Literary Criticism

A slave who represented his masters in court and negotiations, Aesop relied on allegorical animal stories, collected here in The Complete Fables, to convey his key points. This Penguin Classics edition is translated from the Greek by Olivia and Robert...

Mark Forsyth - author of the Sunday Times Number One bestseller The Etymologicon - reveals in this essay, specially commissioned for Independent Booksellers Week, the most valuable thing about a really good bookshop.Along the way he considers the wisdom...

`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...

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...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780877739746Author Marie-Louise von FranzFormat PaperbackPage Count 352Imprint Shambhala Publications IncPublisher Shambhala Publications IncWeight(grams)...

If you think that the English language stays still, carved in tablets of stone, think again. English is constantly on the move, enhancing its scope by gratefully accepting words from other languages. It tolerates changes to meanings, often with hilarious...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781838009601Author Kayley HendersonFormat PaperbackPage Count 240Imprint Nielson Book ServicesPublisher Nielson Book ServicesWeight(grams)...

Tragedy, including grief, pain and suffering, is a common theme in Shakespeare's plays, often leading to the death of at least one character, if not several. Yet such themes can also be found in Shakespearian plays which are classed as comedies, or...

A profound essay collection from the beloved author of Gilead, Houskeeping and Lila, including Marilynne Robinson's conversation with President Barack Obama. 'Grace and intelligence ...[her work] defines universal truths about what it means to be human'...

Have you ever recognized Mrs. Elton in an office colleague? Or caught a glimpse of Lady Catherine de Bourgh in the neighborhood crank? Have you spotted a young Emma Woodhouse in your teenage daughter's clique? Over two hundred years after their creation,...

The responsiveness of Sterne's writing to a wide range of approaches and topics of recent and ongoing interest--among them narrative, interpretation, intertextuality, gender, the body, sentimentalism, and print culture--has ensured a wealth of recent...

"'Dear holy cleric,' they said, 'these old warriors tell you no more than a third of their stories, because their memories are faulty. Have these stories written down on poets' tablets in refined language, so that the hearing of them will provide...

From the creator of UlyssesGuide.com, this essential guide to James Joyce's masterpiece weaves together plot summaries, interpretive analyses, scholarly perspectives, and historical and biographical context to create an easy-to-read, entertaining, and...

This ground-breaking anthology features the compelling and courageous memoirs of eighteen queer Arab writers - some internationally bestselling, others using pseudonyms. heart-warming connections and moments of celebration sit alongside essays exploring...

'Drawn on by his eagerness for the open sky, he left his guide and soared upwards...'Ovid tells the tales of Theseus and the Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus, the Calydonian Boar-Hunt, and many other famous myths.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books...

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. So runs one of the most famous opening lines in English literature. Setting the scene in Pride and Prejudice, it deftly introduces the...

C.S. Lewis's famous work on the nature of love divides love into four categories: Affection, Friendship, Eros and Charity. The first three are loves which come naturally to the human race. Charity, however, the Gift-love of God, is divine in...

In 'Harry Potter and Philosophy', 17 philosophical experts unlock some of Hogwarts' secret panels, and uncover surprising insights that are enlightening both for wizards and the most discerning mugglesBook InformationISBN 9780812694550Author David...

Max Brod, a successful novelist, was a boyhood companion of Kafka's and remained closely tied to him until Kafka's death in 1924. He was undoubtedly the one man whom Kafka trusted more than any other, and it is to Brod, as his literary executor and...

How did Kafka become Kafka? This eagerly anticipated third and final volume of Reiner Stach's definitive biography of the writer answers that question with more facts and insight than ever before, describing the complex personal, political, and cultural...

Did you hear the news about a boy who disappeared? No one knows what happened to him . . . except me. Young Karl leaves behind his unhappy life as an unwanted foster child to escape to Farawayland. There, he learns that his true name is Mio, and that...

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...

In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an...

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Brilliant. The unwritten Bowie book that needed writing' CAITLIN MORAN 'Splendid. Provides plenty of evidence of Bowie's restless, rummaging intelligence, and his pleasure in the fact that books allow readers to slip into...

This volume of Reiner Stach's acclaimed and definitive biography of Franz Kafka tells the story of the final years of the writer's life, from 1916 to 1924--a period during which the world Kafka had known came to an end. Stach's riveting narrative, which...

The history America never wanted you to read. 'The narrative took my breath away' Philippe Sands 'An extraordinarily and shockingly powerful read' Peter Frankopan 'One of the must-reads of the year' Suzannah Lipscomb 'Brilliant and...

An accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the era, this companion explores influential dramatic works by Ibsen, Shaw and Wilde; the poetry of mourning; novelistic genres, including social problem novels and sensation fiction; and the literature of...

Beginning with new evidence that cites the presence of books in Roman villas and concluding with present day vicissitudes of collecting, this generously illustrated book presents a complete survey of British and Irish country house libraries. Replete...

Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare's First Folio This is the biography of a book: the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays printed in 1623 and known as the First Folio. It begins with the story of its first...

Exam board: AQA & Edexcel (A Level) , WJEC & Eduqas (GCSE)Level & Subject: A Level, GCSE 9-1 English LiteratureFirst teaching: September 2015Next exams: 2024 This edition of Othello is perfect for A-level and GCSE 9-1 students, with the...

'A lovely little book ... quietly lyrical, often funny and gently persuasive' Sunday Times 'Succinct, clear, sophisticated. I couldn't stop reading it' Jeff VanderMeer We've all...

A breathtaking collection of reflections from one of the world's best loved storytellers, Paulo Coelho. In this riveting collection of thoughts and stories, Paulo Coelho, the author of 'The Alchemist', offers his personal reflections on a wide...

This is the definitive centenary edition of the work of one of America's greatest poets, recognised today as a master of her art and acclaimed by poets and readers alike. Her poems display honesty and humour, grief and acceptance, observing nature and...

'This is a marvellous, endlessly illuminating book ... It doesn't go on the shelf alongside other critics; it goes on the shelf alongside Dickens' Howard Jacobson ___________________ Discover the tricks of a literary master in this essential guide to...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780262048323Author J. G. BallardFormat HardbackPage Count 424Imprint MIT PressPublisher MIT Press LtdWeight(grams) 638gDimensions(mm) 236mm * 162mm * 33mm

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781635572520Author Melissa FebosFormat HardbackPage Count 336Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing USAPublisher Bloomsbury Publishing USAWeight(grams) 488g

This study extends beyond the scope of literature into the psychology of much of our contemporary scene, including fashion, advertising, and propaganda techniques. In considering such aspects, the author goes beyond the domain of pure aesthetics and...

'Fascinating.... Wonderfully exhilarating.' Mail on SundayFinalist for The Tolkien Society Best Book AwardAn engaging, original and radical reassessment of J.R.R. Tolkien, revealing how his visionary creation of Middle-Earth is more relevant now than...

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. From its origins in the late 19th century to its decline in the 21st, Sheila Liming's Office narrates a cultural history of a place that has...

Since it first appeared in 1961 this has been the standard critical edition of Ovid's love poems. For this new edition the text has been throughly revised to take account of published scholarship and the further thoughts of the editor. Conjectures have...