Books in the The Value of series

This is the first compact introduction to Emily Dickinson to focus principally on her poems and their significance to readers. It addresses the question of literary value, considering current controversies over whether Dickinson's writings are best appreciated as visual works or as rhymed and metered poems intended for the ear.

In The Value of Virginia Woolf, Madelyn Detloff explores the writings of Virginia Woolf from her early texts to her inventive novels. Detloff examines the significance of her fiction and the function of time and allegory, natural and urban spaces, voice and language that give Woolf's writings their perennial appeal.

In this book, Geoffrey Sanborn explores the writings of Herman Melville across his career, focusing in particular on Moby-Dick, 'Bartleby, the Scrivener', 'Benito Cereno', and Billy Budd, and examines the distinctive qualities of his style. This is a key resource for undergraduates, graduates and lecturers in American literature courses.

Peter Boxall's The Value of the Novel offers a reappraisal of the ethical, political and literary value of the novel as a genre at turning point in the history both of literature and of criticism. As the dominant critical concerns of the twentieth century faded, and new cultural and technological environments emerged, Boxall argues that we lost our collective sense of the purpose of the novel. This book responds to this predicament by demonstrating why and how the novel matters to us today. Ranging from Daniel Defoe to Zadie Smith, Boxall shows how the formal properties of the novel allow us to imagine the worlds in which we live. This is a vibrant, compelling and richly informed critical perspective that asks us to see anew how central fiction is to our idea of the world, and how richly the novel informs our attempts to understand our present and our future.

In The Value of Milton, leading critic John Leonard explores the writings of John Milton from his early poetry to his major prose. Milton's work includes one of the most difficult and challenging texts in the English literary canon, yet he remains impressively popular with general readers. Leonard demonstrates why Milton has enduring value for our own time, both as a defender of political liberty and as a poet of sublimity and terror who also exhibits moments of genuine humanity and compassion. A poet divided against himself, Milton offers different rewards to different readers. The Value of Milton examines not only the significance of his most celebrated verse but also the function of biblical allegory, classical culture, and the moods, voice and language that give Milton's writings their perennial appeal.

This book explores the writings of James Joyce from his early poetry and short stories to his final avant-garde work, Finnegans Wake. It examines not only the significance of the ordinary but the function of natural and urban spaces and the moods, voice, and language that give Joyce's works their widespread appeal.

This book demonstrates the significance of prose analysis by evaluating the writings of dozens of authors, including Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Don DeLillo, and Toni Morrison. This book will be a key resource for students studying fiction and the novel as well as those in creative writing, prose style and creative non-fiction courses.

The Value of Poetry shows how and why poetry matters in the contemporary world and demonstrates what poems can offer to twenty-first century readers. It argues that poems are vital spaces in which the complexities of thought, feeling, and memory are shaped and displayed, and that poems offer unique and crucial forms of readerly experience.