Women's poetry has too often been undervalued, misread, or simply ignored; but in this updated edition, Montefiore convincingly reappraises the range, scope, and variety of women s poetry, past and present. With a readable and lucid explanation and application of current critical theory, this book helps readers to appreciate writers ranging from Christina Rossetti, Eavan Boland, and Grace Nichols to Adrienne Rich, Irena Klepfisz, and Liz Lochhead.

Rudyard Kipling is one of the most magical storytellers in the English language. This new selection brings together the best of his short writings, following the development of his work over fifty years. They take us from the harsh, cruel, vividly realized world of the 'Indian' stories that made his name, through the experimental modernism of his middle period to the highly-wrought subtleties of his later pieces. Including the tale of insanity and empire, 'The Man Who Would Be King', the high-spirited 'The Village that Voted the Earth Was Flat', the fable of childhood cruelty and revenge 'Baa Baa, Black Sheep', the menacing psychological study 'Mary Postgate' and the ambiguous portrayal of grief and mourning in 'The Gardener', here are stories of criminals, ghosts, femmes fatales, madness and murder.

This book argues that Kipling's writings, at once Victorian conservative and modernist subversive, preaching imperialist control yet speaking for subaltern races and classes, are fissured yet energised by their own contradictions. imperialist who sympathised with children and outlaws, a globe-trotter who mythologised 'Old England', and a world-famous author whom intellectuals despised. The central theme of this book is the way his work and its reception are both fissured and energised by these contradictions. This thorough study initially discusses Kipling's ambivalent knowing attitude to unknownable otherness, his rhetorical imitations of Indian and demotic vernaculars, his work ethic and ideal of imperialist masculinity, thus contextualising the central discussion of his masterpiece Kim which, almost uniquely, takes Indian otherness as a source of pleasure not anxiety. examining how his fiction and poetry engaged with radio, cinema and air travel, how his poetry anticipated and influenced the subversive uncertainties of modernism, and how his post-war contributions to the literature of mourning undermined their own overt traditionalism. education; teachers of literature; scholars valuing the extensive and up-to-date bibliography; and sixth-form, academic and public libraries. This is the only academic critique of Kipling's work that discusses his relationship with modernism and the First World War. It is wide literary and thematic range within an approachable style. The study takes account of recent post-colonial theory, as well as issues of gender and identity. It is an excellent overview of Kipling's work at an affordable price.