Literary Criticism - Modern - 20th Century

Dive into the fantastical world and vocabulary of J. R. R. Tolkien with this deluxe edition that will stand out on your bookshelf. J. R. R. Tolkien created characters and a world so unique and so rich with details that they warranted a whole...

A world-renowned critic's haunting and deeply researched account of the subversive acts of literary revenge performed during the Red Scare hearings of the 1950sIn the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations led by Senator...

After Humanity is a guide to one of C.S. Lewis's most widely admired but least accessible works, The Abolition of Man, which originated as a series of lectures on ethics that he delivered during the Second World War. These lectures tackle the thorny question...

Built on the grounds of a former cotton plantation, the Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington, offered agricultural and industrial education as a strategy for Black self-determination. There--and in many other communities in the U.S. South, the Caribbean, and Central America--Black people repurposed...

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, InspiringAgatha Christie is a global bestseller. Her work has been translated into over 100 languages and adapted for stage and screen. Christie's writing life ran from 1920 to the 1970s, and she didn't just write puzzles, she wrote plays,...

Author: Carson McCullers,Carlos DewsPublisher: Mariner BooksPublished: 09/29/2026Pages: 1136Binding Type: HardcoverWeight: 2.70lbsSize: 9.11h x 6.01w x 2.51dISBN: 9780358206705Review Citation(s): Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2026About the AuthorMcCullers, Carson: - Carson McCullers (1917-1967) was the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Heart is a Lonely...

Full-color maps and illustrations from every reach of Middle-earth make this an essential guide to exploring Tolkien's world. Full-color maps and illustrations are accompanied by vivid descriptions of all the fantastical places and creatures of Middle-earth and the Undying Lands. Fans of The Lord...

"[A] masterpiece . . . Babi Yar [is] every bit the peer of the canonical works of witness [such as] Anne Frank's diary . . . Wiesel's Night . . . Solzhenityn's Gulag Archipelago." --George Packer, The AtlanticAn internationally acclaimed documentary novel that describes...

The villains of Middle-earth are explored in rich and colorful detail in this deluxe edition that will stand out on your shelf. The vast fictional universe of J. R. R. Tolkien contains many dark terrors to challenge the forces of good. This deluxe and...

'impossible here, absurd, depraved, ludicrous and yet sacred, still honourable, even here: "I love you!"' This volume contains a generous selection of the short fiction Thomas Mann published in the years 1897 to 1912, after which he turned to larger-scale projects. The acknowledged classic...

'Why must I feel that almost all--no, all--of the devices and conventions used by art are today only fit for parody?' Adrian Leverkühn is a composer who, at terrible personal cost, makes the breakthrough from traditional art to extreme modernism and success. Creative and...

The multifaceted, cubist, and comprehensive perspective of Forty-Three Ways of Looking at Hemingway appears on the fortieth anniversary of Meyers's magisterial biography of Hemingway. This approach has never before been used to illustrate the complexity of his character, the range of his interests, and...

George Orwell has never been more quoted and misquoted. Can he be rescued from the soundbites? George Orwell remains a work in progress. He is, or has become, a meme, a global writer, a national treasure, a London statue, a scholarly society, a Prize...

Whether he's on Broadway or at the movies, considering a new bestseller or revisiting a literary classic, Daniel Mendelsohn's judgments over the past fifteen years have provoked and dazzled with their deep erudition, disarming emotionality, and tart wit. Now, How Beautiful It Is and...

A refreshing approach to the life and work of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. In the Future of Yesterday delves into Stefan Zweig's considerable contribution to world literature, rooted in the Austro-Jewish tradition. His privileged social background saw him embrace European culture and cosmopolitanism. A...

'I was at one of those periods in youth--vacant, without any particular love object--when, like a lover seeing his beloved in all things, we desire, we seek, we see Beauty everywhere.' In the Shadow of Girls in Blossom, the second volume of Proust's In...

Jorge Luis Borges (1899--1986) is one of the most influential literary figures of the twentieth century. His short stories, poems, essays, and translations explore Argentine mythology, mysticism, philosophical ideas, and myriad other topics. This Very Short Introduction gives an engaging overview of Borges's life...

A comprehensive collection of the writings of Mark Fisher (1968-2017), whose work defined critical writing for a generation. This comprehensive collection brings together the work of acclaimed blogger, writer, political activist and lecturer Mark Fisher (aka k-punk). Covering the period 2004 - 2016, the...

A vibrant account of the remarkable novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, tracing its life over the last centuryD. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover is one of the best-known and most resonant works of the twentieth century. Originally considered obscene and unpublishable in numerous countries, its...

Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Beloved Toni Morrison investigates Black characters in the American literary canon and the way they shaped the nation's collective unconscious. In a dazzling series of lectures from her tenure as a professor at Princeton University, Toni Morrison...