Product Description: First published in 1989, this study investigates Hardy not so much in terms of his novels but as he has been constituted as a major figure in English literature. Using Hardy as a case-study, it looks at how a ‘great writer’ is produced in sociological terms, analysing the critical, cultural and ideological factors involved...read more

Product Description: This introduction to practicing literary theory is a reader consisting of extracts from critical analyses, largely by 20th century Anglo-American literary critics, set around major literary texts that undergraduate students are known to be familiar with...read more

Product Description: Frank Vans Agnew left America in 1914 and claiming to be 40 (rather than 46) enlisted in 2nd King Edward’s Horse. He arrived in France in 1915 at Festubert and was given a commission. After attending the Machine Gun School he was at the Somme before volunteering for the Tank Corps...read more

Widely popular throughout the world, Hardy seems to speak to us, in fiction and in poetry, as our contemporary. The essay in this work provides a sketch of Hardy criticism; and offers a guide to reading Hardy anew as a writer who continues to challenge our assumptions about art and life.

Product Description: Professor Widdowson's study offers close and stimulating textual readings of Swift's seven novels to date including his modern classic Waterland and Last Orders which won the Booker Prize and was made into a successful film.

Product Description: First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This comprehensive guide to the historical and cultural context of English Literature covers the core periods of literature, and history, from the English Renaissance to the present. It introduces and outlines key terms, concepts and developments and provides a series of timelines showing political, social, cultural and literary events for each year. Together it offers a concise history of Britain for literature students and provides readers with the context for any literary work from 1500 to 2000.

This introductory volume provides an overview of the history of Literature as a cultural concept, and reflects on the contemporary nature, place and function of what the literary might mean for us today. Literature: * offers a concise history of the canonic concept of 'literature' from its earliest origins * illustrates the kinds of theoretical issues which are currently invoked by the term 'literary' * provides a definition of the 'literary' for the twenty-first century With Literature Peter Widdowson provides a thought-provoking essay on the contemporary relevance of the 'literary' for students.

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Product Description: Peter Widdowson's major new selection of Hardy's poetry offers the student a challenging assessment of his poetic achievement by juxtaposing Hardy's best known poems with some of his least known. In addition to the 184 poems and the selection of Hardy's prose writings (never before so fully annotated), Widdowson includes a lively introduction on Hardy's life and work, a critical essay re-assessing his place in literary history, and extensive explanatory notes on each poem and essay...read more

Product Description: This series takes up the challenge of contemporary literary theory providing collections of seminal modern readings of key authjors, genres and critical approaches. D. H. Lawrence is recognized as one of the foremost English novelists of the 20th century...read more

Product Description: First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.