Literary Criticism

First published in 1572, The Lusiads is one of the greatest epic poems of the Renaissance, immortalizing Portugal's voyages of discovery with an unrivalled freshness of observation. At the centre of The Lusiads is Vasco da Gama's pioneer voyage via...

The Pilgrim's Progress has inspired readers across the centuries to persevere in their faith. For longstanding fans of Bunyan's tale, or for those encountering it for the first time, this illustrated edition offers new beauty and insight with striking...

What were the twelve labours of Herakles? Why did Zeus turn himself into a shower of gold? What was the name of the guard-dog of the Underworld? Which two-faced Roman god gave his name to the month January? What is the answer to the riddle of the...

What does it mean to be a hero? The ancient Greeks who gave us Achilles and Odysseus had a very different understanding of the term than we do today. Based on the legendary Harvard course that Gregory Nagy has taught for well over thirty years, The...

'Enjoyable, lively ... such a pleasure to read ... renders the drama of Shakespeare's contemporaries more than fringe entertainment' Independent Shakespeare is one of the greatest of all English figures, considered a genius for all time. Yet as this...

Discover one of the best cities in the world through the lens of some of the most iconic writers who have ever lived. London has long inspired and celebrated books and writing, and some of the most well-known and beloved names in English Literature have...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781907776946Author Kirsten Shepherd-BarrFormat PaperbackPage Count 38Imprint Connell GuidesPublisher CONNELL PUBLISHING LTD

This book is a collection of new essays, with the general objective of filling a gap in the literature about sex and science fiction. Although some work has been published, none of it is recent. The essays herein explore the myriad ways in which authors...

Winner of the 1989 Whitbread Prize for Book of the Year, this is the first volume of Holmes's seminal two-part examination of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of Britain's greatest poets. 'Coleridge: Early Visions' is the first part of Holmes's...

While the Harry Potter series may follow the journey of the Boy Who Lived, if you want to know the whole story, keep your eyes fixed on Severus Snape. This greasy-haired, grumpy genius, one of J.K. Rowling's most enduring gifts to English literature, is...

How can reading literary fiction shed light on the way we speak ourselves within psychoanalysis? Rather than offering psychoanalytic insights into literature, Rosemary Rizq, a practicing psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist, explores what...

'There has been a lot of fighting hereabouts. The trenches have made themselves rather than been made, and run inconsequently in and out of the big thirty-foot high stacks of bricks; it is most confusing. The parapet of a trench which we don't occupy is...

Multidirectional Memory brings together Holocaust studies and postcolonial studies for the first time. Employing a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, the book makes a twofold argument about Holocaust memory in a global age by situating it in the...

'America's preeminent fiction writer' New Yorker 'A raw, propulsive tale of love and grief' Mail on Sunday A novel of love and loss from the bestselling and prizewinning author of Blonde. ...

For Henry Fielding, 'storytelling', whether in the form of a play, essay or novel, was a means of transmuting the dross of his own experiences.In this important new critical biography, Ronald Paulson brilliantly demonstrates how Fielding's life and...

The first English-language biography of one of the great literary talents of the twentieth century, written by his award-winning translator Finalist for the 2021 NBCC Award for Biography "[An] authoritative, moving biography. . . . Walser made of his...

In The Prosthetic Imagination, leading critic Peter Boxall argues that we are now entering an artificial age, in which our given bodies enter into new conjunctions with our prosthetic extensions. This new age requires us to reimagine our relation to our...

In this classic text, the distinguished poet and critic John Hollander surveys the schemes, patterns, and forms of English verse, illustrating each variation with an original and witty self-descriptive example. In new essays for this revised edition, J...

Spanish literature has given the world the figures of Don Quixote and Don Juan, and is responsible for the 'invention' of the novel in the 16th century. The medieval period produced literature in Castilian, Catalan, Galician, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew,...

