Literature

Over 175 articles

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Literary Theory gives a comprehensive coverage of every aspect of literary theory, both traditional and contemporary. Led by Editor in Chief John Frow and Associate Editors Mark Byron, Pelagia Goulimari, Sean Pryor, and Julie Rak, the encyclopedia features around 175 essays written by a wide range of experts and distinguished scholars to explore the problems, the concepts, and the methodologies that arise when we discuss literary texts. They ask what systems of value go into making this category, separating “literary” from other kinds of texts or other language games; what a “text” is, what kinds of text there are, and who decides what it means to “read” a text: to understand it literally, to react to it emotionally, to look for broader structures of meaning, to understand it in relation to the context in which it was written or the contexts in which it was later understood; who “we” are who read; how reading relates to writing, and who or what the author of a text is and what authority they have over its reception; what background understandings shape our reading, how we acquire a knowledge of the norms and conventions that govern reading, how our class or our gender or our ethnicity form our understanding and the differences between our understandings; and whether some readings can be said to be better than others. Ranging across the analysis of formal concepts, of the institutions that support the production, dissemination, interpretation, and valuation of literary texts, of the identities of the real and textual persons who interact in the study of texts, and of the systematic methodologies of literary interpretation and understanding, the Encyclopedia is the most advanced and comprehensive collection of essays on literary theory ever published.

Over 1,500 entries

For nearly half a century, James D. Hart's Oxford Companion to American Literature has offered a matchless guided tour through American literary culture, both past and present, with brief biographies of important authors, descriptions of important literary movements, and a wealth of information on other aspects of American literary life and history from the Colonial period to the present day.

In this second edition of the Concise version, Wendy Martin and Danielle Hinrichs bring the work up to date to more fully reflect the diversity of the subject. Their priorities have been, foremost, to fully represent the impact of writers of color and women writers on the field of American literature and to increase the usefulness of the work to students of literary theory.

To this end, over 230 new entries have been added, including many that cover women authors; Native American, African American, Asian American, Latino/a, and other contemporary ethnic literatures; LGBT, trans, and queer studies; and recent literary movements and evolving areas of contemporary relevance such as eco-criticism, disability studies, whiteness studies, male/masculinity studies, and diaspora studies.

In the past four decades the field of Asian American literary and cultural studies has grown enormously, expanding its areas of inquiry beyond the reflections on national identity and citizenship to encompass such issues as transnational and diasporic identities and communities; the workings of imperialism; the intersectionality of race, gender, and sexuality; and social justice/human rights in a global context. Led by Editor in Chief Josephine Lee and Associate Editors Floyd Cheung, Jennifer Ann Ho, Anita Mannur, and Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, this project is the largest and most comprehensive collection of scholarship on Asian American literature and culture to date. From Asian American literary classics to experimental theater, from K-pop to online gaming, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature and Culture guides both established scholars and readers new to this study through the extensive landscape of Asian American writing and cultural production. More than one hundred essays on varied historical periods, geographical locales, and artistic modes offer an extensive examination of racial representation and activism, interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to literary work, ethnic communities, space and place, transnational and transpacific flows, and genres such as speculative fiction, the detective novel, and melodrama. Along with literary works from the late-19th century to the 21st century, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature and Culture covers a wide-ranging selection of Asian American theatre, dance, music, visual arts, film, television, and media. With its illuminating and profound commentary on Asian American writing and artistic practice, the volumes survey the historical foundations of this rich field, showing the exciting new directions that currently drive the study of Asian American literary and cultural traditions.

Latina/o literature is a growing field of study. It is both an emerging literature and a rich historical one that continues to be documented and uncovered in archival and personal collections. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latina and Latino Literature offers a sweeping introduction to a variety of genres and themes in Latina/o literature from its Latin American origins in the precolonial period to contemporary texts and perspectives. The collection illustrates the historical, social, and political contexts in which successive generations of Latina and Latino authors have written, exploring the interrelationship between geography, national origin, race, gender, sexuality, and other cultural and ethnic identities.

Led by Editor in Chief Louis G. Mendoza and an editorial board of experts, this collection throws light not only on how Latina/o texts have evolved since the contact period, but also on how we have come to understand and conceptualize this work over the past three generations. From Chicana/o identity to Caribbean and Central American diasporic literature, from key figures in Latina/o letters to bilingual texts and graphic novels, the collection explores a variety of issues that are central to the 21st century's American experience, such as feminism, LGBTQA groups, indigeneity, environmental justice, social movements, migration, and US-Mexico borderlands. Each article paints a nuanced and in-depth portrait of Latina/o literary history in a dynamic, complex, and deeply engaging field of study that is at once highly popular, historical, and theoretical. One of the most extensive and detailed surveys of Latina/o literature to date, this encyclopedia shows the historical and cultural significance of this literary tradition in the American context, challenging readers to revisit conventional literary notions and expanding the borders of American literature.

