Literary Criticism

Jayne A. Quan writes with honesty and humour about key moments in their life and transition. With lyric insight and quiet clarity, Quan navigates the intersection of loss, grief, memory...

People everywhere have found themselves faced with a global pandemic, during which we have learned to cope with sickness and all that accompanies it: isolation, immunity, loss of control, and...

A Guest at the Feast uncovers the places where politics and poetics meet, where life and fiction overlap, where one can be inside writing and also outside of it.From the...

The first essay collection from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time. Novelist, cultural observer and social satirist Lionel Shriver is among the sharpest talents of our age....

Where, or what, is home? What has it meant, historically and personally, to be 'Italian' or 'English', or both in a culture that prefers us to choose? What does it...

Imagine a type of writing so hard to define its very name means a trial, effort or attempt. An ancient form with an eye on the future, a genre poised...

Set around a small family farm on the edge of a bog, a few miles from the river Shannon, Minor Monuments is a collection of essays unfolding from the landscape...

'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...

First published in 1977, this classic reference work is a gazetteer of almost 2,000 places - villages, towns, cities, and landscapes - in Britain and Ireland detailing their connections with...

Mark Greif is one of the most exciting writers of his generation. In Against Everything, he make us rethink the ordinary, taking our own lives seriously, exploring how we might...

The greatest writer of the English language as he lived and breathed-a compelling portrait of William Shakespeare and his world, vividly rendered by acclaimed author and television presenter Michael Wood....

In 1878 the Victorian critic Matthew Arnold wrote: 'Goethe is the greatest poet of modern times... because having a very considerable gift for poetry, he was at the same time,...

The study of the cultural landscape has gained momentum in recent years, revealing new insights to geographers, archaeologists, sociologists and architects. The cultural landscape is often viewed as an emblematic...

Although Woody Allen is best known for his cult movies, he is also a writer of outstanding wit and skill. Dip into this collection of fifty-two pieces for hilarity, deadpan...

Independent bookshops are the unsung heroes of queer liberation, providing friendship, solidarity and sanctuary through the ages.'A terrific read!' Jane Cholmeley, author of A Bookshop of One's OwnTravelling from Shakespeare...

The Ninth Edition offers more complete works and more teachable groupings than ever before, the apparatus you trust, and a new, free Supplemental Ebook with more than 1,000 additional texts....

A literary master's entertaining guide to reading with deeper insight, better understanding, and greater pleasure What makes a work of literature good or bad? How freely can the reader interpret...

A new edition of one of the world's leading textbooks on journalism. Translated into more than a dozen languages, David Randall's handbook is an invaluable guide to the 'universals' of...

Following her highly successful Book Addict's Treasury, compiled with Lynda Murphy, Julie Rugg returns with a second anthology of literary extracts, quotations and bon mots concerning every aspect of bookish...

Who had birds called Death, Wigs and Spinach? How do you spell the noise of a door slamming? Whose working title was The Chronic Argonauts?Henry Eliot - author, editor and...

This is a playful and provocative collection of 365 extracts sourced from the British Library's collections. Selected to challenge and inform the reader, each excerpt is accompanied by the unique...

Throughout history, apocalypse fiction has explored social injustice through fantasy, sci-fi and religious imagery, but what can we learn from it? Why do we escape very real disaster via dystopia?...

Master writer's block and spark your creativity with this workbook full of helpful tips and a variety of prompts for writers of all experience levels to create their perfect dystopian...

'A wonderful take on the chaos of the modern word' Louise O'Neill 'Carl has the rare gift of combining analytical clarity with maniacal vulnerability' Blindboy Boatclub'Sharp, inventive and irresistibly engaging'...

Breathtaking in its scope and originality, "Seven Basic Plots" examines the basis of story telling in literature, film, and libretto. No one will ever see stories in the same way...

Ursula Le Guin took readers to imaginary worlds for decades. In her last great frontier of life, old age, she explored a new literary territory: the blog, a forum where...

'Enlightening, moving' SIR IAN MCKELLEN From the acclaimed and bestselling biographer Jonathan Bate, a luminous new exploration of Shakespeare and how his themes can untangle comedy and tragedy, learning and...

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) is, of course, best known as the author of Little Women (1868). But she was also a noted essayist who wrote on a wide range of...

One of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2025 and Electric Lit's Best Nonfiction of 2025At first, Hala's baby is the size of a poppyseed. Then a grain of rice, then...

From the notorious, bestselling author of ATOMISED: a scholarly love letter on the hugely influential and reclusive literary horror writer H.P. Lovecraft'Those who love life do not read. Nor do...