Literary Criticism

The literature of the Romantic era is steeped in the politics of revolution and reaction. This volume looks at first and second generation poets such as Wordsworth, Blake, Byron and Shelley and explores their engagement with the turbulent history of...

Sweeping across two millennia and every literary genre, acclaimed scholar and biographer Jonathan Bate provides a dazzling introduction to English Literature. The focus is wide, shifting from the birth of the novel and the brilliance of English comedy to...

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...

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 ...

Out of Africa with her degree and her all seeing eyes comes Sissie. She comes to Europe, to a land of towering mountains and low grey skies and tries to makes sense of it all. What is she doing here? Why aren't the natives friendly? And what will she do...

A beautifully illustrated history of the Queen of Flowers and her enduring power in our gardens, art, religion and imagination. 'Fascinating... I'll never look at a rose in quite the same way again.' Adrian Tinniswood The rose is bursting with...

American political scientist Robert Putnam wasn't the first person to recognize that social capital - the relationships between people that allow communities to function well - is the grease that oils the wheels of society. But by publishing Bowling...

The poems of Charles Baudelaire are filled with explicit and unsettling imagery, depicting with intensity every day subjects ignored by French literary conventions of his time. 'Tableaux parisiens' portrays the brutal life of Paris's thieves, drunkards...

Murder, mutilation, cannibalism, infanticide, and incest: the darker side of classic fairy tales is the subject of this groundbreaking and intriguing study of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Nursery and Household Tales. This expanded edition includes a new...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The 1925 first American edition text, introduced and annotated by Anne Fernald.A map of Mrs. Dalloway's London.An unusually rich selection of contextual materials, including diary entries and letters related to the...

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...

At the heart of this book is a belief that poetry matters, and that it enables us to enjoy and understand life. In this accessible guide, Andrew Hodgson equips the reader for the challenging and rewarding experience of unlocking poetry, considering the...

'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...

'What distinguished Clare is an unspectacular joy and a love for the inexorable one-thing-after-anotherness of the world' Seamus Heaney John Clare (1793-1864) was a great Romantic poet, with a name to rival that of Blake, Byron, Wordsworth or Shelley -...

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...

Beginning with Dante's liberation from Hell, Purgatory relates his ascent, accompanied by Virgil, of the Mount of Purgatory - a mountain of nine levels, formed from rock forced upwards when God threw Satan into depths of the earth. As he travels through...

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...

The Gutenberg Parenthesis traces the epoch of print from its fateful beginnings to our digital present - and draws out lessons for the age to come. The age of print is a grand exception in history. For five centuries it fostered what some call print...

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...

* TOLKIEN * Now a major motion picture Acclaimed as 'the best book about Tolkien', this award-winning biography explores J.R.R. Tolkien's wartime experiences and their impact on his life and his writing of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings...

Is writing haunted by a categorical imperative? Does the Kantian sublime continue to shape the writer's vocation, even for twentieth-century authors? What precise shape, form, or figure does this residue of sublimity take in the fictions that follow from...

"The fourth volume in Kagan's history of ancient Athens, which has been called one of the major achievements of modern historical scholarship, begins with the ill-fated Sicilian expedition of 413 B.C. and ends with the surrender of Athens to Sparta in...

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. ...

Dr. Faustus is one of the jewels of early modern English drama, and is still widely performed today. Interestingly, the play has come down to the contemporary audience in two distinct versions that have become known as the 'A' and the 'B' texts. David...

Illustrated throughout, The Penguin Classics Marvel Collection presents specially curated cartoon anthologies of the world's greatest superheroeshroughout the 1960s, the Fantastic Four was both the flagship title and the creative laboratory of the Marvel...

This is the first volume of a projected six-volume Commentary on Homer's Iliad, under the General Editorship of professor G. S. Kirk. Professor Kirk himself is the editor of the present volume, which covers the first four Books of Iliad. It consists of...

A complex and captivating portrait of Mark Antony that offers a fresh perspective on the fall of the Roman Republic In his lifetime, Mark Antony was a famous man. Ally and avenger of Julius Caesar, rhetorical target of Cicero, lover of Cleopatra, and...

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...

With fascinating essays on artists from Louis Armstrong to Walter Benjamin, Sigmund Freud to Franz Kafka and Beatrix Potter to Marcel Proust, Cultural Amnesia is one of the crowning achievements in Clive James's illustrious career as a critic.'One...

This is a remarkable dictionary, exploring the vast and various symbols which abound in literature, religion, national identity and are found at the very heart of our dreams and sub-conscious. Compiled by an international team of experts, each entry is...

A brand-new book from the bestselling author of A Series of Unfortunate Events - a cautionary tale about his own demise. For curious children and adults alike. 'Reading this little book feels like opening a window to let in air and light. It's...

'A lively picture of multiple operators scrambling to steal a march on the competition . . . Lavishly detailed'FINANCIAL TIMES 'This is Shakespearean scholarship at its best, brilliantly researched yet...

`However one defines Man, the same definition applies to us all. This is sufficient proof that there is no essential difference within mankind.' (Laws l.29-30) Cicero's The Republic is an impassioned plea for responsible governement written just...

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,...

TWICE WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTIONFROM THE WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTIONTHE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHORIn this collection of essays, the author of Demon Copperhead and The Lacuna brings to us (out of one of history's...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781911187028Author Kirsten Shepherd-BarrFormat PaperbackPage Count 42Imprint Connell GuidesPublisher CONNELL PUBLISHING LTD

Bestselling novelist Alexander McCall Smith's charming account of how the poet W. H. Auden has helped guide his life-and how he might guide yours, tooWhen facing a moral dilemma, Isabel Dalhousie-Edinburgh philosopher, amateur detective, and title...

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Imagination: A Very Short Introduction explores imagination as a cognitive power and an essential dimension of human flourishing, demonstrating how imagination plays multiple roles in human...