Literary Criticism

In Only a Voice, George Scialabba examines the chasm between modernity's promise of progress and the sobering reality of our present day through studies of the most influential public intellectuals of our time. In Scialabba's hands, literary criticism...

A renowned scholar of the English language, Tolkien is today celebrated as the father of the high fantasy genre. Drawing on his knowledge of languages, mythology and legend, he created an entire alternative reality, Middle Earth, and populated it with...

Critical Theory: The Key Concepts introduces over 300 widely-used terms, categories and ideas drawing upon well-established approaches like new historicism, postmodernism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, and narratology as well as many new critical theories of...

In So Much Longing in So Little Space, Karl Ove Knausgaard explores the life and work of Edvard Munch. Setting out to understand the enduring power of Munch's painting, Knausgaard reflects on the essence of creativity, on choosing to be an artist,...

The Romantic period witnessed decisive interest in how feeling might align with forms of artistic expression. Many critical studies have focused on the serious side and melancholic moods of Romantic poets. Romantic Poets and the Laughter of Feeling...

Critical introductions to a range of literary topics and genres. The literature written by Americans during the twentieth century encompasses a wide variety of voices; voices that attempt to capture the breadth and diversity of American experience in a...

A powerful exploration of the human capacity for renewal, as seen through Shakespeare and Freud   In this fresh investigation, Stephen Greenblatt and Adam Phillips explore how the second chance has been an essential feature of the literary imagination...

All of Valery's major meditations on the theory and practice of poetry are included in this volume. T.S. Eliot writes in his introduction that Valery "invented, and was to impose on his age ...a new conception of the poet." In Valery's own words, the...

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 and Swing Time'Alarmingly good' Metro'Striding with...

Imagine looking over the shoulder of your favourite author and witnessing the moment they begin writing the opening chapter of their best-loved novel. What you might see is that the author has to write, cut and rewrite their words, often many times, in...

Unseasonable Youth examines a range of modernist-era fictions that cast doubt on the ideology of progress through the figure of stunted or endless adolescence. Novels of youth by Oscar Wilde, Olive Schreiner, Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells,...

Marking the centenary of Ireland's - and possibly the world's - most famous novel, this joyful introductory guide opens up Ulysses to a whole new readership, offering insight into the literary, historical and cultural elements at play in James Joyce's...

A full-colour illustrated compendium chronicling the magical twenty-year journey of acclaimed art and design studio, MinaLima, the creative genius behind the graphics for the Harry Potter film series. ...

Michael Longley has been called 'one of the finest lyric poets of our time'. In assembling the work of forty years, his Collected Poems displays a brilliantly sustained achievement whose depth, beauty and wit can now be fully appreciated. Longley's...

`Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!' A powerful poem of universal guilt and a...

The only difference between me and the people judging me is they weren't smart enough to do what we did. One of the most infamous scandals in financial history becomes a theatrical epic. At once a case study and an allegory, the play charts the...

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 it? Could a nursery rhyme like Baa Baa Black Sheep be full...

A fantastic reissue of Richard Holmes' epic biography of this most enigmatic and intriguing of the Romantic poets. This is simply one of the greatest biographical achievements of recent years. Shelley, the most neglected of all the great...

Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World is widely recognised to be the fullest and most brilliant account ever written of Shakespeare's life, his work and his age.Shakespeare was a man of his time, constantly engaging with his audience's deepest desires...

It is impossible to imagine contemporary critical theory without the work of Michel Foucault. His radical reworkings of the concepts of power, knowledge, discourse and identity have influenced the widest possible range of theories and impacted upon...

A comprehensive resource to understanding the hand-press printing of early books Studying Early Printed Books, 1450 - 1800 offers a guide to the fascinating process of how books were printed in the first centuries of the press and shows how the mechanics...

In this highly accessible introduction, Brian Nelson provides an overview of French literature - its themes and forms, traditions and transformations - from the Middle Ages to the present. Major writers, including Francophone authors writing from areas...

Delve into a legendary literary love affair'I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone. I just miss you...'At a dinner party in 1922, Virginia Woolf...

Authoritative and wide-ranging, this absorbing account of the history of theatre draws on the latest scholarly research to describe and celebrate theatre's greatest achievemenst over 4,500 years, from festival performances in ancient Egypt to...

A Times and Sunday Times Best Book of 2020 'Radical Wordsworth deserves to take its place as the finest modern introduction to his work, life and impact' Financial Times ...

The intriguing history of Dickens's London, showing how tourists have reimagined and reinvented the Dickensian metropolis for more than 150 years "Jackson paints a vivid and detailed picture of the city as it was. . . . Dickens, who was no stranger to...

King Henry VIII has one of the fullest theatrical histories of any play in the Shakespeare canon, yet has been consistently misrepresented, both in performance and in criticism. This edition offers a new perspective on this ironic, multi-layered,...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780679733751Author Anton ChekhovFormat PaperbackPage Count 384Imprint Vintage BooksPublisher Random House USA IncWeight(grams) 369gDimensions(mm) 202mm *...

Seamus Deane was one of the most vital and versatile authors of our time. Small World presents an unmatched survey of Irish writing, and of writing about Irish issues, from 1798 to the present day. Elegant, polemical, and incisive, it addresses the...

Presents the essential ideas of the founder of French surrealismBook InformationISBN 9780472061822Author H. R. LaneFormat PaperbackPage Count 320Imprint The University of Michigan PressPublisher The University of Michigan Press

A darkly comic and moving memoir on what it means to be human in a world where nothing is certain, from the award-winning Oxford professor.'A book that will stay with you for life'NATALIE HAYNES'The best book about multiple sclerosis'THE TIMESWe all have...

'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 loving in our modern...

This novel by one of Turkey's most highly regarded writers tells the story of a granddaughter's reckoning with the suppressed and traumatic memories of her grandmother, who survived a genocidal massacre in the Dersim region of southeast Turkey in 1938...

The powerful new collection from award-winning poet, Emily Berry. Emily Berry's Dear Boy was described as a 'blazing debut', winning the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2013. Stranger, Baby, its follow-up, is marked by the same sense of...

A perceptive introduction to the mind of one of German's greatest writers, in a new translation for the first time in 150 years'The best German book there is' Nietzsche By the turn of the nineteenth century, the poet, novelist and thinker Johann...

Includes Penelope's Song in which the author interweaves in a book-length sequence an account of the dissolution of a contemporary marriage with the story of Homer's Odyssey. This collection of poetry also explores the notion of the nostos, the...

Stoic musings of a philosopher-emperor at war.Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180), Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, born at Rome, received training under his guardian and uncle emperor Antoninus Pius (reigned 138-161), who adopted him. He was converted to...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars... First published in 1855, and edited, revised and expanded over...

From Mad Men to MAGA: how nostalgia came to be and why we are so eager to indulge it. From movies to politics, social media posts to the targeted ads between them, nostalgia is one of the most potent forces of our era. On Nostalgia is a panoramic...

A fascinating, lively account of the making of the King James Bible. James VI of Scotland - now James I of England - came into his new kingdom in 1603. Trained almost from birth to manage rival political factions, he was determined not only to...