Surveying the key debates about a novel which has provoked an immensely rich critical response, the extracts and essays included here examine Great Expectations in structural, symbolic, social, political, psychological, and sexual terms, relating the novel to its own time and to a range of twentieth-century theoretical perspectives. Exploring secondary sources, from initial reviews in the 1860s to the most up-to-date critiques of the 1990s, the Guide is an essential resource for the study of one of Dickens's most complex works.

In this collection of critical responses to Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney's poetry, Elmer Andrews presents the debates surrounding the poet's work and popular appeal. The writings gathered in this Columbia Critical Guide clarify and explore issues of cultural identity and nationality, as well as debates on the power of language and the function of verse. Beginning with Heaney's early collection, Death of a Naturalist, the guide reviews and contextualizes material on successive volumes (including 1996's The Spirit Level), so that students of Heaney's verse will find an accessible pathway...

Taught in schools and universities around the world, and the constant subject of books, essays, and articles down the years, The General Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" has long been central to the English literary canon. Jodi-Anne George provides a detailed introduction to the most important critical debates surrounding The General Prologue.

The extracts and essays included here date from early as 1368, when Eustace Deschamps paid the first recorded tribute to Chaucer's genius, and move chronologically through to the late 1990s. The selections address the opinions of early editors of...

Taught in schools and universities around the world, and the constant subject of books, essays, and articles down the years, The General Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" has long been central to the English literary canon. Jodi-Anne George provides a detailed introduction to the most important critical debates surrounding The General Prologue.

The extracts and essays included here date from early as 1368, when Eustace Deschamps paid the first recorded tribute to Chaucer's genius, and move chronologically through to the late 1990s. The selections address the opinions of early editors of...

Explores the critical material generated by The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. This guide follows the growth of interest in Faulkner's work across six decades. It discusses writings shaped by various critical theories, offering the reader a view of the place given to one of America's innovative and influential novelists.

Explores the critical material generated by The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. This guide follows the growth of interest in Faulkner's work across six decades. It discusses writings shaped by various critical theories, offering the reader a view of the place given to one of America's innovative and influential novelists.

With the publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne achieved not only critical recognition in his native New England, but also an undisputed place amongst the newly emerging ranks of great American writers. This guide introduces and sets in context, the range of critical arguments that have been generated by this work.

With the publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne achieved not only critical recognition in his native New England, but also an undisputed place amongst the newly emerging ranks of great American writers. This guide introduces and sets in context, the range of critical arguments that have been generated by this work.

Mary Shelley's first novel has established itself as one of modernity's most compelling and ominous myths. Frankenstein poignantly captures the spirit of the early 1800s as an age of transition tragically divided between scientific progress and religious conservatism, revolutionary reform and conformist reaction. This Guide encapsulates the most important critical reactions to a novel that straddles the realms of both high literature and popular culture. The selections shed light on Frankenstein's historical and socio-political relevance, its innovative representations of science, gender, and...

George Eliot's reception as a writer has been checkered from the start. Prejudice followed the revelation of her real identity as a woman, and she suffered from critical neglect at the start of the twentieth century before a postwar renaissance of interest established her as one of the most powerful of British novelists.

Focusing on three of Eliot's most influential and widely read "Midlands" novels, this guide traces recent critical interpretations of her work as well as revisiting some of the perspectives offered by original reviewers and early critics. Class, gender, and ideology all...