Books in the Writers and their Work series

This book offers the intelligent new reader a critically evaluative guide to Keats's major poems and letters.

This study seeks to explore Brian Patten's position in relation to his fellow "Liverpool Poets" and to contemporary poetry more widely.

This study seeks to provide a balanced view by approaching Rushdie's fiction in terms of its dual responsibility to the 'found' world of historical circumstance and the 'made' world of the imagination.

In this compact, yet wide ranging guide Matthew Woodcock presents a structured introduction to each of Sidney's major works.

This book locates Richard II firmly amidst the late-sixteenth-century heated debates between champions of absolute monarchy and advocates of a more limited, democratic style of government; debates which culminated in the 1640s in the deposition and killing of an actual monarch - Charles I.

In this study, Simon Avery considers a range of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poems, drawn from across her career, in order to examine the concern with the search for a meaningful home which underpins much of her writing.

In this study of revenge tragedies - notably by Thomas Kyd, William Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, John Marston and John Webster - Janet Clare suggests that genres are not passively inherited, but made and re-made every time a new play is performed.

The Imagist Poets revises the received view of Imagism by drawing upon current re-readings of modernism in terms of gender and sexuality, cultural geography, and the idea of literary institutions and formations.

This is a comprehensive study, questioning Lord of the Flies' status as Golding's most popular and important work and giving prominence to The Inheritors, Pincher Martin, The Spire and The Sea Trilogy.

This accessible critical introduction, written by a leading expert, highlights W.G. Sebald's double role as writer and academic.

This study explores Basil Bunting's poetry position as a point of inspiration for younger poets, and describe the ways in which it acts as a platform to show that Anglo-American modernism was not incompatible with native traditions.

This book offers a critical examination of Harold Pinter's dramatic writing over four decades, from The Room (1957) to Celebration (2000), emphasising the worth of the plays as pieces written for performance, investigating their status as dramatic (as opposed to literary) texts.

This lucid and perceptive study subjects the Emily Bronte myth to radical scrutiny, questioning the validity of memorabilia and eye-witness accounts.

This account of Wilmot's work strives to place it in its socio-political context and describe the way the poet and his work were co-opted after his premature death to serve contrasting political agendas.

John Lucas's unique volume reveals a knowing and articulate poet writing as an essentially oral artist.

Steven Connor's book is an animated, accessible critique to the whole range of Joyce's work, from Dubliners through to Finnegans Wake. It contains a revised bibliography and critical evaluation, taking account of the ever-rowing corpus of literary criticism of Joyce and his work.

This is a fascinating critical study of the work of Aphra Behn, probably the most inventive and original woman writer of the 17th century.

This study explores how Jack London's Northland odyssey - along with an insatiable intellectual curiosity, a hardscrabble youth in the San Francisco Bay Area, and an acute craving for social justice - launched the literary career of one of America's most dynamic 20th-century writers.

This study discusses the range of Olive Schreiner's work, including her novels, The Story of an African Farm, Undine, and From Man to Man; her feminist tract Woman and Labour and short fictions and allegories about the position of women; and her diverse writings about South Africa, her country of birth.

Kenneth Parker gives a historical and critical exposition of commentaries of the play. of 'Rome' as the measure by which it, as well as 'Egypt' should be read) are not simply questioned, but instead, close reading of the text of the play providesa comprehensive set of alternative readings based upon mostly postcolonial and feminist theories.

This concise and accessible book offers both perceptive critical insights and a valuable up-to-date bibliography of Doris Lessing's work.

This study provides an overview of Barnes' career and then offers a discussion of each of the novels written in his own name.

This book is concerned with the fiction and drama of the period, the poetry having been the subject of a separate book in the Writers and their Work series.

This first full-length study of Grace Nichols's work argues that, rather than exploring the tension between its 'Caribbeaness' and 'Britishness', it is more productively read in terms of a series of border crossings.

This study critically explores satire's dominant literary forms and examines the work of its outstanding practitioners.

Lerner's study relates poetry to Larkin's life, and to the literary and social environment of post-war Britain; discusses the Larkin persona, and Larkin's relation to literary criticism; and above all seeks to guide readers to a full appreciation of the power and subtlety of Larkin's best poems.

This critical study of a key figure in Victorian literary society examines Walter Pater's work on art history, literature and Greek studies, as well as analysing the roles of gender and journalism in shaping his writing.

This study examines David Lodge's work from The Picturegoers (1960) to Therapy (1995).