growth. Directed at industry practitioners and policy makers alike, this report highlights five key initiatives to improve the reliability and cost-effectiveness of transportation and logistics in Vietnam's domestic and international supply chains. These include: (i) modernising the customs system more broadly to enable goods clearance in a consistently timely manner; (ii) enhancing regulatory transparency to minimise discretion in the regulation of commerce; (iii) promoting multimodal transport corridor planning; (iv) enhancing competition and professionalism in the trucking industry; and (v) deploying capacity more strategically at major gateways, particularly at Cai Map-Thi Vai.