Books in the Readers' Guides to Essential Criticism series

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

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 summarises the main critical trends and developments surrounding the popular genre of science fiction. Brian Baker reviews the attempts to formulate a critical history, connects the major developments with the rise of theoretical paradigms such as feminism and postmodernism, and introduces key critical texts and major critics.

This Readers Guide offers a stimulating and accessible introduction to the key criticism which surrounds the diverse range of literatures of the modernist period. Sarah Davison explores a variety of critical works, from initial pronouncements to recent studies which have shaped the way that Anglo-American modernism is understood and theorized today.

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.

Shakespeare's tragedies are among the greatest works of tragic art and have attracted a rich range of commentary and interpretation from leading creative and critical minds. This Reader's Guide offers a comprehensive survey of the key criticism on the tragedies, from the seventeenth century through to the present day.In this book, Nicolas Tredell:* introduces essential concepts, themes and debates* relates Shakespeare's tragedies to fi elds of study including psychoanalysis, gender, race, ecology and philosophy* summarises major critical texts from Dryden and Dr Johnson to Janet Adelman and Julia Reinhard Lupton, and covers influential critical movements such as New Criticism, New Historicism and poststructuralism* demonstrates how key critical approaches work in practice, with close reference to Shakespeare's texts.Informed and incisive, this is an indispensable guide for anyone interested in how the category of Shakespeare's tragedies has been constructed, contested and changed over the years.

Northanger Abbey was one of Jane Austen's earliest manuscripts; Persuasion was her last. Published together in a single volume after her death, the two books differ widely. Northanger Abbey is a spirited, Gothic parody, while Persuasion has increasingly been seen as a new direction for the Austen canon. The two texts have been widely analysed and debated since publication, and continue to be so today. In this Readers' Guide, Enit Karafili Steiner:* delineates a clear trajectory through the books' many interpretations over two centuries, mapping these out thematically and chronologically* contextualises and brings into dialogue influential approaches such as psychoanalytical criticism, structuralism, deconstruction, Marxism, New Historicism, and feminism* discusses film adaptations of the novels and their relation to literary criticism

This Reader's Guide synthesises the key criticism on Pinter's work over the last half century. Andrew Wyllie and Catherine Rees examine critical approaches and reactions to the major plays, charting the controversies which have arisen in response to Pinter's critiques of political and sexual issues.They consider criticism from the press and academics, on the themes of Absurdism, politics and gender identity. By placing this criticism in its historical context, this guide illustrates a transition from bewilderment and outrage to affection, fascination - and more outrage.

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.

In this Readers' Guide, Nicolas Tredell introduces and sets in context the key critical debates surrounding a novel about which more critical material exists than any other work of American fiction.

Daniel Lea takes a decisive path through the maze of interpretations that has accumulated around Orwell's best-known novels, examining critical reactions from the beginning of the Cold War through to the collapse of Communist Eastern Europe, and at the same time placing Orwell within a long tradition of dystopian writings.

This indispensable Guide maps out the daunting critical terrain surrounding Blake's most widely-studied text. It introduces students to the earliest reactions to 'Songs' during Blake's lifetime, explores his gathering reputation in the nineteenth century, and examines critical approaches to the work in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

This Guide discusses the range of critical reactions to three of Jane Austen's most widely-studied and popular novels. Annika Bautz takes the reader chronologically through the profusion of criticism by selecting key approaches from the immense variety of responses these three Austen novels have provoked over the last two centuries.

This comprehensive survey of the critical response to Dracula provides an overview of the trends and development of work surrounding the novel. The critics and approaches discussed range from the earliest studies to the present day, with particular emphasis on biography, psychoanalysis, postcolonialism, Irish studies and gender.

This guide surveys the truly essential criticism of the play over the last four centuries, from 16th-century responses to the present day. Discussing key areas of debate, and a wide range of scholarship, Gillian Woods provides an invaluable introduction to the vast array of criticism surrounding one of Shakespeare's most popular plays.

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 Guide offers a comprehensive introduction to the key criticism on the genre of Tragedy, ranging from Aristotle to distinguished scholars of today. The Guide presents the work of canonical theorists and lesser-known influential critics, bringing together a strong sense of the critical tradition and an awareness of current scholarly trends.

This Reader's Guide charts the reception history of Ted Hughes' poetry from his first to last published collection, culminating in posthumous tributes and assessments of his lifetime achievement. Sandie Byrne explores the criticism relating to key issues such as nature, myth, the Laureateship, and Hughes' relationship with Sylvia Plath.

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 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.

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

This invaluable Guide surveys the key critical works and debates in the vibrant field of children's literature since its inception. Leading expert Pat Pinsent combines a chronological overview of developments in the genre with analysis of key theorists and theories, and subject-specific methodologies.

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.

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 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 introduces literature and science as a vibrant field of critical study that is increasingly influencing both university curricula and future areas of investigation. Martin Willis explores the development of the genre and its surrounding criticism from the early modern period to the present day, focusing on key texts, topics and debates.

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.

Forster's record of the terrible consequences of failed connection, of the unexpected upheavals that unsettle the calm of middle-class life, and of the challenges to the ideological foundations of Empire draw their strength from the novel's blend of intense realism and complex narrative technique.