Literary Criticism

Get to grips with set texts and be fully prepared for the AS/A Level exam with the Modern Languages Oxford Literature Companions. The Companions are written by experienced lecturers, teachers and examiners and provide comprehensive coverage of...

'Witty and well researched.' THE TIMES 'A scientific dose of reality.' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'A fun and comprehensive exploration.' LINDA McROBBIE 'Endlessly fascinating.' LIBRARY JOURNAL The science behind James Bond's exploits - armaments, tactics,...

For at least two and a half millennia, the figure of Orpheus has haunted humanity. Half-man, half-god, musician, magician, theologian, poet and lover, his story never leaves us. He may be myth, but his lyre still sounds, entrancing everything that hears...

The romantic novelist Ethel M. Dell was a recluse, and actively avoided marketing herself as a personality in any way, but her formula was successful. She reached a very large audience publishing 98 titles and earning, at the height of her career, about...

Jane Austen is the definitive biography of one of Britain's best-loved novelists, from the acclaimed author of Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, Charles Dickens: A Life and The Invisible Woman'As near perfect a life of Austen as we are likely to get:...

How did the most wanted man in the country outwit the greatest manhunt in British history? In January 1649, King Charles I was beheaded in London outside his palace of Whitehall and Britain became a republic. When his eldest son, Charles,...

Worshipped by her fans, denounced by her enemies, and forever shadowed by controversy and scandal, the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand was a powerful thinker whose views on government and markets shaped the conservative movement from its earliest days...

For this new edition, first published in 1971, Ted Hughes augmented his original selection of Shakespeare's poems and dramatic speeches and completely rewrote his accompanying essay, intending to restore to the common reader much of what, in Shakespeare,...

In this compelling, powerful book, highly respected writer and commentator Jack Holland sets out to answer a daunting question: how do you explain the oppression and brutalization of half the world's population by the other half, throughout history? The...

'A marvellous book, lovingly edited, beautifully produced. . . and brimming with literary insights, much laughter, a sprinkle of gossip and the poet's insuppressible joie de vivre, even in adversity. Buy it, read it, and keep it to hand on to your...

An accessible and authoritative companion to the bestselling Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel, published after the third and final book, The Mirror and the Light. Wolf Hall Companion gives an historian's view of what we know about Thomas Cromwell, one...

Remains of a universal chronicle.Diodorus Siculus, Greek historian of Agyrium in Sicily (ca. 80-20 BC), wrote forty books of world history, called Library of History, in three parts: mythical history of peoples, non-Greek and Greek, to the Trojan War;...

"Astute."-New York Times Ayn Rand's complicated notoriety as popular writer, leader of a political and philosophical cult, reviled intellectual, and ostentatious public figure endured beyond her death in 1982. In the twenty-first century, she has been...

A new collection of A. A. Milne's short stories for grown-ups. Gathered in full for the first time, they include several never published before. They show Milne's renowned charm, concision and whimsical flair in all their brilliance. He paints...

The perfect introduction to poetry, The Poetry Book offers a fascinating exploration of more than 90 of the world's greatest poetic works.Discover poems in all their many guises, from the epics of the ancient world through Renaissance sonnets to...

THE ULTIMATE GUIDES TO EXAM SUCCESS from York Notes - the UK's favourite English Literature Study Guides. York Notes for AS & A2 are specifically designed for AS & A2 students to help you get the very best grade you can. They are comprehensive, easy...

It would be easy to assume that, in the eighteenth century, slavery and the culture of taste - the world of politeness, manners, and aesthetics - existed as separate and unequal domains, unrelated in the spheres of social life. But to the contrary,...

J. G. Ballard was, for over fifty years, one of this country's most significant writers. Beginning with the events that inspired his classic novel, 'Empire of the Sun', this revelatory autobiography charts the course of his astonishing life. ...

This book offers a revaluation of Keats' major poetry. It reveals how Keats' work is both an oblique criticism of the dominant attitudes to literature, sexuality, religion and politics in his period, and a powerful critique of the claims of the...

