Literary companions, book reviews and guides

An exploration of the elusive nature of representation in Plath''s poetry and the various versions of her that readers encounter.

Discover over 300 seasonal book recommendations in the ultimate reading list for book lovers everywhere.

A fully revised critical overview of Atwood''s career, emphasising her recent dystopias and the televised adaptation of The Handmaid''s Tale.

First published in 1940.

In this fascinating and revealing book, first published in 1952, Maxwell shows the development of Eliot's poetry and poetic thought in the light of his political and religious attachments.

Explores a major eighteenth-century narrative and the power of the Crusoe figure beyond the pages of the original book.

This Companion provides a comprehensive introduction to the literature of the American West, one of the most vibrant and diverse literary traditions.

This chief aim of this title, first published in 1965, is to present a comprehensive picture of Yeats's achievement and some of the means for an evaluation of that achievement.

Explores Batman's entire career, with full details of his breathtaking adventures and battles, resolute allies, chequered love life, and formidable Rogues Gallery.

The Art of John Webster, first published in 1972, is a study of the three extant plays of Webster known to be solely his work.

A lively and accessible account of the most popular form of nineteenth-century English theatre, and its continuing influence today.

Rather than reading small-town representations in Canadian literature as portraits of a parochial past or a lost golden age, this book claims that they are best understood as sophisticated statements on the effects of modernity in an ever-more cosmopolitan world.

Leading historians introduce the most influential trends in thought which originated or developed in the nineteenth century.

In the period between 1880 and 1900, Archibald Lampman made an impressive contribution to the development of a distinctive indentity in Canadian literature.

Would it surprise you to learn that there was a contemporary of Ernest Hemingway's who, in his romantic questing and hell-or-high-water pursuit of life and his art, was closer to the Hemingwayesque ideal than Hemingway himself?

Emphasizing the significance of his political and historical engagement, this work casts Abraham Lincoln as a cultural figure.

First published in 1991.

Twenty-nine collected essays represent a critical history of Shakespeare's play as text and as theater, beginning with Samuel Johnson in 1765, and ending with a review of the Royal Shakespeare Company production in 1991.

For more than eighty years, Faulkner criticism has attempted to "e;see all Yoknapatawpha,"e; the fictional Mississippi county in which the author set all but four of his novels as well as more than fifty short stories.

First published in 1983, Hugh MacDiarmid: The Terrible Crystal is a detailed introduction to the poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid.

A fully revised second edition of this multi-author account of Canadian literature, from Aboriginal writing to Margaret Atwood.

Beginning with an introduction that examines the portrayal of the characters of Lancelot and Guinevere from their origins to the present day, this collection of 16 essays-five of which appear here for the first time-puts particular emphasis on the appearance of the two characters in medieval and modern literature.

In Staging the Trials of Modernism, Dale Barleben explores the interactions among literature, cultural studies, and the law through detailed analyses of select British modern writers including Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, and James Joyce.

During the past thirty years, the editors of the Hudson Review have observed a trend among some of the best literary essayists and reviewers to situate their criticism in a deeply personal manner as opposed to the theoretical, technocratic work being produced in many literary and academic publications.

First published in 1969.

First published in 1986.

The Cynewulf Reader is a collection of classic and original essays presenting a comprehensive view of the elusive Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf, his language, and his work.

Travel the myriad worlds of the DC Multiverse.

Nineteenth-Century Writings on Homosexuality is a comprehensive collection which provides, for the first time in one volume, many texts unavailable outside specialised academic libraries.

Science fiction imagines a universe teeming with life and thrilling possibility, but also hidden and hideous dangers.

Medieval America analyzes literary, legal, and historical archives that help tell a new story about the formation of American culture.

Gives a comprehensive critical picture of the development of British fiction from the election of Thatcher to the present.

This set reissues 7 books on the Romantic poet Lord Byron originally published between 1957 and 2005.

This Companion addresses an exciting emerging field of literary scholarship that charts the intersections of postcolonial studies and travel writing.

Through her selection of fourteen essays, Tess Cosslett charts the rediscovery by feminist critics of the Victorian Women Poets such as Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti, and the subsequent developments as critics use a range of modern theoretical approaches to understand and promote the work of these non-canonical and marginalised poets.

The letters in this book, first published in 1953, throw light on the literary scene at a time in which William Butler Yeats and Thomas Sturge Moore regularly corresponded.

In eighteenth-century England, the institution of marriage became the subject of heated debates, as clerics, jurists, legislators, philosophers, and social observers began rethinking its contractual foundation.

Now Read On brings together literatures in English from around the world, combining an excellent choice of texts with sound methodological guidance.

Working across time periods and critical contexts, this volume provides the most comprehensive overview of literary representations of disability.

Accessible exploration of Sherlock Holmes and his relationship to late-Victorian culture as well as his ongoing significance and popularity.

The magical landscapes and rich culture of Tuscany have fostered the inspiration and settings for literature since the works of the great Florentine poets Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio in the 14th century and has been a magnet for expatriate writers since the arrival in Florence of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer in 1372.

Vernon Lee was the pen name of Violet Paget (1856-1935) - a prolific author best known for her supernatural fiction, her support of the Aesthetic Movement and her radical polemics.

Examining the origins of the Arthurian legend and major trends in the portrayal of Arthur from the Middle Ages to the present, this collection focuses on discussion of literature written in English, French, Latin, and German.

Within the English-speaking world, no work of the German High Middle Ages is better known than the Nibelungenlied, which has stirred the imagination of artists and readers far beyond its land of origin.

The Post-Romantics, first published in 1990, provides a clear, introductory guide to the literary careers and reputations of five major Victorian poets: Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Swinburne and Clough.

An overview of the social, political, economic, religious, journalistic and literary contexts that informed Dostoevsky''s life and works.

This book, first published in 1986, explores the allusions in Dickens's work, such as current events and religious and intellectual issues, social customs, topography, costume, furniture and transportation.