Over 300 entries

This new dictionary provides clear definitions of the most important literary terms and devices in classical and modern Arabic literature. It covers technical terms and rhetorical devices, themes and motifs, concepts, historical eras, literary schools and movements, forms and genres, and significant figures and institutions. Defining terms such as ‘root-play’, highlighting schools such as the Mahjar poets, and exploring concepts such as ‘imaginary evocation’, the dictionary introduces students of Arabic and Arabic literature to the specificities of the Arabic literary tradition and equips them with the tools to understand the nuances and complexities of the texts they encounter.

Over 750 entries

The most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of critical theory available, covering the Frankfurt school, cultural materialism, cultural studies, gender studies, film studies, literary theory, hermeneutics, historical materialism, Internet studies, and sociopolitical critical theory. It explains complex theoretical discourses, such as Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, deconstruction, and postmodernism clearly and provides biographies of figures who have influenced the discipline, such as Deleuze and Foucault.

This new edition has been updated to extend coverage of diaspora, race, and postcolonial theory, and of queer and sexuality studies, ensuring that it remains invaluable for students of literary and cultural studies and anyone studying a humanities subject requiring a knowledge of theory.

Over 240 entries

From the Shi jing (Classic of Songs) of the eleventh century bc, to the to the wanglu wenxue (Internet literature) of the twenty-first century, this authoritative dictionary covers key terms relative to the study of Chinese literature, from antiquity to the present day. a–z entries on key literary figures, trends, schools, movements, and literary collections are included, as well as detailed descriptions of traditional literary works, plays, dramas, stories, novels, and other main literary texts.

This dictionary considers the Chinese literary tradition, and its relation to Chinese culture, customs, and court life, including the most up-to-date research materials with new scholarly assessments. Nearly all entries also contain bibliographies, opening another window for interested readers to pursue further study of the subject.

This is an encyclopedic dictionary covering hundreds of important philosophical, literary, and political terms and concepts that defy easy--or any--translation from one language and culture to another. Drawn from more than a dozen languages, terms such as Dasein (German), pravda (Russian), saudade (Portuguese), and stato (Italian) are thoroughly examined in all their cross-linguistic and cross-cultural complexities. Spanning the classical, medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary periods, these are terms that influence thinking across the humanities. The entries, written by more than 150 distinguished scholars, describe the origins and meanings of each term, the history and context of its usage, its translations into other languages, and its use in notable texts. The dictionary also includes essays on the special characteristics of particular languages--English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Originally published in French, this one-of-a-kind reference work is now available in English, with new contributions from Judith Butler, Daniel Heller-Roazen, Ben Kafka, Kevin McLaughlin, Kenneth Reinhard, Stella Sandford, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jane Tylus, Anthony Vidler, Susan Wolfson, Robert J. C. Young, and many more. The result is an invaluable reference for students, scholars, and general readers interested in the multilingual lives of some of our most influential words and ideas.

Through three editions over more than four decades, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics has built an unrivaled reputation as the most comprehensive and authoritative reference for students, scholars, and poets on all aspects of its subject: history, movements, genres, prosody, rhetorical devices, critical terms, and more. Now this landmark work has been thoroughly revised and updated for the twenty-first century. Compiled by an entirely new team of editors, the fourth edition--the first new edition in almost twenty years--reflects recent changes in literary and cultural studies, providing up-to-date coverage and giving greater attention to the international aspects of poetry, all while preserving the best of the previous volumes

At well over a million words and more than 1,000 entries, the Encyclopedia has unparalleled breadth and depth. Entries range in length from brief paragraphs to major essays of 15,000 words, offering a more thorough treatment-including expert synthesis and indispensable bibliographies-than conventional handbooks or dictionaries.

This is a work that no reader or writer of poetry will want to be without.

This dictionary comprises authoritative, highly accessible entries on writers, works, and literary movements. These entries are supplementary to other literature titles in the Quick Reference collection, and are written by specialist authors. The dictionary is an ongoing project, and more entries will be added over time.

‘I've just had the most tremendous fun with the online platform for The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation. (...) The spoken words are clear and you can repeat them as often as you wish until you're happy with your own pronunciation.’ - The Bookbag

Over 20,000 entries

This dictionary is the first comprehensive description of Shakespearean original pronunciation (OP), enabling practitioners to answer any queries about the pronunciation of individual words. It includes all the words in the First Folio, transcribed using IPA, and provides sound files as an additional aid to pronunciation. It details the main pronunciation evidence in the texts, notably all spelling variants and rhymes. An extensive introduction provides a full account of the aims, evidence, history, and current use of OP in relation to Shakespeare productions as well as other uses. It is an invaluable resource for producers, directors, actors, and others wishing to present Shakespeare's plays or poetry in original pronunciation, as well as for students and academics in the fields of literary criticism and Shakespeare studies more generally.

