Browse by Subject: Literature

Randall Jarrell was the critic whose taste defined American poetry after World War II. Poetry and the Age, his first collection of criticism, was published in 1953. It has been in and out of print over the past 40 years and has become a classic of

The Dublin Helix is a puzzle book, taking as its method James Joyce's own playful manipulations of language and matching them with entertaining word searches, acrostics, and other enigmas. Knowles finds ways into Ulysses that have never before

This lively retelling of the medieval Grail legend presents a unified version of the hero Perceval's quest. Illustrated with 34 miniatures from 13th- and 14th-century manuscripts, it offers a concise and coherent version of a myth that has fascinated

First published in 1928, Elizabeth Banks' autobiography tells the story of a pioneering, American woman journalist in London at a time when women wrote only for the society & fashion pages. A regular contributor to Punch, & the Daily News, Banks created a

Most analyses of Wharton's work describe her early triumph as a realist and her decline in the 1920s into sentimental fiction. Hoeller shows that Wharton created a dialogue between the two traditions & used the sentimental voice to express the truth of fe

Examines Shaw's work in the theater and the use of theater in his work. Part I, "Bernard Shaw, Director" was originally published in 1971 and remains the most authoritative work on this aspect of Shaw. Part II: "The Director as Interpreter:

In this introduction to the work of Italo Calvino, the author, a friend of Calvino's, traces his development as of one of the first and most defining of the postmodernists. Examines his ties to authors Beckett, Borges, Kafka, Conrad, and Twain.

A pioneering study of Colette, Simone de Beauvoir, & Marguerite Duras and the ways in which the aging process shaped their creativity, their work, and their lives. Examines each woman's identity--as a French woman, as an aging woman, & as a woman writer.

Edited collection of essays on the work of the 19th-century American (Maine) writer Sarah Orne Jewett, author of The Country of the Pointed Firs. Considers gender, regionalism, class, and cross-influences with contemporaries Howells, Cather, and Wharton.

In these 26 interviews, novelist Harry Crews discusses writing, literary influences, his fascination with so-called "freaks," his failed relationships, the impact of alcohol and drugs on his life and work, and more.