Books in the Readers' Guides to Essential Criticism series

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.

Nick Selby assembles some of the most important critical writings about Walt Whitman in order to demonstrate how critical debate about him has reflected changing perceptions of America itself.

Of the huge body of critical writing devoted to Shakespeare's plays, by far the greatest proportion is concerned with the tragedies - and, for students of English literature, a familiarity with the great tragedies remains a necessity.

In this Readers' Guide, Jane Goldman explores critical material on To the Lighthouse and The Waves, two of Woolf's most important novels.