Literary Criticism

Reviewed by: 

in Philip Roth: The Biography, Blake Bailey provides ample evidence of his understanding of modern American literature and the frailties and achievements of an ar

Reviewed by: 

Rudyard Kipling—the Anglo Indian novelist, short story writer, and bard of the British Empire—must have known that it wasn't true when he wrote, "East is East, and West is West, and Never the twain

Reviewed by: 

If you have read only smaller portions of Dostoevsky, Christofi’s account will send you off to look for more.

Reviewed by: 

A venture titled Bookmarked has been launched by Ig Publishing. The theory and practice of the series is that a writer considers some other writer’s book that influenced her or him greatly.

Reviewed by: 

Sven Birkerts’ book-length critique of Speak, Memory is a meditation on the nature of time, the past, language, literature, and the self.

Reviewed by: 

“Solzhenitsyn and the American Culture should serve as a reminder to those of us in the West that civilization is fragile, that democracy and liberty are forever u

Reviewed by: 

“To be born in the street means to wander all your life, to be free. It means accident and incident, drama, movement. It means above all dream . . .”

—Henry Miller

Reviewed by: 

The Bright Book of Life is a work worth dipping into again and again and following along with Bloom and his lifetime of reading the best of the best novels.”

Reviewed by: 

“Souder’s biography is a stylistic portrait of a towering American original.”

Reviewed by: 

“Becoming familiar with the Elizabethan language is not easy, but Edmondson and Wells have taken it to a new level with their detail and final explanations.”

Reviewed by: 

What Were We Thinking will give you a fascinating overview and analysis of the books that explain where we are now, how we got here, and where we might be headed.”

Reviewed by: 

Sylvia Plath wrote some of the best poetry of the 20th century, but her work gets less attention than the way she died. So argues Heather Clark.

Reviewed by: 

“Engaging and provocative, Diamond’s encyclopedic meditation will certainly help readers—no matter where they live—think about what lies ahead for the outlying areas of our cities.”

Reviewed by: 

Nick Flynn’s mother set fire to their house and later killed herself.

Reviewed by: 

The inspiration for Marjorie Garber’s interesting but ultimately frustrating book seems to be the political ascendancy of Donald Trump.

Reviewed by: 

Whether new to Middle-Earth or a veteran pilgrim, anyone will learn much in this book.

Author(s):
Reviewed by: 

“a fascinating book about Whitman, his poetry, and the ways queer life has evolved in America over the last three centuries . . .”

Author(s):
Genre(s):
Reviewed by: 

Not Even Past is a trenchant, wide-ranging survey of the history that binds us a nation while, at the same time, drives us apart.

Author(s):
Genre(s):
Reviewed by: 

Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader is pure Vivian Gornick—not always easy reading, but sufficiently gripping to make us carry on, page after page,

Reviewed by: 

Emily Dickinson has been called the greatest poet in the English language. She is also “America’s most enigmatic and mysterious poet.” But she is not mysterious, according to Martha Ackman.

Reviewed by: 

Monster, She Wrote is a lovely volume for new readers, and an excellent gift for oddball teens, but it should be backed up with more resources for those seeking k

Reviewed by: 

“Only a spiritual and moral awakening can save humanity from destroying itself as an outcome of prejudice and bigotry.”

Reviewed by: 

This is a book review of The Bad Side of Books: Selected Essays of D. H. Lawrence, edited and with an introduction by Geoff Dyer.

Reviewed by: 

The famed Bauhaus school of art and design in Germany was founded in 1919 by pioneering architect Walter Gropius in Weimar.

Pages