Books in the Readers' Guides to Essential Criticism series

This Guide analyses the criticism of English-language literature from the major regions of the postcolonial world. Criticism on works by writers such as Jean Rhys, V.S. Naipaul and Salman Rushdie, is discussed to illustrate the themes and concepts essential to an understanding of postcolonial literature and the development of criticism in the field

Since its publication in 1982, The Color Purple has polarized critics and generated controversy while delighting many readers around the world. Rachel Lister offers a clear, stimulating and wide-ranging exploration of the critical history of Alice Walker's best-selling novel, from contemporary reviews through to twenty-first-century readings.This Reader's Guide:* opens with an overview of Walker's work* provides a detailed consideration of the conception and reception of The Color Purple* examines coverage of key critical issues and debates such as Walker's use of generic conventions, linguistic and narrative strategies, race, class, gender and sexual politics* covers the reception and cultural impact of cinematic and musical adaptations, including Steven Spielberg's 1985 film and the recent Broadway production.Lively and insightful, this is an indispensable volume for anyone studying, or simply interested in, Alice Walker and her most famous work.

This guide offers a comprehensive account of British theatre from the 1960s to the present day. Placing critical commentary at the heart of its analysis, it explores how theatre critics and scholars have sought to understand and write about modern theatre, from the earliest reviews to revivals appearing decades later.

Since the establishment of sensation fiction in the 1860s, key trends have emerged in critical readings of these texts.

This essential guide provides a comprehensive survey of the most important criticism surrounding As You Like It, one of Shakespeare's most popular and engaging comedies, from the earliest appraisals through to twenty-first century scholarship.

Robert Browning's pre-eminent status amongst Victorian poets has endured despite the recent broadening of the literary canon.

As such, there is a vast amount of literary criticism surrounding his work. This Readers' Guide provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of the key reactions to Larkin's poetry. Evans charts critical responses to Larkin's work from his arrival on the British literary scene in the 1950s to the decades after his death.

Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway (1925) has long been recognised as one of her outstanding achievements and one of the canonical works of modernist fiction. Whitworth contextualizes the most important critical work and draws attention to the distinctive discourses of critical schools, noting their endurance and interplay.

This guide charts the development in the criticism surrounding two of Williams' most popular plays, from the 1940s/50s through to the present day. Adler's overview of the critical responses proceeds in a generally chronological fashion and demonstrates how the emergence of newer theoretical methodologies has broadened the range of these responses.

This Reader's Guide provides a timely critical overview that allows readers to orient themselves authoritatively in the rapidly-evolving field of contemporary British poetry. Focusing on key themes and issues, and a wide range of poets, the Guide captures the intersection between the historical and cultural contexts of critical debate today.

This Guide outlines the critical responses to the novels of one of the most popular contemporary authors, and examines the key critical positions that have subsequently developed. Matthew Beedham also explores the themes which are central to Kazuo Ishiguro's work, such as narration, memory and ethics.

This Guide examines the key critical responses to Byatt's fiction (both her novels and short stories) tracing the wider debates about realism, postmodernism and feminism with which they engage. The Guide also explores the themes which are central to Byatt's work, such as her depiction of writer-figures and her conception of artistic vision.

Auden said to the ghost of Yeats in his famous elegy, when he died 'he became his admirers'. This Guide follows the often heated debates on who Yeats was and what kind of poetry he wrote. Michael Faherty offers selections from the leading voices in these debates, setting them in the context of Irish cultural and political history.

The play has retained its fascination for more recent critics and every new interpretation provides fuel for further study. In this Guide, Huw Griffiths traces the history of the play's criticism from the 1660s through to the present day.

Focuses upon Gothic fiction produced predominantly in the Romantic era (1780-1820). This title assembles some of the critical writings about Romantic Gothic literature since its inception. It begins by charting the moral and political panic provoked by Gothic's popularity in the 1790s, and then examines the genre's recuperation.

This Guide surveys existing criticism and theory, making clear the key critical debates, themes and issues surrounding a wide variety of Irish poets, playwrights and novelists.

This Guide provides a critical survey of the responses to this popular play. Chronologically arranged, the book draws on a rich range of critical writings, including Dr Johnson, Coleridge, Bradley and Leavis. This material is linked to more general issues regarding Shakespearean criticism and scholarship, and the development of literary theory.

Julian Barnes's work has been marked by great variety, ranging not only from conventional fiction to postmodernist experimentation in such well-known novels as Flaubert's Parrot (1984) and A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (1989), but also from witty essays to deeply touching short stories.

The book features selections from published interviews with Ian McEwan and covers all of the writer's novels to date, including his latest novel Saturday.

This Guide provides a survey of the wide range of responses to Macbeth, as well as the key debates and developments from the seventeenth century to the present day.

This Readers' Guide examines the genesis and development of the important genre of war poetry in the twentieth century, focusing in particular on the role of the two world wars on the literary and cultural construction of a 'war poetry' category.

This Guide traces the response to Mansfield Park from the opinions of Jane Austen's contemporaries, through nineteenth-century reviews and twentieth-century critical analyses, to the diverse readings of the novel available to the twenty-first-century reader.

This Reader's Guide brings together, in an easily accessible form, the range of review and critical material on the novels of Jeanette Winterson. The book traces the early reception of each novel on its publication and examines it alongside larger critical debates.

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1721) together defined a new way of writing fiction in the eighteenth century. Each was highly controversial in Defoe's time, and each has generated a very large amount of criticism since. This Guide examines the major trends and movements in critical interpretation of these two popular and widely-studied novels, from the earliest reception history to the present day. The thematic and chronological organization of material points out similarities and differences between the two books, and maps Defoe studies onto some of the obvious lines of development that criticism in general has taken over the last century in particular, including feminist, ideological and postcolonial perspectives. The volume also features a section on adaptations of the novels in film and other media.

Sara Lodge offers a lively introduction to the critical history of one of the most widely-studied nineteenth-century novels, from the first reviews through to present day responses. The Guide also includes sections devoted to feminist, Marxist and postcolonial criticism of Jane Eyre, as well as analysis of recent developments.

This Guide examines the critical construction of the genre of 'contemporary Scottish literature' and assesses the critical responses to a wide range of contemporary Scottish fiction, poetry and drama. The Guide is structured thematically with each chapter addressing a specific area of debate within the field of contemporary Scottish Studies.