Literary Criticism

Looking at Paris between 1900 and 1940, this book explores the lives and work of 24 English, American and French women whose energy and creativity as well as literary output...

An illuminating new essay collection from one of the most distinctive, exciting and acclaimed writers of her generation, Zadie Smith'Zadie Smith is a wonderful essayist. She is a natural. She...

From the Sunday Times no. 1 bestselling author of Politics on the Edge and co-host of The Rest Is Politics'A rare and life-affirming story of searching and finding our place...

** AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW ** From the bestselling author of Mayflies and Caledonian Road, a heart-enriching celebration of what makes us great: our friends.If we are lucky in our...

*A Sunday Times, Irish Times, Financial Times, Independent, Daily Mail, TLS, Economist, Prospect, Evening Standard and New Statesman Book of the Year 2024*Can you remember the first time you fell...

'As someone who fell off a chair not long ago trying to hear what they were saying at the next table in a restaurant, I suppose I am obsessively interested...

In his essay on the Notebooks of Tennessee Williams, Colm Toibin reveals an artist 'alone and deeply fearful and unusually selfish' and one profoundly tormented by his sister's mental illness....

Featuring 100 captivating portraits of many of Ireland's greatest contemporary writers, alongside conversations with each on their writing life, Scribendi is a landmark book of portraits of Irish writers by...

TATE BOOK OF THE MONTH 2023A timely critique of consumer culture which captures this image-obsessed moment in history, perfect for fans of Zadie Smith's Feel Free and Jia Tolentino's Trick...

The global turmoil of the late 1980s and early 1990s severely tested every analyst and commentator. Few wrote with such insight as Christopher Hitchens about the large events - or...

This lucid and elegantly written book is a sustained conversation about the nature and importance of literary interpretation. Distinguished critic Denis Donoghue argues that we must read texts closely and...

From twice Booker-shortlisted author Deborah Levy, a moving and revelatory collection exploring the muses that have shaped her life and work as a writerIn The Position of Spoons, Deborah Levy...

A WATERSTONES BEST POLITICS BOOK OF 2024This is an exceptional moment for democracy.In the year of elections, read Margaret Atwood, Mary Beard, Lea Ypi, Elif Shafak and more on what...

This book's title, No Straight Road Takes You There, is an evocation and a declaration. Highways tend to be built across the easy routes and flat places, or the landscape...

History is filled with unacceptable noises: high pitch, gossip, talkativeness, hysteria, wailing and ritual shouts. Who makes them? Those deviant from or deficient in the masculine ideal of self-control: women,...

Revised and enlarged, this edition of John Moriarty's first published work presents a book of revelations, meditated by stories and personal excursions in literture, philosophy and sacred writings.

Composer, pianist and writer Erik Satie was one of the great figures of Belle Epoque Paris. Known for his unvarying image of bowler hat, three-piece suit and umbrella, Satie was...

90 Classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin BooksDuring his reign, Lord Cobham was burnt alive, but I forget what for. In Jane Austen's breezy and entirely biased telling of...

Winner of the Samuel Johnson PrizeHow did Shakespeare go from being a talented poet and playwright to become one of the greatest writers who ever lived? In this one exhilarating...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books'All art,' Oscar Wilde once announced, 'is quite useless.' Selected here are some of his finest prose works on the subject of...

From the creator of UlyssesGuide.com, this essential guide to James Joyce's masterpiece weaves together plot summaries, interpretive analyses, scholarly perspectives, and historical and biographical context to create an easy-to-read, entertaining,...

Arctic and Antarctic travel writing has seized the popular imagination for the last three hundred years. Emphasizing themes of endurance, danger and self-sacrifice, tales from the poles are testimony both...

Annie Ernaux's father died exactly two months after she passed her exams for a teaching certificate. Barely educated and valued since childhood strictly for his labour, Ernaux's father had grown...

A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John GreenThe Anthropocene is the current geological age, in...

The most trusted anthology for complete works and helpful editorial apparatus. The Tenth Edition supports survey and period courses with NEW complete major works, NEW contemporary writers, and dynamic and...

A landmark, incendiary collection from one of the leading essayists working today.Inspiring everyone from radical activists to Beyonce Knowles, Rebecca Solnit's essay 'Men Explain Things to Me' has become a...

A provocative and absorbing analysis of the unprecedented eruption of misogyny at the turn of the century in the works of the key artists of the age. Illustrated throughout.

Finalist for the NBCC Award for Criticism'Nothing about Jenny Diski is conventional. Diski does not do linear, or normal, or boring ... highly intelligent, furiously funny' Sunday Times'Funny, heartbreaking, insightful...

Ireland is a country where for over a thousand years, one cultural force has overshadowed all others: the power of a great literary tradition. This book provides a history of...

Colm Toibin's personal account of encountering James Baldwin's work, published in Baldwin's centenary year. Acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Toibin first read James Baldwin just after turning eighteen. He had completed...

In the modern information age, our brain's coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to eleven. Amanda Montell blends cultural criticism and personal narrative to explore our...

The creation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory in the 1920s saw the birth of some of the most exciting and challenging writings of the twentieth century. It is...

'This marvel of a book is a profound meditation on the precariousness of the planet ... these pieces kept bringing tears to my eyes, catching me offguard ... it is...

By the author of THE HANDMAID'S TALE and ALIAS GRACEWhat is the role of the writer? Prophet? High Priest of Art? Court Jester? Or witness to the real world? Looking...

In these delightful, melancholy prose sketches Maeve Brennan goes in pursuit of the ordinary, taking us on a tour of the cheap hotels, unassuming restaurants, and crowded streets of New...

The works of Shakespeare have become staples of literature. They are everywhere, from our early schooling to the lecture rooms of academia, from classic theatre to modern adaptations in popular...

A far-ranging, invigorating and irrepressible collection of essays on literature, cinema, art - and everything in between - from the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Feel Free...

From the acclaimed author of The Most Dangerous Book, the incredible true story behind the creation of a masterpiece of world literature, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and PunishmentIn the summer of...