Literary Criticism

The true biography of Shakespeare - and the only one we really need to care about - is in the plays. Sir Frank Kermode, Britain's most distinguished literary critic, has...

In Ulysses and Us, Declan Kiberd argues that James Joyce's Ulysses offers a humane vision of a more tolerant and decent life under the dreadful pressures of the modern world....

How many times have you seen a woman artist solely referred to as the wife, girlfriend, muse, or 'mistress' of a man in the public eye?Throughout history, the achievements of...

Human consciousness, long the province of literature, has lately come in for a remapping--even rediscovery--by the natural sciences, driven by developments in Artificial Intelligence, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology. As the...

"Not Just Jane restores seven of England's most fascinating and subversive literary voices to their rightful places in history. Shelley DeWees tells each woman writer's story with wit, passion, and...

David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his...

Nick Selby assembles some of the most important critical writings about Walt Whitman in order to demonstrate how critical debate about him has reflected changing perceptions of America itself. Beginning...

Following on from Stranger Shores, which contained J.M. Coetzee's essays from 1986 to 1999, Inner Workings gathers together his literary essays from 2000 to 2005.Of the writers discussed in the...

'One of the literary greats of the twentieth century' MARGARET ATWOOD 'A crafter of fierce, focused, fertile dreams' DAVID MITCHELL 'A literary icon' STEPHEN KING Hard times are coming, when...

Gore Vidal's new collection of essays shows him still writing at his finest. His comments on the deplorable state of American politics - from Bill Clinton to George Bush -...

Writers investigate and learn about the processes of essay writing - from collecting information, identifying an argument and designing a plan to editing, proof-reading and referencing.

This miscellany explores the staggeringly busy and diverse life of Charles Dickens, giving readers the chance to get to knowthe man through his work and its major themes. With carefully...

Entrancing, multi-layered and as wittily subversive as fairy tales themselves, this beautifully illustrated work explores and illuminates the unfolding history of famous fairy tales and the contexts in which they...

A survey of American literature from its 16th-century origins to its flourishing present, this sixth edition offers the work of 242 writers - 30 newly included - representing the extraordinary...

A SPECTATOR AND EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020'A joy. Each chapter instantly became my favourite' David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas'Wonderful' Lucy Mangan'The right book has a neverendingness,...

The bestselling Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms provides clear and concise definitions of the most troublesome literary terms, from abjection to zeugma. It is an essential reference tool for students...

An extraordinary memoir of anticipatory grief, seventy-two minutes of life and a silent maternity leave, from artist and academic Tamarin Norwood.A few months into pregnancy, Tamarin Norwood learned that the...

Poets and playwrights, novels and novelists, publishing coups and personal stories, literature as we know it has been shaped by the key exponents of the craft, quirks of fate, meetings,...

This history of a family is an amalgamation of Garcia Marquez's shorter fiction, American fiction, biblical parables, and quixotic experiences of his own unique life story. His is a community...

Much of twentieth-century drama defies the traditional pigeon-holes of tragedy and comedy: the heroes are not straightforwardly heroic; the subject-matter seems at some times grimly realistic and at others nearer...

In this now-classic study, Praz describes the whole of Romantic literature under one of its most characteristic aspects, that of erotic sensibility. This wide spread mood in literature had a...

London has been at the centre of English literary life for centuries and the home of many men and women of genius. The city has stimulated and fascinated writers from...

In the spring of 1946 the black American novelist, Richard Wright, presented himself at the rue de Fleurus apartment of Gertrude Stein Their meeting symbolized the passing of one generation...

This invaluable book includes a selection of early criticism and a wide range of informative essays from critics of the last twenty years. Contributors include: Ernest Jones, Wolfgang H. Clemen,...

What are the differences between traditional readings of Hamlet and those produced by modern criticism? What sort of questions does structuralist or feminist criticism raise? What issues are foregrounded by...

Before publishing the sensuous and scandalous poems of Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire (1821-67) had already earned respect as a forthright and witty critic of art and literature. This...