Routledge Guides to Literature
About the Book Series
Routledge Guides to Literature are clear introductions to authors and texts most frequently studied by undergraduate students of literature. Each book explores texts, contexts and criticism, highlighting the critical views and contextual factors that students must consider in advanced studies of literary works.
Each guide presents a variety of approaches and interpretations, encouraging readers to think critically about 'standard' views and to make independent readings of literary texts. Alongside general guides to texts and authors, the series includes 'sourcebooks', which incorporate extracts from key contextual and critical materials as well as annotated passages from the primary text.
Some books in this series were originally published in the Routledge Literary Sourcebook series, edited by Duncan Wu, or the Complete Critical Guide to English Literature series, edited by Richard Bradford and Jan Jedrzjewski.
Toni Morrison
1st Edition
By Pelagia Goulimari
July 22, 2011
Toni Morrison's visionary explorations of freedom and identity, self and community, against the backdrop of African American history have established her as one of the foremost novelists of her time; an artist whose seriousness of purpose and imaginative power have earned her both widespread ...
Gerard Manley Hopkins
1st Edition
By Angus Easson
January 12, 2011
Gerard Manley Hopkins was among the most innovative writers of the Victorian period. Experimental and idiosyncratic, his work remains important for any student of nineteenth-century literature and culture. This guide to Hopkins’ life and work offers: a detailed account of Hopkins life and ...
Nadine Gordimer's July's People: A Routledge Study Guide
1st Edition
By Brendon Nicholls
October 19, 2010
Nadine Gordimer is one of the most important writers to emerge in the twentieth century. Her anti-Apartheid novel July's People (1981) is a powerful example of resistance writing and continues even now to unsettle easy assumptions about issues of power, race, gender and identity. This guide to ...
Kazuo Ishiguro
1st Edition
By Wai-chew Sim
November 09, 2009
Having earned an international reputation with his booker-prize-winning novel, The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro is fast emerging as an important cultural figure of our times. In this guide to Ishiguro’s varied and often experimental work, Wai-chew Sim presents: a biographical survey of ...
Ted Hughes
1st Edition
By Terry Gifford
January 12, 2009
For the first time, one volume surveys the life, works and critical reputation of one of the most significant British writers of the twentieth-century: Ted Hughes. This accessible guide to Hughes’ writing provides a rich exploration of the complete range of his works. In this volume, Terry Gifford...
Martin Amis
1st Edition
By Brian Finney
July 01, 2008
Booker-shortlisted for Time's Arrow and widely known for his novels, short stories, essays, reviews, and autobiographical works, Martin Amis is one of the most influential of contemporary British writers. This guide to Amis's diverse and often controversial work offers: an accessible introduction...
William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: A Routledge Study Guide and Sourcebook
1st Edition
Edited
By Sonia Massai
January 31, 2008
William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (c.1600) is one of his most captivating plays. A comedy of mistaken identities, it has given rise to thought-provoking debates around such issues as gender identity and role-playing, manipulation and deception. Taking the form of a sourcebook, this guide to ...
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: A Routledge Study Guide
1st Edition
By David Whittaker, Mpalive-Hangson Msiska
December 20, 2007
Offering an insight into African culture that had not been portrayed before, Things Fall Apart is both a tragic and moving story of an individual set in the wider context of the coming of colonialism, as well as a powerful and complex political statement of cross-cultural encounters. This guide to ...
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: A Routledge Study Guide
1st Edition
By D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke
November 05, 2007
Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, has fascinated critics and readers alike, engaging them in highly controversial debate as it deals with fundamental issues of good and evil, civilisation, race, love and heroism. This classic tale transcends the boundaries of time and place and has ...
W.H. Auden
1st Edition
By Tony Sharpe
October 15, 2007
As both a politically engaged and stylistically versatile poet, W.H. Auden is one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. His work is not only widely studied and read, but has been used in musical scores and quoted in Hollywood films. This guide to Auden’s compelling work ...
House Of Mirth
1st Edition
By Janet Beer, Pamela Knights, Elizabeth Nolan
August 30, 2007
Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth (1905) is a sharp and satirical, but also sensitive and tragic analysis of a young, single woman trying to find her place in a materialistic and unforgiving society. The House of Mirth offers a fascinating insight into the culture of the time and, as suggested by ...
George Eliot
1st Edition
By Jan Jedrzejewski
June 19, 2007
As a woman in an illegal marriage, publishing under a male pseudonym, George Eliot was one of the most successful yet controversial writers of the Victorian period. Today she is considered a key figure for women’s writing and her novels, including The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch, are commonly...