Literary Criticism

On publication Arundhati Roy's first novel The God of Small Things (1997) rapidly became an international bestseller, winning the Booker Prize and creating a new space for Indian literature and culture within the arts, even as it courted controversy and...

'May be the most detailed, painstaking anatomy of desire that we are ever likely to see or need again... An ecstatic celebration of love and language' Washington PostThe language we use when we are in love is not a language we speak. It is a language...

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...

A classic study of the beliefs and institutions of mankind, and the progress through magic and religion to scientific thought, The Golden Bough has a unique status in modern anthropology and literature. First published in 1890, The Golden Bough was...

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...

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...

A bold new account of how celebrity worksWhy do we care so much about celebrities? Who decides who gets to be a star? Do celebrities deserve the outsized attention they receive? Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession...

'Hanif Kureishi's literary memoir explores his relationship with his father, a failed writer. Kurieshi is, of course, hugely successful...' EsquireAmongst a batch of papers, Hanif Kureishi discovered an abandoned manuscript - a novel, written by his...

Science Fiction has proved notoriously difficult to define. It has been explained as a combination of romance, science and prophecy; as a genre based on an imagined alternative to the reader's environment; and as a form of fantastic fiction and...

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...

A vital, engaging, and hugely enjoyable guide to poetry, from ancient times to the present, by one of our greatest champions of literature--selected as the literature book of the year by the London Times "[A] fizzing, exhilarating book."-Sebastian...

Don Gifford's annotations to Joyce's great modern classic comprise a specialized encyclopedia that will inform any reading of "Ulysses". The suggestive potential of minor details was enormously fascinating to Joyce, and the precision of his use of detail...

'There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life.' In Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet a popular cultural phenomenon is born. We meet two of the most famous characters in modern literary history: the...

A copiously illustrated global history of magic books, from ancient papyri to pulp paperbacks "A beautiful production: a typographic and calligraphic treat as treasurable as a rare magical text itself. Almost every page is filled with wonder."-Suzi...

`She had believed that my wild poet's passion for her would make me her slave; and that, being her slave, I should execute her will in all things.' The Lifted Veil was first published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1859. A dark fantasy woven from...

Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and one of the foremost living African writers, here analyses the interconnecting worlds of myth, ritual and literature in Africa. The ways in which the African world perceives itself as a cultural...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781907776045Author Graham BradshawFormat PaperbackPage Count 128Imprint CONNELL PUBLISHING LTDPublisher CONNELL PUBLISHING LTD

One hundred of the most evocative modern poems on joy, selected by an award-winning contemporary poet"Bursting with energy and surprising locutions. . . . Even the most familiar poets seem somehow new within the context of Joy."-David Skeel, Wall Street...

A Sherlock Holmes Escape Book: The Adventure of the Tower of London is a unique form of puzzle book, in which the reader must solve the riddles to escape the pages. The fourth title in this ingenious series of Sherlock Holmes Escape Books, The...

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...

This reader remains the only major new reader of Old English prose and verse in the past forty years. The second edition is extensively revised throughout, with the addition of a new 'Beginning Old English' section for newcomers to the Old English...

Dual text on facing pages, now revised and updated. Critically acclaimed translation now in its twenty fifth year. Extensive notes, glossary and introduction .About the AuthorW. R. J. Barron is Honourary Research Fellow, University of ExeterBook...

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...

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...

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...

'a Greek gentleman in a straw hat, standing absolutely motionless at a slight angle to the universe' E. M. Forster E. M. Forster's description of C. P. Cavafy (1863-1933) perfectly encapsulates the unique perspective Cavafy brought to bear on history...

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...

The perfect gift for Valentine's DaySelected Poems contains Neruda's resonant, exploratory, intensely individualistic verse, rooted in the physical landscape and people of Chile. Here we find sensuous songs of love, tender odes to the sea, melancholy...

This trenchant and illuminating book by one of Africa's most influential and celebrated writers is a major statement on the importance and dangers of stories, one in which Achebe makes telling use of his personal experiences to examine the political...

This book features original readings of Pound and Eliot from a major literary critic. In this classic work, Maud Ellmann examines T. S. Eliot's and Ezra Pound's criticism in terms of what she calls the 'poetics of impersonality'. She convincingly shows...

Available for the first time in English, the complete, uncensored diaries of one of the twentieth century's most influential writers 'The writing glimmers with sensitivity, and openness to the world' - The Wall Street JournalDating from 1909 to 1923,...

A collection of colorful and candid essays and other pieces about Freud and his legacy today, featuring twenty-five leading writersWith original contributions by Andre Aciman * Sarah Boxer * Jennifer Finney Boylan * Susie Boyt * Gerald Early * Esther...

The appearance of Philip Larkin's second prose collection - reviews and critical assessments of writers and writing; pieces on jazz, mostly uncollected; some long, revealing and often highly entertaining interviews given on various occasions - was a...

Winner of Best Book, Publication, or Recording prize at the Falstaff Awards 2015 Shortlisted for the 2016 SLA Information Book Award The Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary is the first of its kind, a brand new illustrated alphabetical...

Poet, artist and mystic Kahlil Gibran was born in 1883 to a poor Christian family in Lebanon and emigrated to the United States as an adolescent. His masterpiece, The Prophet, a book of poetic essays written in his youth, has sold over eight million...

The poetry of Helen Craik (1751–1825), Gothic novelist and friend of Robert Burns, was long thought lost. The rediscovery of her manuscript Poems by a Lady (1790), transcribed and annotated here for the first time, invites a fresh evaluation of her life...

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Last Act of Love, Cathy Rentzenbrink's Dear Reader is the ultimate love letter to reading and to finding the comfort and joy in stories.'Exquisite' - Marian Keyes, author of Grown Ups'A warm, unpretentious...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781999737658Author Neil JonesFormat PaperbackPage Count 186Imprint Peripeteia PressPublisher Peripeteia PressWeight(grams) 268gDimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm...

"This excellent edition is most welcome. A select bibliography, a brief vocabulary, several footnotes to explain points of difficulty, fourteen long endnotes... and even the music of the songs, make the edition an extremely valuable and interesting...

The Tain Bo Cuailnge, centre-piece of the eighth-century Ulster cycle of heroic tales, is Ireland's greatest epic. It tells the story of a great cattle-raid, the invasion of Ulster by the armies of Medb and Ailill, queen and king of Connacht, and their...