A remarkably diverse treasury of literary celebrations, Books and Libraries is sure to take pride of place on the shelves of the book-obsessed. Books have long captured the imagination of readers everywhere, commanding their love, earning their...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.About the AuthorS.C. Roberts (1887-1966) was a publisher, university administrator, noted Sherlockian, and first president of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. He served as...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781250285126Author Kate KennedyFormat HardbackPage Count 336Imprint St Martin's PressPublisher St Martin's PressWeight(grams) 513gDimensions(mm) 242mm *...

One of a series designed to provide a new, accessible approach to the works of great poets and playwrights. Each text includes general notes on the text; discussion of themes, issues and context; and suggestions for further reading.Making A Level texts...

This first full-length biography of Anglo- American poet and activist Denise Levertov (1923-1997) brings to life one of the major voices of the second half of the twentieth century, when American poetry was a powerful influence worldwide. Drawing on...

Clive James read, learned and recited poetry aloud for most of his life. In this, the last book he completed before his death, the much-loved poet, broadcaster and author offers a selection of his favourite poems and a personal commentary on each.In the...

In the Histories, which could loosely be translated as 'Investigations' or 'Researches,' Herodotus tells how the Persian Empire began, grew, and then met defeat in Greece in his parents' generation. Book 1 begins that story. It introduces both the world...

Containing forty-eight chapters, The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks is the ultimate guide to picturebooks. It contains a detailed introduction, surveying the history and development of the field and emphasizing the international and cultural...

Edmund Burke was one of the foremost philosophers of the eighteenth century and wrote widely on aesthetics, politics and society. In this landmark work, he propounds his theory that the sublime and the beautiful should be regarded as distinct and wholly...

Published twenty years ago, Leela Gandhi's Postcolonial Theory was a landmark description of the field of postcolonial studies in theoretical terms that set its intellectual context alongside poststructuralism, postmodernism, Marxism, and feminism...

The first biography of this great and tragic poet that takes advantage of a wealth of new material, this is an unusually balanced, comprehensive and definitive life of Sylvia Plath.'Surely the final, the definitive, biography of Sylvia Plath' Ali Smith ...

An entire race was born when J.R.R. Tolkien scrawled on a leaf, 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' From the invention of that single word (hobbit) Tolkien became the explorer and chronicler of the character, their race and their significant...

A.E. Housman was one of the best-loved poets of his day, and A Shropshire Lad and Other Poems is a collection of poems whose elegant simplicity of form belies their hidden complexities. This Penguin Classics edition is introduced by Nick Laird with...

This Woman's Work: Essays on Music is edited by Kim Gordon and Sinead Gleeson and features contributors Anne Enright, Fatima Bhutto, Jenn Pelly, Rachel Kushner, Juliana Huxtable, Leslie Jamison, Liz Pelly, Maggie Nelson, Margo Jefferson, Megan Jasper,...

Written during the most eventful years of Benjamin Franklin's life (1771-90), the Autobiography is one of the most influential memoirs in history. This newly edited Norton Critical Edition includes an introduction that explains the history of the...

Sartre's study of Baudelaire is one of the more brilliant achievements of modern criticism. We may often disagree with his interpretations of the poet's personality, but we cannot fail to wonder at the mastery with which he presents his case. It is the...

'Bliss on Toast', the perfect Christmas giftA facsimile of the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard Training Manual recently discovered in the attic of a house in the town. Found in a trunk amongst a pile of HOTSPUR comics, it belonged to Private Pike and...

The first known mystery written by an African-American, set in 1930s Harlem.Book InformationISBN 9780472064922Author Rudolph FisherFormat PaperbackPage Count 320Imprint The University of Michigan PressPublisher The University of Michigan...

'Nowhere, beloved, can world be but within us' Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is one of the leading poets of European Modernism, and one of the greatest twentieth-century lyric poets in German. From The Book of Hours in 1905 to the Sonnets of Orpheus...

A look at 100 inspiring novels that have left a significant mark on the world of literature and popular culture. Before the novel, the world of books was dominated by scientific tomes, religious tracts and histories...

'A marvellous celebration of du Maurier's life, work and cultural legacy' SARAH WATERS 'She wrote exciting plots, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense' GUARDIAN 'One of the last century's most original literary talents ' DAILY TELEGRAPH Daphne du...