This authors of this useful handbook, originally published in 1985, not only summarise Mark Twain scholarship, but also evaluate, in much detail, the various contributions. Each chapter includes a thorough annotated bibliography. This title also includes a comprehensive chronological table of the significant events in Mark Twain’s Life, including the publication dates of his works. This title will be of interest to students of American Literature.

Originally published in 1970. Mark Twain is generally known as a children’s writer. This serious and appreciative introduction by I. M. Walker shows that he is in fact a great writer who produced mature and developed literature. The study of his works is divided into five sections: the comic narrator; techniques of humour; character portrayal; style and description; and irony and satire.

The annotations in this volume, originally published in 1996, intend to assist the reader of Faulkner’s The Hamlet to understand obscure or difficult words and passages, including literary allusions, dialect, and historical events that Faulkner uses or alludes to. This title will be of great interest to students of literature.

This title, originally published in 1992, presents an assessment of Poe’s short stories that treat horror, and more specifically how he manipulated the conventions of that horror to register subtly on the fears and phobias of his reading audiences. Short-stories examined include The Black Cat, Hop-Frog and Morella. This title also explores the theories of Stephen King and Benjamin Rush on the horror genre. This title will be of great interest to students of American Literature.

This bibliography, first published in 1988, is intended to make more readily accessible the wealth of Dickinson criticism and scholarship that appeared from 1969 through 1985. During the 17 years that are covered in this bibliography nearly 800 books, articles and dissertations have appeared. The present work is intended to aid both students and scholars in finding the materials they need in their study of, and research on, Emily Dickinson’s poetry and her life.

This title, originally published in 1985, examines conceptions of success and the good life expressed in bestselling novels – ranging from historical sagas and spy thrillers to more serious works by Updike, Bellows, Steinbeck and Mailer – published from 1945 to 1975. Using these popular books as cultural evidence, Elizabeth Long argues that the meaning of the American dream has changed dramatically, but in a more complex fashion than has been recognised by that country’s most prominent social critics. Her study presents a challenge to prevailing social-scientific views of...

Originally published in 1984. William Faulkner is the most studied American author of our time. This volume presents a collection of some of the best critical essays on William Faulkner’s ninth novel Absalom, Absalom!. Numerous approaches are represented; among them are theme studies, close readings, psychological studies, source studies, structural studies, and analyses of style and narrative technique.