You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
This study explores Victorian poetry in relation to Victorian religion, with particular emphasis on the bitter contemporary debates over the use of forms in worship. It discusses major Victorian poets - Tennyson, the Brownings, Rossetti, Hopkins, Hardy - and also argues that their work was influenced by a host of minor and less studied writers.
Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth (1905) is a sharp and satirical, but also sensitive and tragic analysis of a young, single woman trying to find her place in a materialistic and unforgiving society. The House of Mirth offers a fascinating insight into the culture of the time and, as suggested by the success of recent film adaptations, it is also an enduring tale of love, ambition and social pressures still relevant today. Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of The House of Mirth and seeking not only a guide to the novel, but a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds Wharton’s text.
Hopkins was an experimental and idiosyncratic writer whose work remains important for any student of Victorian literature. This guidebook offers extensive introductory comments on the contexts, critical history and interpretations of his work. Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this volume cross-references thoroughly between sections and presents useful suggestions for further reading.
So many questions surround the key figures in the English literary canon, but most books focus on one aspect of an author's life or work, or limit themselves to a single critical approach. Alexander Pope is a comprehensive, user-friendly guide which: * offers information on Pope's life, contexts and works * outline the major critical issues surrounding his works, from the time they were written to the present *explains the full range of different critical views and interpretations * offers guides to further reading in each area discussed.
Lord Byron (1788-1824) was a poet and satirist, as famous in his time for his love affairs and questionable morals as he was for his poetry. Looking beyond the scandal, Byron leaves us a body of work that proved crucial to the development of English poetry and provides a fascinating counterpoint to other writings of the Romantic period. This guide to Byron’s sometimes daunting, often extraordinary work offers: an accessible introduction to the contexts and many interpretations of Byron’s texts, from publication to the present an introduction to key critical texts and perspectives on Byron’s life and work, situated in a broader critical history cross-references between sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism suggestions for further reading. Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of Byron and seeking not only a guide to his works but also a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds them.
Trial by Ordeal takes a sharp look at central aspects of the critical reception of Thomas Hardy. It demonstrates how critical appropriations of Hardy's work often provide a simplifying, conventional, or conservative image of the writer, which a sophisticated view of his creative intentions by no means confirms. Edward Neill discusses the dangers inherent in interpreting Hardy's writings in terms of his life; the limitations of criticism that views his work as nostalgic reaction; approaches to the poetry; and the critical response to Jude the Obscure.
Thomas Hardy was the foremost novelist of his time, as well as an established poet. This guide provides students with a lucid introduction to Hardy's life and works and the basis for a sound comprehension of his work.
Accessibly written throughout, this guidebook covers biographical details, information on the historical and social contexts of Browning's work, an overview of the full range of his work and a survey of the major critical debates surrounding him and his work.
Robert P. Irvine's guide to Jane Austen and her work is essential reading for students of English Literature. It is suitable both for students at introductory level, as extended reading, or for those beginning a detailed study of Austen.
Offering an insight into African culture that had not been portrayed before, Things Fall Apart is both a tragic and moving story of an individual set in the wider context of the coming of colonialism, as well as a powerful and complex political statement of cross-cultural encounters. This guide to Chinua Achebe’s compelling novel offers: an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of Things Fall Apart a critical history, surveying the many interpretations of the text from publication to the present a selection of critical writing on Things Fall Apart, by Abiola Irele, Abdul JanMohamed, Biodun Jeyifo, Florence Stratton and Ato Quayson, providing a variety of perspectives on the nove...