Literary Criticism

Raymond Carver, who became a master-storyteller of his generation and was hailed in Europe as 'the American Chekhov', wrote of himself: "I began as a poet. My first publication was a poem. So I suppose on my tombstone I'd be very pleased if they put...

Exam Board: Edexcel, AQA, OCR & WJEC Eduqas Level: GCSE 9-1 Subject: English Suitable for the 2023 exams Complete revision and practice...

The comprehensive collection of letters spanning the adult life of one of the world's greatest storytellers, now revised and expanded to include more than 150 previously unseen letters, with revealing new insights into The Hobbit, The Lord...

In The Art and Thought of the Beowulf Poet, Leonard Neidorf explores the relationship between Beowulf and the legendary tradition that existed prior to its composition. The Beowulf poet inherited an amoral heroic tradition, which focused principally on...

One of the literary world's great deceptions was perpetrated when Thomas Hardy wrote his Life in secret for publication after his death as an official biography. Since the true circumstances of its composition have been known The Early Life and Later...

Illuminations contains the most celebrated work of Walter Benjamin, one of the most original and influential thinkers of the 20th Century: 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction', 'The Task of the Translator' and 'Theses on the Philosophy...

More than 100 poems about Britain's nature in a beautifully illustrated book Seven chapters touch on different aspects of the British countryside, including seasons, birds and wildlife, woods, water, moors and mountains. This carefully chosen...

Othello has long been, and remains, one of Shakespeare's most popular works. It is a favourite work of scholars, students, and general readers alike. Perhaps more than any other of Shakespeare's tragedies, this one seems to speak most clearly to...

This prose translation of the Odyssey is so successful that it has taken its place as one of the few really outstanding versions of Homer's famous epic poem. It is the story of the return of Odysseus from the siege of Troy to his home in Ithaca, and of...

Japanese Haiku has been a much-loved form of poetry for many centuries. Composed of 17 syllables, it can convey the essence of an emotion, a fleeting moment in nature, or a throwaway comment. This collection features 60 classic haiku by masters such as...

Treating ancient plays as living drama. Classical Greek drama is brought vividly to life in this series of new translations. Students are encouraged to engage with the text through detailed commentaries, including suggestions for discussion and analysis...

Apocalypse is traditional and familiar, and it is an actual threat; it is feared, desired, and banal. Apocalypse in Crisis discusses fictions from the 1940s to the present, examining shifts in the imagination of apocalypse from the postwar British...

T. S. Eliot is regarded as the most important poet-critic of modern times, the twentieth century's 'Man of Letters' whose reputation was forged not only on the strength of his verse, but on the enduring influence of his critical writings. The Collected...

Even as many in the modern world draw away from organised religion, the great hymns of our time persist: we turn to them at weddings and funerals, at rugby matches and in pubs. Bringing together twelve of Wales's best-loved hymns, from the...

This is the OCR-endorsed edition covering the Greek GCSE set text prescriptions examined from 2025 to 2026. The texts covered are: Homer Iliad VI, lines 370-413 and 429-502 Herodotus Sections XIa (First Capture of Babylon), XII (Rebuff to...

'I could fly to New York and back every day for seven years and still not leave a carbon footprint as big as if I have a child. Ten thousand tonnes of CO2. That's the weight of the Eiffel Tower. I'd be giving birth to the Eiffel Tower.' In a time of...

Exam Board: AQA Level: GCSE Grade 9-1 Subject: English Suitable for the 2024 exams Complete coverage of...

Mumsnet 'Best Books for Christmas 2016''Ideal for anyone who has ever wondered what on earth to read next' SJ WATSON'Witty, engaging and informative. The sort of book you choose for a friend and end up wanting to keep' RACHEL JOYCEThis is a medical...

Notes from the Underground (1864) is one of the most profound works of nineteenth-century literature. A probing, speculative book, often regarded as a forerunner of the Existentialist movement, it examines the important political and philosophical...

From the Royal Shakespeare Company - a modern, definitive edition of Shakespeare's bleakest and most profound tragedy. With an expert introduction by Sir Jonathan Bate, this unique edition presents a historical overview of King Lear in performance, takes...

