Beginning with an essay on the attributes that define a classic, this collection provides the author's criticism.

An in-depth guide to the rich history of the symbol of the ring, its origin in ancient storytelling tradition, and its influence on Tolkien's work.

** Chosen as a New Statesman, Financial Times, Observer and Sunday Times Book of the Year **A riveting account of the making of T.

Relating literature to topics such as dreams, politics, life, death, the ordinary and the uncanny, This Thing Called Literature establishes a sense of why and how literature is an exciting subject to study. This essential guide to the study of literature is as an eloquent celebration of the value and pleasure of reading.

This book explores the historical relationship between China and Japan, and how this has exacerbated their dispute over the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. There are three paradoxes in the bilateral relationship complex interdependence does not preclude the possibility of open conflict; cool-headed assessments are quickly being ove.

The Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures provides a scholarly and accessible introduction to the literatu...

An engaging popular history of the magically enchanting early-English civilization on which Tolkien based his world of The Lord of the Rings.

From Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Artist of the Beautiful” and Albert Camus’s “The Artist at Work” to Bernard Malamud’s “Rembrandt’s Hat” and Aimee Bender’s “The Color Master,” the tales collected here range from haunting fables about the power of art to vivid portraits of those who create.

Discover one of the best cities in the world through the lens of some of the most iconic writers who have ever lived. Literary London follows in the footsteps of those literary icons to prove that - as another famous local writer put it – he who is tired of London is tired of life.

Why should one half be free to live, while the other is doomed to watch silently from the sidelines? In this collection, the author leads us on a transformative journey through the liberating powers of the mind.