Literary Criticism

Rich girl, street punk, lost girl and icon ... scholar, stripper, victim and media-whore: The late Kathy Acker's legend and writings are wrapped in mythologies, created mostly by Acker herself....

'The best book on the subject I've read. Quite brilliant' Tony Jordan, creator/writer, Life on Mars, HustleWe all love stories. But why do we tell them? And why do all...

What makes Greek and Roman literature great? How has classical literature influenced Western culture? What did Greek and Roman authors learn from each other? Richard Jenkyns is emeritus Professor of...

In these short, capricious and irreverent portraits of twenty-six great writers, from Joyce to Nabokov, Sterne to Wilde, Javier Marias, winner of the Dublin IMPAC prize and author of the...

Proud to be a Mammal (1942-97) is Czeslaw Milosz's moving and diverse collection of essays. Among them, he covers his passion for poetry, his love of the Polish language that...

There are many ways prospective authors routinely sabotage their own work. But why leave it to guesswork? Misstep by misstep, How Not to Write a Novel shows how you can...

In these inspiring essays about why we read, Proust explores all the pleasures and trials that we take from books, as well as explaining the beauty of Ruskin and his...

Visionary English Socialist and pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris argued that all work should be a source of pride and satisfaction, and that everyone should be...

From Dylan Thomas's eighteen straight whiskies to Sylvia Plath's desperate suicide in the gas oven of her Primrose Hill kitchen; from Chatterton's Pre-Raphaelite demise to Keats' death warrant in a...

'The professor, the critic and the novelist work in harmony to provide a valuable tutorial on modern fiction' ObserverHow does the novel represent human consciousness on the page?In eleven sparkling...

Published simultaneously in Britain and America to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of T. S. Eliot, this major biography traces the life of the twentieth century's most important...

Jane Austen is one of Britain's best loved authors and this beautifully illustrated guide to her novels, released to commemorate the 200th anniversary of her death, is an essential for...

Of all the great novelists writing today, none shows the same gift as Martin Amis for writing non-fiction - his essays, literary criticism and journalism are justly acclaimed. The Rub...

The most up-to-date critical guide mapping the history, impact, key critical issues, and seminal texts of the genre, Jewish Comics and Graphic Narratives interrogates what makes a work a "Jewish...

An intimate reflection on Japanese art and architecture from one of the country's greatest novelists.This is an enchanting essay on aesthetics by one of the greatest Japanese novelists. Tanizaki's eye...

Escape, Escapism, Escapology: American Novels of the Early Twenty-First Century identifies and explores what has emerged as perhaps the central theme of 21st-century American fiction: the desire to escape-from the...

A New York Times Book of the Year, 2018A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICKA dazzling love letter to a beloved institution - our libraries.After moving to Los...

I hope there is something here for any young writer - or any older writer, for that matter - who happens to be looking for a teacher to come along,...

'If there is a contemporary writer who's given me richer pleasure I can't for the moment name them' STEPHEN FRY'One of the great postwar British novelists, and an unforgettable, unique...

THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER'Out of the secret world I once knew, I have tried to make a theatre for the larger worlds we inhabit. First comes the imagining,...

A thoroughly revised and updated edition of Thomas C. Foster's classic guide-a lively and entertaining introduction to literature and literary basics, including symbols, themes and contexts, that shows you how...

A devastating essay on loss and the people we love from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the bestselling author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. 'Grief is a cruel kind...

From one of our most iconic and influential writers: twelve pieces never before collected that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of this legendary figure. Mostly drawn...

Discover the wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi alongside the wit of Groucho Marx in a collection of great and memorable quotations from across the centuries: an entertaining compendium of themed quotes...

A sharp and provocative new essay collection from the award-winning author of Freedom and The Corrections In The End of the End of the Earth, which gathers essays and speeches...

A Times book of the year A Guardian book of the year 'Magnificent'The Times 'Dazzling' New Statesman 'It filled me with hope' Zadie Smith What happens to our behaviour when...

A Times book of the year A Guardian book of the year 'Magnificent' The Times'Dazzling' New Statesman'It filled me with hope' Zadie Smith We are living in the era of...

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'If you want to write a novel or a script, read this book' Sunday Times 'The best book on the craft of storytelling I've ever read' Matt...

A radical look at Jane Austen as you've never seen her - as a lover of farce, comic theatre and juvenilia. The Genius of Jane Austen celebrates Britain's favourite novelist...

'Riveting, tragic tale' New Yorker 'Anna Pasternak has produced an irresistible account of joy, suffering and passion' Financial Times The heartbreaking story of the passionate love affair between Boris Pasternak...

The body as a measuring tool for planetary harm. A nervous system under increasing stress.In this urgent collection that moves from the personal to the political and back again, writer,...

Teaching Games and Game Studies in the Literature Classroom offers practical suggestions for educators looking to incorporate ludic media, ranging from novels to video games and from poems to board...

Apocalyptic Ruin and Everyday Wonder in Don DeLillo's America is a fresh and engaging study of "last things" in Don DeLillo's works-things like death, mourning, and the decline of the...

This book introduces Asian American literary studies by engaging the conditions, contingencies, and immediate and long-term effects of its major debates. Two rationales inform Ling's presentation of the field in...

An Independent Book of the MonthFeatured in Vogue Arabia Featured by Vanity Fair Acclaimed writer Elif Shafak writes a letter to Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand after the...

Lysistrata is the most notorious of Aristophanes' comedies. First staged in 411 BCE, its action famously revolves around a sex strike launched by the women of Greece in an attempt...

WHAT MAKES A HERO? WHO BETTER TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION THAN LEE CHILD... 'It's Lee Child. Why would you not read it?' Karin Slaughter 'I don't know another author so...

Reading Poetry with College and University Students aims to help faculty foster students' intellectual and aesthetic engagement with poems while enabling them to sharpen critical and creative thinking skills. Reading...

The Presidents of American Fiction brings together American literature, history, and political science to explore the most influential fictionalized accounts of the presidency from the early 19th century to the...

The adventures of James Bond have thrilled readers since Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale was published in 1953, and when the movie of Dr No was released in 1962, Bond...

The adventures of James Bond have thrilled readers since Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale was published in 1953, and when the movie of Dr No was released in 1962, Bond...

A stunning collection of essays and memoir from twice Booker Prize winner and international bestseller Hilary Mantel, author of The Mirror and the Light In 1987, when Hilary Mantel was...

Social Ethics and Governance in Contemporary African Writing is the first book to bring rigorous literary, philosophical, and artistic discourse together to interrogate the ethics of governance and development in...

Our relationship with trees is a lengthy, complex one. Since we first walked the earth we have, at various times, worshiped them, felled them and even talked to them. For...

Though best known in the English speaking world for his short fictions and poems, Borges is revered in Latin America equally as an immensely prolific and beguiling writer of non-fiction...

A glorious treasury of literary curiosities for every night of the year.Bedside Companion for Book Lovers contains an eclectic mix of fact and fiction, letters, diaries, essays and dedications, all...

In James Joyce and the Matter of Paris, Catherine Flynn recovers the paradigmatic city of European urban modernity as the foundational context of Joyce's imaginative consciousness. Beginning with Joyce's underexamined...

W. B. Yeats believed that a poet's life should be an experiment in living. His poems fashion into memorable words the sometimes puzzling emotions that hover over important life events....