Controversy rages around Larkin's character and life. This book takes a fresh look at his poems through close analysis, discussion of Larkin's major concerns and demonstrating how to approach these enigmatic works. It provides background information including an account of his life, discussion of cultural context and major critical views
William Blake was ignored in his own time. Now, however, his Songs of Innocence and Experience and 'prophetic books' are widely admired and studied. The second edition of this successful introductory text: - Leads the reader into the Songs and 'prophetic books' via detailed analysis of individual poems and extracts, and now features additional insightful analyses - Provides useful sections on 'Methods of Analysis' and 'Suggested Work' to aid independent study - Offers expanded historical and cultural context, and an extended sample of critical views that includes discussion of the work of recent critics - Provides up-to-date suggestions for further reading William Blake: The Poems is ideal for students who are encountering the work of this major English poet for the first time. Nicholas Marsh encourages you to enjoy and explore the power and beauty of Blake's poems for yourself.
Opening chapters in this book on the narrative frame, characters, imagery and symbols, structure and themes use practical analysis to build and refine our insight into Wuthering Heights. It goes on to give information about Emily Bronte's life and works, a discussion of this novel's place in the development of fiction, and a comparison of three important critical views.
Jane Austen's novels are among the most polished and carefully-crafted works in the English literary heritage. This book takes extracts and examines them in close detail, bringing out the extraordinary richness of irony and implication in Jane Austen's writing. Using the tool of textual analysis, the reader is taught to explore and enjoy the delicate comedy of her narratives, and to inquire into the serious moral purpose that lies behind each of these four novels. This guide does not simplify the study of Jane Austen, but invites the reader to pursue and revel in the ironic subtlety of her methods and thought.
This study focuses on how Frankenstein works: how the story is told and why it is so rich and gripping. Part I uses carefully selected short extracts for close textual analysis, while Part II examines Shelley's life, the historical and literary contexts of the novel, and offers a sample of key criticism.
Thought of as Shakespeare's most powerful works, the four great tragedies, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth, are texts of unparalleled richness and depth, stimulating and exciting to study. This book takes extracts and examines them, explaining how the critic can use particular techniques to bring out complexities of meaning, understand the patterns of metaphor and the rhythms of the poetry and appreciate the ever-living drama. Chapters on the openings and endings of plays, heroes and heroines, society, humour, imagery and the tragic universe guide the student on a journey of inquiry into the nature of Shakespeare's tragic vision. Far from simplifying Shakespeare, the reader is challenged to confront the depth and subtlety of the dramas, and to enjoy the analytical pursuit of ever finer insight, ever fuller understanding.
This stimulating study takes a fresh look at two of Dickens' most widely-studied texts. Part I uses carefully selected short extracts for close textual analysis, while Part II examines the historical and literary contexts and key criticism. The volume is an ideal introductory guide for those who are studying Dickens' novels for the first time.
How to Begin Studying English Literature has established itself as one of the most successful and popular introductory student guides in the field. This fourth edition has been fully revised and expanded throughout, and now includes more examples and commentary on texts as well as a third essay-writing chapter, tackling critics and context. This book shows the reader how to approach novels, plays and poems, featuring chapters on themes, characters, structure, style, irony and analysis. In addition, sections on revision, exams and further development of study skills make this book an invaluable companion for anyone beginning to study English literature.
At the beginning of this century, Virginia Woolf reacted against literary tradition, sought a new definition of fiction, applied her modern, post-Freudian outlook and radically feminist ideas to the problem of writing novels and, in so doing, redefined our concept of this literary form. The results an be seen in Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and The Waves -- three novels of a flowing, impressionistic texture that are, at the same time, highly structured. Making use of detailed analysis of selected extracts from the novels, the reader is taught to explore the delicate and yet rich writing Woolf achieved and to enquire into the significance of her ironies and symbolic structures.