Literary Criticism

THE NUMBER 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERTHE IRISH BESTSELLER'Meaningful and impactful ... A vital [read] ... Tell all your friends' BRITISH VOGUE'A powerful collection' SERVICE95'This book is a jailbreak and a...

'Masterly, hilarious, truly insightful' - Philip Hensher, The Spectator A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2019 The last major collection of Nabokov's published material, Think, Write, Speak brings...

Warm, wise and full of practical tips, this book is the ideal guide to every writing life'Wonderful tough love, direct, and very funny advice on how to be the writer...

'We should write because it is human nature to write' Julia Cameron For those jumping into the writing life for the first time and for those already living it, the...

A rallying, celebratory essay about Sylvia Plath, Taylor Swift and unbridled female ambition by the beloved author of Bluets and The ArgonautsIn The Slicks, Maggie Nelson positions culture-dominating pop superstar...

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...

** 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...

"If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much." Mark TwainFrom Six...

***BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK***'Funny, lively and convivial... how rare and nourishing this sort of roaming thought is and what a joy to read' MEGAN NOLAN, SUNDAY TIMES'An...

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,...

One of O, The Oprah Magazine's Ten Best Books of the Year The New York Times bestselling collection of essays from beloved poet, Mary Oliver."There's hardly a page in my...

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...

Beginning with a dilemma about whether he spends more money on reading or smoking, George Orwell's entertaining and uncompromising essays go on to explore everything from the perils of second-hand...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. 'A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but...

Blending memories and family myths, Mary McCarthy takes us back to the 1920s, when she was orphaned into a world of relations as colourful, potent and mysterious as the Catholic...

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...

A marvellous book, lovingly edited, beautifully produced. . . and brimming with literary insights, much laughter, a sprinkle of gossip and the poet's insuppressible joie de vivre, even in adversity....

A courageous and intimate memoir of China framed in ten telling words.People. Leader. Reading. Writing. Revolution. Grassroots. Through these and other common vernacular words and phrases, Yu Hua - widely...

'Gay has an ability to blend the personal and political in a way that feels simultaneously gentle and brutal . . . you look at a cultural moment through Gay's...

A TRUE STORY THAT HAS TOUCHED THE HEARTS OF THOUSANDS'Unmitigated delight from cover to cover' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A real-life love story . . . A timeless period piece. Do read...

'Maeve's Times is funny and clever and kind, which are excellent qualities in both books and people' Irish Times'As someone who fell off a chair not long ago trying to...

Francis Bacon was one of the iconic figures of modern art, a painter who transformed the way we see and experience the human body. Mirroring Bacon's famous triptychs, Jonathan Littell's...

'Inspiring' - Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Write It All Down'Fascinating and useful' - Joe Moran, author of First You Write A SentenceBestselling and award-winning authors share the secrets to their...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAs Heard on NPR's This American Life'The delights he extols here (music, laughter, generosity, poetry, lots of nature) are bulwarks against casual cruelties . . ....

'A hugely entertaining and well-written tour of the links between math and literature. Hart's lightness of touch and passion for both subjects make this book a delight to read. Bookworms...

The words of its writers are part of the texture of Dublin, an invisible counterpart to the bricks and pavement we see around us. Beyond the ever-present footsteps of James...

A collection of previously unpublished letters from America's cult icon on the art of writing.Charles Bukowski was one of our most iconoclastic, raw and riveting writers, one whose stories, poems...

Acerbic, wisecracking and hilarious, this is the definitive essay collection from New York legend and satirist, Fran Lebowitz, star of Martin Scorsese's hit Netflix series, Pretend It's a City.'The gold...

'This is the Pandora's Box of self-help books.' - Conan O'BrienOne of this generation's hottest and boldest young comedians, Daniel Sloss presents a transgressive and hilarious analysis of all of...

A Sunday Times BestsellerChristopher Hitchens (1949-2011) was a matchless writer, debater and humanist. Throughout his life he shone the light of reason and truth into the eyes of charlatans and...

"Elena Ferrante has established herself as the foremost writer in Italy - and the world." THE SUNDAY TIMESA delightful collection of original essays on reading and writing. From the internationally...

'Here's something I know to be true, although it's a little corny, and I don't quite know what to do with it: What I regret most in my life are...

In this dynamic new collection of essays, critically acclaimed author Roisin Kiberd dissects the business of attaining perfection - or even normality - through consumption and body modification.Linking her personal...

An acclaimed collection of literary criticism and brilliant insights from one of the giants of contemporary thinkingWho owns language? In Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas, Ngugi wa Thiong'o presents...

"The Art of Fiction" is essential, thoroughly entertaining reading for writers, students and anyone who wants to understand how literature works. The articles by David Lodge, which first appeared in...

An instant contemporary classicA finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General NonfictionA number one New York Times BestsellerA stunning memoir chronicling profound grief and comic absurdity'Heartbreaking? Certainly. Staggering? Yes, I'd...

'A witty, heartfelt but intelligent celebration of what it means to have great friends.' The Times 'Delightful.' Guardian 'The overwhelming tone of the book is joy, along with an optimism...