'I have put this book together, not as a prose narrative is usually constructed, but as a poem might be. In turnings and returnings. In parts which find and repeat themselves and re-state the argument until it loses its reasonable edge and hopefully...

We are currently facing the sixth mass extinction of species in the history of life on Earth, biologists claim the first one caused by humans. Activists, filmmakers, writers, and artists are seeking to bring the crisis to the public's attention through...

POINT TO POINT NAVIGATION refers to a form of navigation Gore Vidal resorted to as a first mate in the navy during World War II. As he says, 'As I was writing this account of my life and times since PALIMPSEST, I felt as if I were again dealing with...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780375711602Author Du FuFormat PaperbackPage Count 256Imprint Random House USA IncPublisher Random House USA IncWeight(grams) 272gDimensions(mm) 203mm *...

'... the definitive guide to what properly messes us up.' SFX Magazine'Glasby anatomises horror's scare tactics with keen, lucid clarity across 34 carefully selected main films - classic and pleasingly obscure. 4 Stars.' Total Film The Book of Horror...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781842234921Author Emma HanniganFormat PaperbackImprint Poolbeg Press LtdPublisher Poolbeg Press Ltd

These letters from the poet and mystic Rainer Maria Rilke to a nineteen-year-old cadet and aspiring poet have inspired millions of readers since they were first published in English in 1934. The first and most popular translator of this work was Mary...

'What's the harm in using humour to put across what is true?' Gluttony, lust, and hypocrisy are just a few of the targets of Horace's Satires. Writing in the 30s BC, Horace exposes the vices and follies of his Roman contemporaries, while still finding...

Established and reliable, Selwyn's Law of Employment continues its legacy as a complete reference guide for students of employment law. Astra Emir has maintained Norman Selwyn's practical approach to the subject, wherein each topic's broad scope is...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780262740159Author Slavoj ZizekFormat PaperbackPage Count 200Imprint MIT PressPublisher MIT Press LtdWeight(grams) 340gDimensions(mm) 229mm * 178mm * 10mm

Aphorisms have been described as 'the obscure hinterland between poetry and prose' (New Yorker) - short pithy statements that capture the essence of the human condition in all its shades. In this New and Selected, master of the form Don Paterson brings...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780993218316Author David WheelerFormat PaperbackPage Count 148Imprint Red Axe BooksPublisher Red Axe BooksWeight(grams) 209gDimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm *...

From the asparas of Hindu myth to the swan maidens of European fairy tales, tales of flying women-some with wings, others with clouds, rainbows, floating scarves, or flying horses-reveal both fascination with and ambivalence about female power and...

'Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the King's English.' The Merry Wives of Windsor is the only Shakespeare play named entirely after female characters and his only comedy set in England. These features underscore some of its most...

At a time when biblical authority was under challenge from the Higher Criticism and evolutionary science, ‘what providence meant’ was the most keenly contested of questions. This book takes up the controversial subject of Dickens and religion, and offers...

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 is a one volume, up-to-date collection of more than fifty wide-ranging essays which will inspire and guide students of the Renaissance and provide course leaders with a substantial and helpful frame of reference. Provides new perspectives on...

A Platonic evangelist’s lectures on the good life.Maximus of Tyre, active probably in the latter half of the second century AD, was a devoted Platonist whose only surviving work consists of forty-one brief addresses on various topics of ethical,...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780814255346Author Jerry Rafiki JenkinsFormat PaperbackPage Count 212Imprint Ohio State University PressPublisher Ohio State University PressWeight(grams)...

A fast-paced whirlwind of fantasy and mockery confined to a single room, The Alchemist offers a witty culmination of Jonson's experiments with city comedy. The play has been widely recognized as one of the most impressive achievements of the period's...

Erudite and entertaining in equal measure, Somewhere Becoming Rain is a love letter from the much-loved writer Clive James to one of the world's most cherished poets: Philip Larkin.'This is the finest critic of his generation on the best poet of his...