Join thousands of book lovers
Sign up to our newsletter and receive discounts and inspiration for your next reading experience.
By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy.You can, at any time, unsubscribe from our newsletters.
Suitable for those beginning detailed study of "Twelfth Night".
Sets "Pride and Prejudice" within the social contexts of female conduct books and political tales of terror, and traces criticism of the novel from the nineteenth century onwards. This title includes fourteen passages from "Pride and Prejudice".
In 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman published her landmark work, The Yellow Wall-Paper , generating spirited debates in literary and political circles on both sides of the Atlantic. Today this story of a young wife and mother succumbing to madness is hailed both as a feminist classic and a key text in the American literary canon.
Offers a collection of the author's poems. This title features: introductory comments on the contexts, critical history and interpretations of his work, from composition onwards; annotated extracts from key contextual documents, reviews and critical works; and, suggestions for further reading.
With Shylock's pound of flesh and Portia's golden ring, "The Merchant of Venice" is one of Shakespeare's most controversial, disturbing and unforgettable plays. This title explores the contexts of the play, including early modern images of Venice, the commercialism of the play, Shakespeare's theatre and London, and images of Jewishness.
Tells a tale of love, greed and power, that has given rise to the debates around issues such as the representation of gender roles, political violence and the dramatisation of evil.
Damned upon publication for engaging with the taboo issues of female sexuality and infidelity, Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" (1899) is hailed as a key early feminist text and an important work of American literature. This book combines commentary with reprinted documents to provide an introduction to this widely debated novel.
Since "Hedda Gabler" exploded on to European and American stages in the 1890s, the play and its title character have troubled and transfixed audiences, performers and critics the world over. This book sets the play within the contexts of Norwegian nationalism, the women's movement and the cultural movement of Naturalism.
Offers an introduction to the work of John Keats, a central figure in English Romanticism and one of the most popular poets in the literary canon. This book features: a chronology of Keats's life and excerpts from his letters; an overview of the criticism of his work; and, excerpts from a range of critical texts, with explanatory headnotes.
Bringing together a wealth of material with clear critical commentary, Debra J. Rosenthal offers the ideal starting point for anyone beginning to study this crucial American novel.
Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792) is the founding text of modern feminism. In this sourcebook, Adriana Craciun provides a starting point for readers new to Wollstonecraft's work. Key materials include letters by Wollstonecraft and important contemporary documents.
"Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" is one of the most widely studied works of English literature, and Frankenstein's creature is a key figure in the popular imagination. This book examines Mary Shelley's novel within its literary and cultural contexts, dealing with: the contexts from which Frankenstein emerged; and the novel's early reception.
One of Charles Dickens' most exciting novels, "A Tale of Two Cities", blends a moving love story with the familiar figures of the Revolution - Bastille prisoners, a starving Parisian mob, and an indolent aristocracy. This title offers a guide to the novel.
EM Forster's most challenging work, "A Passage to India" has since 1924 provoked debate on topics from imperialism to modernism to ethnicity, sexuality and symbolism. This book introduces not only the novel but the key issues which surround it. It offers a contextual and biographical overview, with a chronology of important dates.
"William Shakespeare's Othello (1601-2)" has delighted and disturbed theatre audiences for the past four centuries, and remains one of the most frequently performed and widely studied of his plays. This guide provides an introduction to: the contexts of the play, through an overview, a chronology and reprinted documents from the period.
Offers an introduction to Charles Dickens' work of the nineteenth century, "David Copperfield". This title considers issues such as autobiography and Victorian social conditions. It traces responses to the novel from the first reviews to modern criticism. It provides insights into the novel's humour, its reflections of class and gender structures.
This wide-ranging introduction to Hardy's novel provides chronology, contextual overview with reprinted contextual documents, critical overview from publication to the present, annotated key passages and suggestions for further reading.
Designed for students new to Milton's work, this sourcebook outlines the 17th-century contexts, examines a range of responses to the poem, reprints frequently studied passages of the poem and suggests further reading.
Introduces the many critical issues surrounding William Shakespeare's complex and haunting play "King Lear". This title examines sources from Holinshed to Spenser, and looks at critical readings and notable performances of the play that range from early critical responses and performances to recent stage and screen interpretations.
This Sourcebook examines Dickens' novel within its literary and cultural contexts providing an ideal orientation in the novel, its reception history and the critical material which surrounds it.
Presents the study of nineteenth-century American literature. This title examines the contexts of and critical responses to the author's work.
Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792) is the founding text of modern feminism. In this sourcebook, Adriana Craciun provides a starting point for readers new to Wollstonecraft's work. Key materials include letters by Wollstonecraft and important contemporary documents.
Bringing together a wealth of material with clear critical commentary, Debra J. Rosenthal offers the ideal starting point for anyone beginning to study this crucial American novel.
This sourcebook is ideal for those new to Yeats's poetry or those who wish to look deeper into its workings, its reception and the contexts from which it emerged.
Suitable for those beginning detailed study of "Twelfth Night".
This wide-ranging introduction to Hardy's novel provides chronology, contextual overview with reprinted contextual documents, critical overview from publication to the present, annotated key passages and suggestions for further reading.
EM Forster's most challenging work, "A Passage to India" has since 1924 provoked debate on topics from imperialism to modernism to ethnicity, sexuality and symbolism. This book introduces not only the novel but the key issues which surround it. It offers a contextual and biographical overview, with a chronology of important dates.
"Emma" is widely regarded as Jane Austen's most perfectly constructed novel. This title introduces readers not only to Jane Austen's text, but also to the literary and historical contexts within which the novel was written, and to the different critical readings that it has generated, from the time of its publication to the twenty-first century.
Damned upon publication for engaging with the taboo issues of female sexuality and infidelity, Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" (1899) is hailed as a key early feminist text and an important work of American literature. This book combines commentary with reprinted documents to provide an introduction to this widely debated novel.
Presenting a guide through the contextual and critical material surrounding "Gulliver's Travels", this work provides commentary on the various interpretations of the text. Part of the "Routledge Guides to Literature" series, it is of interest to those beginning detailed study of Swift's controversial novel.
Sign up to our newsletter and receive discounts and inspiration for your next reading experience.
By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy.