Kategoria BISAC: Juvenile Nonfiction >> Literary Criticism & Collections

Walt Whitman's passionate writing style and bold subject matter have deeply influenced American poetry. Nearly all of his poems were published in Leaves of Grass, which Whitman obsessively expanded, edited, and republished throughout his life, ultimately leaving behind a powerful literary legacy. Twenty of his most commonly read and studied poems are discussed in depth in this volume, which also features ideas for essay topics to assist students in developing critical-thinking skills.

The seventh and final book is out, but fans still fiercely debate the many controversial issues left unresolved. Now, the experts at MuggleNet.com argue passionately about what really happened and what should have happened.

-Would the series be stronger if Harry hadn't survived?

-Should we pity Voldemort or hate him?

-Is Severus Snape really a hero?

-Should J.K. Rowling have left Dumbledore's gay sexual orientation a secret?

-Did Harry actually...

Stephen Crane is widely recognized as a master and innovator of literary naturalism. Among his more popular works are the novels Maggie: A Girl of the Street and The Red Badge of Courage and the short stories "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," "The Blue Hotel," and "The Open Boat." The critical selections and commentary gathered in this volume offer a wealth of critical information and analyses that examine Crane's work and speak to his relevance and far-ranging influences. Additional features, such as a chronology, index, and introduction from editor Harold Bloom, will aid students of...

Best known as the author of Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift is one of literature's great satirists. Born and educated in Ireland, Swift became a politician and clergyman in England, where he wrote essays, pamphlets, poems, and fiction that addressed the political issues and social conditions of his time. In Gulliver's Travels, he introduced the allegorical settings of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the island of the Houyhnhnms, as well as the term "yahoos" in a playful, but dark, satirical reflection of humankind. This addition to Bloom's Classic Critical Views includes a...

George Eliot is perhaps most appreciated for her ability to synthesize moral and aesthetic concerns. She has been compared to Shakespeare and Dante in her role as a moral authority. This volume presents the evolving scope of Eliot's critical reputation, offering valuable insight into her classic novels including Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, Adam Bede, Silas Marner, and The Mill on the Floss. A chronology of the author's life, an index, and an introduction by esteemed scholar Harold Bloom round out this latest addition to the Bloom's Classic Critical Views series.

Poet laureate of England from 1843 until his death in 1850, William Wordsworth is often credited as being one of the founders of English Romanticism. The 1798 joint publication of Wordsworth's and Sameul Taylor Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads marked a turning point in English poetry, as poets began to emphasize imagination and feeling over the primacy of reason. Wordsworth's poems focused on the natural and the ordinary, as based on the "real language of men." In his preface to the third edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth set forth his definition of poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of...

While his detractors found his verse to be deliberately obscure, Robert Browning resisted such charges and went on to become one of the most critically acclaimed and popular English poets of the 19th century. Known for his imaginative originality and dramatic power, Browning is one of the most undervalued major poets of the English language, as is evidenced in his enduring works such as "My Last Duchess," "Fra Lippo Lippi," "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," "Andrea del Sarto," and "Caliban Upon Setebos." This volume of essays featuring criticism from both Browning's contemporaries...

With the publication of her first novel, The Joy Luck Club, in 1989, Amy Tan was immediately recognized as a major contemporary novelist. Her work has received a great deal of attention and acclaim from feminist critics for its focus on issues of matrilineage and the ultimate triumph over female victimization. Her classic debut and the many novels that followed are unlocked and explored in this valuable resource, which provides helpful suggestions for students writing about Amy Tan.

Widely acclaimed as one of the finest short story writers and known for her acerbic wit, complex themes, and acutely observed portrayals of the American South, Flannery O'Connor is a favorite among students, scholars, and general readers. Her stories "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and "Everything That Rises Must Converge" are considered classics of the form, fusing the ludicrous and mundane with O'Connor's powerful explorations of redemption and morality. This new collection of critical essays presents a chronology of O'Connor's life, a bibliography of her works, an index, and an...

Through the years, this Canadian writer has emerged as a master of the short story. The compressed and encapsulated energies of the form allow Alice Munro to peel away at the smooth and mundane surfaces that contain her characters' lives to reveal harsher truths within. This acclaimed writer is profiled for the first time in this indispensable series through full-length critical essays that plumb the depths of her rich, fictive worlds. In this new work, a chronology of her life, a bibliography of Munro's work, and an index provide valuable information for student researchers.