This Reader's Guide provides a critical survey of the responses to this popular play, from the earliest published accounts to the present day. Leading the reader through the material in a chronological fashion, the book draws on a rich range of critical writings, including Dr. Johnson, Coleridge, Bradley, and Leavis. Nicholas Potter carefully relates this material to more general issues regarding Shakespearean criticism and scholarship, and the development of literary history and theory.

This Guide provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of the essential criticism on Julian Barnes's work, drawing from a selection of reviews, interviews, essays and books. Through the presentation and assessment of key critical interpretations and perspectives, the Guide examines the various issues in his work which have aroused critical interest (narration/voice, history/story, biography, infidelity, obsession). It also explores Barnes's combination of innovative techniques with conventional strategies in his novels, short stories and essays.

This Guide provides a survey of the wide range of responses to Macbeth, as well as the key debates and developments from the seventeenth century to the present day. Chronologically structured, the Guide summarizes and assesses key interpretations, sets them in context and supplies extracts from criticism which exemplify critical positions.

This Reader's Guide analyses the critical history of two of Hardy's major tragic novels, from the time of their publication to the present. Simon Avery traces the changing critical fortunes of the texts and explores the diverse range of interpretations produced by different theoretical approaches.

Sara Lodge offers a lively introduction to the critical history of one of the most widely-studied nineteenth-century novels, from the first reviews through to present day responses. The Guide also includes sections devoted to feminist, Marxist and postcolonial criticism of Jane Eyre, as well as analysis of recent developments.

Matthew Woodcock provides a survey of the critical responses to this popular play, as well as the key debates and developments, from the seventeenth century to the present day. Leading the reader through material chronologically, the Guide summarises and assesses key interpretations, setting them in their intellectual and historical context.

Recognized as a feminist author, and the greatest living Canadian writer engaged with issues of gendered and national identity, Margaret Atwood also problematizes both of these labels and trends in her work. This Guide will cover Atwood's entire fictional oeuvre and will engage fully with each of the debates developed by the various key critics of her work, interweaving these with sustained critical commentary and guiding readers through the key critical issues and approaches to reading Atwood's fiction. Including detailed coverage of Atwood's most widely-studied novels - The Handmaid's Tale,...

This guide examines the critical construction of the genre of 'contemporary Scottish literature' and assesses the critical responses to a wide range of contemporary Scottish fiction, poetry and drama. The guide is structured thematically with each chapter addressing a specific area of debate within the field of contemporary Scottish Studies.

This comprehensive survey of the critical response to Draculaprovides an overview of the trends and development of work surrounding the novel. The critics and approachesdiscussed range from the earliest studies to the present day, with particular emphasis on biography, psychoanalysis, postcolonialism, Irish studies and gender."

This Guide discusses the range of critical reactions to three of Jane Austen's most widely-studied and popular novels. Annika Bautz takes the reader chronologically through the profusion of criticism by selecting key approaches from the immense variety of responses these three Austen novels have provoked over the last two centuries.