Literary Criticism

The collected creative nonfiction of a singular American writer, Jesmyn Ward, including widely shared classics, three never-before-published speeches, and an introductory essay.Respair (noun, obsolete), fresh hope after despair.From the two-time...

"Human Nature: Fact and Fiction" brings together a collection of inspiring, thought-provoking and original perspectives on human nature by ten leading writers, scientists and academics. What do we mean by...

Starting with the premise that the work of art is a gift and not a commodity, this revolutionary book ranges across anthropology, literature, economics, and psychology to show how the...

The true biography of Shakespeare - and the only one we really need to care about - is in the plays. Sir Frank Kermode, Britain's most distinguished literary critic, has...

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...

A gripping, unexpectedly humorous, and deeply human portrait of life in Ukraine reshaped by war. In this powerful collection of essays, writer Andriy Lyubka-thrust into the role of an unlikely...

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...

'A vital and timely introduction to some of the best books I've ever read. Perfectly curated and filled with brilliant literature'Nikesh Shukla'The ultimate introduction to post-colonial literature for those who...

George Santayana (1863-1952) was one of the leading philosophers of his era. His range of interests was wide; in addition to books and essays on philosophical subjects, he wrote literary...

George Santayana (1863-1952) was one of the leading philosophers of his era. His range of interests was wide; in addition to books and essays on philosophical subjects, he wrote literary...

Originally published in 1979. Adultery is a dominant feature in chivalric literature; it becomes a major concern in Shakespeare's last plays; and it forms the central plot of novels from...

John Updike says: Any act of description is, to some extent, an act of praise, so that even when the event is unpleasant or horrifying or spiritually stunning, the very...

In The Dominion of the Dead, Robert Pogue Harrison explores the many places where the dead cohabit the world of the living - the graves, images, literature, architecture, and monuments...

These essays attempt to offer new ideas about Shakespeare's tragedies. The author argues for the primacy of patterns drawn from the most common human experience. Asking why Shakespeare makes Hamlet...

More than 350 major authors, from Margaret Atwood to Emile Zola, through Bruce Chatwin, Aldous Huxley, and Graham Swift, are arranged in alphabetical order, each with a short article on...

Saul Bellow's fiction, honored by a Nobel Prize and a Pulitzer, among other awards, has made him a literary giant. Now the man himself and a lifetime of his insightful...

Frank Kermode returns to the literature of his youth to ask why we appear to have forgotten how urgent and powerful it seemed in a time of economic crisis and...

In a series of long essays, James Wood examines the connection between literature and religious belief, in a startlingly wide group of writers. Wood re-appraises the writing of such figures...

This highly acclaimed study analyzes the various trends in English criticism during the first four decades of this century.

Bottled babies, wooden legs, walking coffins, corpses, umbrellas, waxworks, locks and living furniture - these are a few of the obsessions the author uncovers while investigating the strange poetry of...

"A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that...

Throughout his distinguished career as a journalist and film-maker, John Pilger has looked behind the 'official' version of events to report the real stories of our time. The centerpiece of...

In this magisterial volume, first published in 1932, Eliot gathered his choice of the miscellaneous reviews and literary essays he had written since 1917 when he became assistant editor of...

They exist as a rumour or a fading memory. They vanished from history leaving scarcely a trace, lost to fire, censorship, theft, war or deliberate destruction, yet those who seek...

In another surreal and unprecedented year in which even the most seasoned commentators have struggled to keep pace with the news cycle, letter writers to The Daily Telegraph have once...

This digitally reprinted edition of Pushkin: A Comparative Commentary has the same content as the original 1971 edition. Professor Bayley, in this first critical assessment in English of the whole...

What does literature know? Does it offer us knowledge of its own or does it only interrupt and question other forms of knowledge? This 2005 book seeks to answer and...