Literary Criticism

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...

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...

At her death in 2020, Eavan Boland left a formidable body of work - poems and prose. Together hey transformed Irish poetry and had a considerable impact throughout the English-speaking...

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...

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...

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...

Irish Writers Against War presents an impressive range of literary voices from Ireland united by their opposition to the proposed war in Iraq. The Writers Against War movement has gathered...

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...

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...

'Much reading is like much eating, wholly useless without digestion' - R. South'If I had read as much as other men, I should have been as ignorant as they' -...

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...

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...

A unique look at the craft of writing from a bestelling master of storytelling.Readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets his ideas and what inspires his strangely...

A great American writer's confrontation with a great European critic - a personal and intellectual awakening. Karl Kraus: satirist. Controversialist. Forgotten voice of the early twentieth century. Jonathan Franzen: bestseller....

The title, The Government of the Tongue, carries suggestions of both monastic discipline and untrammelled romanticism, and is meant to raise an old question about the rights and status of...

** Chosen as a New Statesman, Financial Times, Observer and Sunday Times Book of the Year **A riveting account of the making of T. S. Eliot's celebrated poem The Waste...

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 . . ....

Set in and around the city of Veracruz in Mexico, This Is Not Miami delivers a series of devastating stories - spiralling from real events - that bleed together reportage...

Boldly combining the highly personal with the brilliantly scholarly, In the Dark Room explores the question of how memory works emotionally and culturally. It is narrated through the prism of...

Every living thing has two bodies. To be an animal is to be in possession of a physical body, a body which can eat, drink and sleep; it is also...

No art has been denounced as often as poetry. It's even bemoaned by poets: 'I, too, dislike it,' wrote Marianne Moore. 'Many more people agree they hate poetry,' Ben Lerner...

While Frank O'Connor was known primarily as one of Ireland's finest short-story writers, he was also an accomplished translator. In the long line of Irish writers given to translating poems...

The sequel to I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' Barack ObamaMaya Angelou's volumes of autobiography are a testament to...

From 'Best of the Booker' winner Salman Rushdie, an incisive and inspiring collection of non-fiction essays, criticism and speeches that takes readers on a thrilling journey through the evolution of...

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT, IRISH TIMES AND EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF 2021'A masterclass from a warm and engagingly enthusiastic companion' Guardian Summer Reading Picks 2021'This book is...

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...

What do we mean when we claim affinity with an object or picture, or say affinities exist between such things?Affinities is a critical and personal study of a sensation that...

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...

"Devotion is short enough to devour at one enjoyable sitting and thought-provoking enough to deserve re-reading."-Suzi Feay, Financial Times "Devotion shows rather than tells what it means to give a...

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR CRITICISM 2019From the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Changing My Mind and Swing Time - discover a second...

From the bestselling author of UNDERLAND, THE OLD WAYS and THE LOST WORDS - an essay on the joy of reading, for anyone who has ever loved a bookEvery book...

In this entertaining and enlightening collection David Lodge considers the art of fiction under a wide range of headings, drawing on writers as diverse as Henry James, Martin Amis, Jane...

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...

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...