This study focuses on how Frankenstein works: how the story is told and why it is so rich and gripping. Part I uses carefully selected short extracts for close textual analysis, while Part II examines Shelley's life, the historical and literary contexts of the novel, and offers a sample of key criticism.

This stimulating study takes a fresh look at two of Dickens' most widely-studied texts. Part I uses carefully selected short extracts for close textual analysis, while Part II examines the historical and literary contexts and key criticism. The volume is an ideal introductory guide for those who are studying Dickens' novels for the first time.

Focusing on All's Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida, Nicholas Marsh uses close analysis of extracts from the plays to build the reader's confidence when approaching Shakespeare's Problem Plays, and exploring the unresolved competing discourses they dramatize. In the first part of the text, chapters on Openings, Young Men, Women, Politics, and Society, Fools and fools, and Drama highlight the multiple interpretations these plays provoke. In the second part, discussion of where the Problem Plays stand in relation to Shakespeare's life and works, a chapter about the historical and cultural context, and a comparison of five critical views, with suggestions for further reading, provide a bridge towards further study.

This volume focuses on three widely-studied novels: Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow and Women in Love. Chapters on narrative texture, impulse and emotion in Lawrence's characters, the quest for a male-female relationship, class and society, and imagery, symbols and structures, use practical analysis to build and refine our insight into the novels as well as equipping the readers with techniques and approaches which enable them to continue studying Lawrence independently. Suggestions for further reading, fully explained examples of analysis and suggestions for further work, make this volume both accessible and a bridge to further study.

William Blake was ignored in his own time. Now, however, his Songs of Innocence and Experience and 'prophetic books' are widely admired and studied. The second edition of this successful introductory text: - Leads the reader into the Songs and 'prophetic books' via detailed analysis of individual poems and extracts, and now features additional insightful analyses - Provides useful sections on 'Methods of Analysis' and 'Suggested Work' to aid independent study - Offers expanded historical and cultural context, and an extended sample of critical views that includes discussion of the work of recent critics - Provides up-to-date suggestions for further reading William Blake: The Poems is ideal for students who are encountering the work of this major English poet for the first time. Nicholas Marsh encourages you to enjoy and explore the power and beauty of Blake's poems for yourself.

Daniel Defoe's writings have bred controversy since their first appearance in the eighteenth century: 'Robinson Crusoe' fuels virulent disagreements among critics, while Defoe's two scandalous women, 'Moll Flanders' and 'Roxana', can still shock us and challenge the range of our sympathies. This essential study: - Takes a fresh look at these intriguing novels and leads the reader into close analysis of Defoe's texts, encouraging an open-minded approach to interpretation - Features chapters on the novels' openings, conscience and repentance, society and economics, women and patriarchy, and the use of 'outsider' narrators - Provides useful sections on 'Methods of Analysis' and 'Suggested Work' to aid independent study - Offers historical and literary background, a sample of critical views, and suggestions for further reading Equipping students with the critical and analytical skills with which to approach Defoe's work, this inspiring guide helps readers to appreciate the brilliance of the author's writing and to enjoy the complexity of his fictional creations for themselves.

Chapters on the narrative frame, characters, imagery and symbols, structure and themes use practical analysis to build and refine our insight into Wuthering Heights. Part Two gives information about Emily Bronte's life and works, a discussion of this novel's place in the development of fiction and a comparison of three important critical views. Suggestions for further reading, fully explained examples of analysis and suggestions for further work make this volume both accessible and a bridge to further study.

How to Begin Studying English Literature has established itself as one of the most successful and popular introductory student guides in the field. This fourth edition has been fully revised and expanded throughout, and now includes more examples and commentary on texts as well as a third essay-writing chapter, tackling critics and context. This book shows the reader how to approach novels, plays and poems, featuring chapters on themes, characters, structure, style, irony and analysis. In addition, sections on revision, exams and further development of study skills make this book an invaluable companion for anyone beginning to study English literature.

This study focuses on how Frankenstein works: how the story is told and why it is so rich and gripping. Part I uses carefully selected short extracts for close textual analysis, while Part II examines Shelley's life, the historical and literary contexts of the novel, and offers a sample of key criticism.

This volume focuses on three widely-studied novels: Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow and Women in Love. Chapters on narrative texture, impulse and emotion in Lawrence's characters, the quest for a male-female relationship, class and society, and imagery, symbols and structures, use practical analysis to build and refine our insight into the novels as well as equipping the readers with techniques and approaches which enable them to continue studying Lawrence independently. Suggestions for further reading, fully explained examples of analysis and suggestions for further work, make this volume both accessible and a bridge to further study.

This text takes extracts and examines "Pride and Prejudice", "Emma", "Mansfield Park" and "Persuasion" in close detail, bringing out the irony and implication in Jane Austen's writing. Using the tool of textual analysis, the text aims to teach the reader to explore the comedy of her narratives, and to inquire into the serious moral purpose that lies behind each of these four novels. This work is for A Level and first-year undergraduate students of English Literature and courses in the novel.

Thought of as Shakespeare's most powerful works, the four great tragedies, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth, are texts of unparalleled richness and depth, stimulating and exciting to study. This book takes extracts and examines them, explaining how the critic can use particular techniques to bring out complexities of meaning, understand the patterns of metaphor and the rhythms of the poetry and appreciate the ever-living drama. Chapters on the openings and endings of plays, heroes and heroines, society, humour, imagery and the tragic universe guide the student on a journey of inquiry into the nature of Shakespeare's tragic vision. Far from simplifying Shakespeare, the reader is challenged to confront the depth and subtlety of the dramas, and to enjoy the analytical pursuit of ever finer insight, ever fuller understanding.

At the beginning of this century, Virginia Woolf reacted against literary tradition, sought a new definition of fiction, applied her modern, post-freudian outlook and radically feminist ideas to the problem of writing novels and, in so doing, re-defined our concept of this literary form. The results can be seen in Mrs Dalloway, To The Lighthouse and The Waves, three novels of a flowing, impressionistic texture that are, at the same time, highly structured. Through detailed analysis of selected extracts from the novels, the reader is taught to explore the delicate and yet rich writing Woolf achieved and to inquire into the significance of her ironies and symbolic structures. This guide does not sidestep the complexity of her works, but challenges the reader to confront, examine and enjoy it.