Literary Criticism

This second edition of Peter G. Beidler's Readers Companion builds on the success of the first edition. It will be an indispensable guide for teachers, students, and general readers who want fully to appreciate Salinger's perennial bestseller. Now six decades old, The Catcher in the Rye contains references to people, places, books, movies, and historical events that wil

Each working day from January 29 to November 1, 1951, John Steinbeck warmed up to the work of writing East of Eden with a letter to the late Pascal Covici, his friend and editor at The Viking Press. It was his way, he said, of "getting my mental arm in shape to pitch a good game."   Steinbeck's letters were written on the left-hand pages of a notebook in whi

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP The story of the Trojan War, an epic tale of men and gods, of the heroes and horrors of war. THIS ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: A concise introduction that gives readers important background information A timeline of significant events that provides the book

Dive into the timeless tales of gods and heroes in this bestselling A-to-Z encyclopedia detailing classic myths and legends—perfect for curious readers and academics alike. Edith Hamilton's mythology succeeds like no other book in bringing to life for the modern reader the Greek, Roman and Norse myths that are the keystone of Western culture-the stories of go

A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural community   The place is Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, an enclave of rigid piety huddled on the edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants believe unquestioningly in their own sanctity. But in Arthur Miller's edgy masterpiece, that very belief will have poisonous consequences when a vengeful teenage

The superstar author makes a stop on his last official book tour to read from and discuss his first adult novel in eight years. In conversation with Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus).

Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude) joins Judith Freeman and Rich Cohen in celebrating Raymond Chandler's classic detective novel, The Big Sleep.

Shakespeare: The Illustrated Edition is an exquisitely illustrated, updated edition of Bill Bryson’s bestselling biography of William Shakespeare that takes the reader on an enthralling tour through Elizabethan England and the eccentricities of Shakespearean scholarship. With more than 100 color and black-and-white illustrations throughout, and updated to include

Narrated by the award-winning Bahni Turpin and covering topics from Scrabble to Lena Dunham, Gay’s essays prove she’s both a funny & insightful cultural critic & a compassionate observer of human nature.

Zadie Smith sits down with Laura Miller to discuss and read from her novel, On Beauty.

Available for the first time as an independent work, David Grene’s legendary translation of Oedipus the King renders Sophocles’ Greek into cogent, vivid, and poetic English for a new generation to savor. Over the years, Grene and Lattimore’s Complete Greek Tragedies have been the preferred choice of millions of readers—for personal libraries, individual st

Patti Smith’s beautifully rendered memoir was selected as the 2019 read for One Book, One New York (a city-wide book club). Set in the bohemian glamour of the Chelsea Hotel in the late ’60s, the book chronicles Smith’s loving relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe and their early years as struggling artists.

Covering gesture, characterization, narration, and dialogue, Prose shows you how to get the most out of your reading — and how to apply those lessons to that manuscript shoved in the back of your desk drawer.

Isaiah Sheffer sits down with two great contemporary authors, Colum McCann and Colm Toibin, to discuss their books, Let the Great World Spin and Brooklyn. Michael Cerveris reads excerpts from the two novels.

From one of the 20th century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies of our time. • "Scintillating … One finds here amazing glimpses into the life of a world that has vanished forever." —The New York Times Speak, Memory was first published by Vladimir Nabokov in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence and then assiduously revised and

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Justin Avoth and Laurence Dobiesz. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Christopher Rowe read by Justin Avoth. 'Consider just this, and give your minds to this alone: whether or not what I say is just' Plato's account of Socrates' trial and d

Dr. Faustus is one of the jewels of early modern English drama, and is still widely performed today. Interestingly, the play has come down to the contemporary audience in two distinct versions that have become known as the 'A' and the 'B' texts. David Bevington and Eric Rasmussen, who edited the original Revels edition over twenty years ago (and are two of the most eminent

From the Nobel Prize winner and acclaimed author of My Name is Red comes a portrait of Istanbul by its foremost writer, revealing the melancholy that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire.   "Delightful, profound, marvelously origina.... Pamuk tells the story of the city through the eyes of memory." —The Washington Post Book World <

The Doors of Perception is Aldous Huxley’s groundbreaking 1954 essay that explores his experiences with the psychedelic substance mescaline. In the book, Huxley recounts a controlled experiment in which he took mescaline and recorded his thoughts, visions, and philosophical insights during the altered state of consciousness. The work delves into the nature of human percep