By Merryn Williams
August 22, 2000
A Preface to Hardy remains the best introduction to one of the most important and popular writers in English literature. The first section concentrates on Hardy the man and outlines the intellectual and cultural context in which he lived. The author then moves on to examine a wide range of Hardy's ...
By Ron Tamplin
August 18, 2000
T. S. Eliot is arguably the most influential poet of the 20th century, and The Waste Land one of its most significant poems. This introduction to the life and works of T.S. Eliot sets his writing clearly in the context of his times. Outlining his life and cultural background and their effect on his...
By Ian Robert Fraser Gordon
January 24, 1994
This second edition of Ian Gordon's A Preface to Pope places the poet within the social, cultural and intellectual context of his time. It throws new light on the theoretical and imaginative structures of Pope's poetry focusing on the linguistic complexity at its centre. It offers a critical survey...
By Gamini Salgado
August 17, 2000
'Longman Preface books are intended to give "modern and authoritative guidance" on the lives and works of the major writers ... Gamini Salgado's A Preface to Lawrence does just that.' Times Educational SupplementD. H. Lawrence, criticised, censored and dismissed in his lifetime, now stands as one ...
By John Purkis
August 18, 2000
Probably the most famous of the Romantic poets, William Wordsworth worked with and influenced many of the leading poets of the age. This excellent introduction to his life and works sets his writing firmly in the context of his times. John Purkis provides an outline of Wordsworth's life and ...
By Anne Varty
March 18, 1998
A Preface to Oscar Wilde provides a detailed study of the cultural, personal and political influences that shaped Wilde's writing. The study concentrates primarily on his fiction, critical dialogues and plays that were published between 1890 and 1895, and detailed accounts of Wilde's lesser known ...
By Stevie Simkin
January 13, 2000
This study provides an authoritative overview of all Marlowe's work. It includes thorough investigations of his major plays, Tamburlaine, Edward II, The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus as well as a full discussion of The Massacre at Paris, Dido Queen of Carthage and all his extant poetry. Analysis ...
By Cedric, M.A. Ph.D. (Professor) Watts
August 18, 2000
Lively, informed and thorough, this survey of the life and works of Graham Greene opens with a biographical account setting the writer in context of his times and describing and exploring the influences, tensions and contradictions that occur throughout his work. The second half of the book devotes...
By Michael Mangan
January 26, 1996
This is an informative and interesting guide to the comedies of love - The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like it and Twelfth Night - which were written in the early part of Shakespeare's career. As ...
By Michael Mangan
September 16, 1991
This book is a study of four of Shakespeare's major tragedies - "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear" and "Macbeth". It looks at these plays in a variety of contexts - both in isolation and in relation to each other and to the cultural, ideological, social and political contexts which produced them....
By Edward Malins, John Purkis
March 14, 1994
The first edition, by the late Edward Malins, of this informative guide to the life and works of one of the most important and difficult poets of the 20th century, has now been extensively revised by John Purkis. It begins by providing biographical details on Yeats, with particular emphasis on his ...
By Lois Potter
August 18, 2000
A highly readable and illustrated introduction to the work of Milton, which provides both a biographical account of the poet and his influences, and a critical survey of his poetry. ...
