Books by Ricks

This collection of lively and provoking critical essays attends to poetry by Donne, Crabbe, Hardy, and Lowell, as well as to other literary forms. Marlowe, the Earl of Clarendon, Austen, and Victorian biographies are discussed, along with critical and philosophical questions concerning literature and its relation to fact, literary principles and theory, and aspects of contemporary criticism.

This critical study of Samuel Beckett's writing explores his deep convictions concerning life and death. It argues that throughout his writing, Beckett longed for oblivion and harboured the ancient belief that it is better to be dead than alive.