Chantry Westwell has used her profound knowledge of the Library's unrivalled Medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscript collections to explore some of literature's most enduring and multi-layered stories, together with the deep history of...

When her mother Celia Paget died, Ariane Bankes inherited a battered trunk stuffed with letters and diaries belonging to Celia and her twin Mamaine. This correspondence charted the remarkable lives of the Paget sisters and their friends and lovers,...

'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass' are two of the most famous, translated and quoted books in the world. But how did a casual tale told by Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), an eccentric Oxford mathematician, to Alice...

`Other works may excel this in depth of thought and knowledge of human nature: other books may rival it in originality and size; but, for hopeless and incurable vivacity, nothing yet discovered can surpass it.' (Jerome, Preface to Three Men in a Boat). ...

Shakespeare's Sonnets are as important and vital today as they were when first published four hundred years ago. Perhaps no collection of verse before or since has so captured the imagination of readers and lovers; certainly no poem has come under such...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780451208637Author Dante AlighieriFormat PaperbackPage Count 928Imprint Dutton / SignetPublisher Penguin Putnam IncWeight(grams) 828gDimensions(mm) 227mm *...

Exam Board: AQA A, WJEC, WJEC EduqasLevel: AS/A-levelSubject: English literatureFirst teaching: September 2015First exams: Summer 2016Enable students to achieve their best grade in AS/A-level English Literature with this year-round course companion;...

Peter Ackroyd's marvellous biography is a living attempt to reach into the heart of Shakespeare.He creates an intimate and immediate connection with his subject, so that the book reads like the work of a contemporary - meeting Shakespeare afresh on his...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781681378022Author Cristina CampoFormat PaperbackPage Count 272Imprint NYRB ClassicsPublisher The New York Review of Books, Inc

W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) was not only Ireland's greatest poet but one of the most influential voices in world literature in the twentieth century. His extraordinary work, in the words of this volume's editor Seamus Heaney, encourages us 'to be more...

In his work as a physician, Williams had learnt the skill of objective observation which he applied to his poetry, examining, as he said, 'the particular to discover the universal'. Marked by a vernacular American speech and direct observation of the...

'The wind is rising!... Let us try to live!' One of the preeminent intellectuals of modern French culture, Valéry is widely considered one of the country's greatest poets of the twentieth century. Following a flurry of sonnets in his late teens, he...

From the picnic on Box Hill and the strawberry picking at Donwell Abbey in Emma, to supper at the Netherfield Ball and Mrs. Bennet's family dinners in Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's novels are full of delicious food that you can recreate at home with...

Blake was one of the finest craftsmen of his time, an artist for whom art and poetry were inextricably linked. He was an indepedent and rebellious thinker, who abhorred pretention and falsity in others. His Songs of Innocence are products of this...

Every literary household in nineteenth-century Britain had a commonplace book, scrapbook, or album. Coleridge called his collection "Fly-Catchers", while George Eliot referred to one of her commonplace books as a "Quarry," and Michael Faraday kept...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781420953763Author Emily DickinsonFormat PaperbackPage Count 208Imprint Digireads.comPublisher Digireads.comWeight(grams) 268gDimensions(mm) 216mm * 140mm *...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780156806466Author Deceased Bertolt BrechtFormat PaperbackPage Count 179Imprint Ecco PressPublisher Ecco PressWeight(grams) 254gDimensions(mm) 217mm * 140mm...

This is the first study to assess the entire career of Alexander Pope (16881744) in relation to the political issues of his time. About the AuthorPat RogersBook InformationISBN 9781138665187Author Pat RogersFormat PaperbackPage Count 288Imprint...

Oxford School Shakespeare is an acclaimed edition especially designed for students, with accessible on-page notes and explanatory illustrations, clear background information, and rigorous but accessible scholarly credentials. A Midsummer Night's Dream is...

As a creative medium, ancient Greek tragedy has had an extraordinarily wide influence: many of the surviving plays are still part of the theatrical repertoire, and texts like Agamemnon, Antigone, and Medea have had a profound effect on Western culture...