Literary Criticism

Can we ever be wholly free? In this book of breathtaking imaginary leaps that conjure dystopias and magical islands, Margaret Atwood holds a mirror up to our own world. The...

John McGahern did not spread himself thinly as a writer. Nearly all of his creative energy went into what was central for him: the great novels and stories that are...

'Wordy is about the intoxication of writing; my sense of playful versatility; different voices for different matters: the polemical voice for political columns; the sharp-eyed descriptive take for profiles; poetic...

In these seventeen essays (and one short story) the 2011 Man Booker Prize winner examines British, French and American writers who have meant most to him, as well as the...

Neil Cornwell's study, while endeavouring to present an historical survey of absurdist literature and its forbears, does not aspire to being an exhaustive history of absurdism. Rather, it pauses on...

Author of the Booker-longlisted novel Second Place'Cements her reputation as one of the most fierce and elegant chroniclers of how we live now.' Stephanie Merritt, ObserverCoventry is a collection of...

The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism is the gold standard for anyone who wishes to understand the development and current state of literary theory. Offering 185 pieces (31 of...

A celebration of Percy Shelley's assertion that 'poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world', these thirty-plus essays on writers from Oscar Wilde to Salman Rushdie dispel the myth of...

Village rectories, the traditional family homes of church ministers, have had a long association with writers in Britain. For many, the Georgian rectory nestling against an historic church immediately evokes...

This book features 18 short readings on methods of arguing and persuading, demonstrating that arguments are seldom matters simply of pro and con. The selected readings include: "Freedom of Hate...

By means of short entries linked to individual works, this index provides a guide to Dickens' novels, short stories, pamphlets, plays, collections of journalism and travel books. Entries are listed...

NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER'A beautiful book of great tenderness, love of life, and wisdom' JOSEPH O'CONNORFor almost fifty years, Michael Harding has been crafting words in a bid to express himself...

This anthology of classic and cutting-edge statements in literary theory has now been updated to include recent influential texts in the areas of Ethnic Studies, Postcolonialism and International Studies. This...

Literary Theory: An Anthology is a unique combination of the classic statements in criticism and the new theories that have revolutionized literary study in the past several decades. This unprecedented...

"Rolling Stone" is one of the most influential rock magazines in the world, and over the last 25 years it has published some of the most innovative, powerful and evocative...

In her latest work, Annie Ernaux recounts a relationship with a student thirty years her junior - an experience that transforms her, briefly, back into the 'scandalous girl' of her...

Presented for the first time in English, the recently discovered early manuscripts of the twentieth century's most towering literary figure offer uncanny glimpses of his emerging genius and the creation...

In his first critical work since the highly successful "The Art of Fiction" (0140174923), David Lodge writes principally about Grahame Greene, Kingsley Amis and James Joyce, and from there goes...

Edna Longley's second collection of essays for Bloodaxe investigates the links between Irish literature (especially contemporary poetry), Irish culture and Irish politics. The Living Stream takes its title from Yeats's...

In his essay on Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Kennelly writes: 'A poet's critical judgements are always, at bottom, necessary justifications of his own most dearly held aesthetic.' This selection of his...

The Book of Lost Books is a book of stories involving kings, heretics, untimely interruptions and back room deals, falling tortoises and fairy princesses, train crashes and war atrocities, bravery,...

Early one autumn afternoon in pursuit of an elusive book on her shelves, Susan Hill encountered dozens of others that she had never read, or forgotten she owned, or wanted...

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...

A selection of Robert Fisk's finest 'Comment' pieces from the Saturday 'Independent'. Robert Fisk has amassed a devoted readership over the years, with his insightful, witty and always outspoken articles...

A working father whose life no longer feels like his own discovers the transforming powers of great (and downright terrible) literature in this laugh-out-loud memoir. Andy Miller had a job...

The Collins Good Writing Guide is the essential single-volume guide for all who aspire to improve their writing skills Whether you want to write a novel, draft a report for...

Passionate, independent-minded nonfiction from the international bestselling author of 'The Corrections'. Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom' was the literary sensation of 2010, whilst 'The Corrections' was the best-loved and most written-about novel...

From Colm Toibin comes New Ways to Kill Your Mother, a fabulously entertaining book about writers and their families.In this wonderfully entertaining and enlightening collection, Colm Toibin not only explores...

Sylvia Plath was one of the most gifted and innovative poets of the twentieth century, yet serious study of her work has often been hampered by a fierce preoccupation with...

Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-73) was a highly original author of fantastic fiction - novels and short stories - and a key in Irish conservative poitics during the first half of...

This volume includes works by Spenser (excerpts from all books of The Faerie Queene), Shakespeare (including The Tempest), Marlowe (Dr. Faustus, Hero and Leander), Donne, and Milton (Comus, Samson Agonistes,...

Charles Dickens is the definitive illustrated guide to the man and his works with images of documents from Dickens's personal archive written by one of descendants. It follows Dickens from...

This exhaustive reference on English literary culture has been updated to contain 60 new entries on contemporary novelists, poets and dramatists, ranging from Peter Ackroyd to Salman Rushdie. The coverage...

For the past thirty years, Hal Foster has pushed the boundaries of cultural criticism, establishing a vantage point from which the seemingly disparate agendas of artists, patrons, and critics have...