'a learned and totally addictive guide’ – The Times

Over 3,600 entries

The last thirty years have witnessed one of the most fertile periods in the history of children’s books—the flowering of imaginative writing and illustration, the Harry Potter phenomenon, the rise of young adult and crossover fiction, and books that tackle extraordinarily difficult subjects. The Companion provides an indispensable and fascinating reference guide to the world of children’s literature. It covers every genre from fairy tales to chapbooks; school stories to science fiction; comics to children’s hymns.

This is the first place to look for information about the authors, illustrators, printers, publishers, educationalists, and others who have influenced the development of children’s literature, as well as the stories and characters at its centre. Written both to entertain and to instruct, it is a reference work that no one interested in the world of children’s books should be without.

‘thoroughly researched, impartial, scholarly, wonderfully illustrated and enormous fun’ – The Independent on Sunday

Over 1,000 entries

This Companion is an authoritative reference source for the complex and captivating genre of the fairy tale. It provides full coverage of stories and characters, from Ali Baba, Aladdin, and Cinderella, to Hansel and Gretel, the Moomins, and Tom Thumb, along with the writers who wrote and reworked them, such as Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkien, A. S. Byatt, and Gabriel García Márquez, and the artists who illustrated them, including Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, and Maurice Sendak. The Companion also examines related topics such as Disney, film, opera, science fiction, music, even advertising. Special survey articles explore the development of the fairy-tale tradition in individual countries, focusing particularly on the European and North American traditions.

Written by a team of over 70 specialist contributors from around the world, this is an essential companion for anyone interested in literature, film, or art, or for anyone who values the traditions of storytelling.

‘A wonderful treasure-house of information and insight’ – Dame Judi Dench

Over 3,200 entries

From the conjectured identity of the Dark Lady of the Sonnets to the misprints in the First Folio, from Shakespeare’s favourite figures of speech to the staging of Othello in South Africa, a team of 100 internationally renowned scholars provides a lucid, stimulating, and authoritative guide to Shakespeare’s plays and poems, and their interpretation around the world over the last four centuries. Now revised and updated to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, this much-loved Companion reflects developments and discoveries made in recent years as well as the performance, interpretation, and influence of Shakespeare’s works up to the present day.

'This dictionary's virtues and its plain-spokenness make it … as apt to the bedside table as to the desk: Dr Baldick is a Brewer for specialized tastes' – Times Literary Supplement

Over 1,200 entries

This bestselling dictionary provides clear and concise definitions of the most troublesome literary terms, from abjection to zeugma. Now expanded and in its fourth edition, it includes increased coverage of new terms from modern critical and theoretical movements, such as feminism, schools of American poetry, Spanish verse forms, life writing, and crime fiction.

It includes extensive coverage of traditional drama, versification, rhetoric, and literary history, as well as updated and extended advice on recommended further reading and a pronunciation guide to more than 200 terms. Completely revised and updated, this edition also features brand-new entries on terms such as distant reading, graphic novels, middle generation, and misery memoir. It is an essential reference tool for students of literature in any language.

‘informative, illuminating, and helpful … a remarkable achievement’ – Michael Billington, The Guardian

Over 1,000 entries

Provides essential information on the best-known, best-loved, and most important plays in world theatre. Each entry includes details of the title, author, date of writing, date of first performance, genre, setting, and composition of cast; there is also a summary of the play's plot, and a brief commentary. Genres covered include: burlesque, comedy, farce, historical drama, kabuki, masque, melodrama, morality play, mystery play, No, romantic comedy, tragicomedy, satire, and tragedy. The perfect guide for students and scholars of drama and literature, theatre professionals, and directors looking for plays for performance.

Over 3,200 entries

An essential guide to authors and their works that focuses on the general canon of British literature from the fifteenth century to the present. There is also some coverage of non-fiction such as biographies, memoirs, and science, as well as inclusion of major American and Commonwealth writers.

This online-exclusive new edition adds 60,000 new words, including over 50 new entries dealing with authors who have risen to prominence in the last five years, as well as fully updating the entries that currently exist. Each entry provides details of a writer’s nationality and birth/death dates, followed by a listing of their titles arranged chronologically by date of publication.

Much loved for its wit and wisdom since 1870, Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable takes you on a captivating adventure through its trademark blend of language, culture, myth and legend. As Susie Dent explains in the foreword, Brewer’s “is not a straightforward dictionary, nor is it an encyclopaedia. It is, in fact, unlike any other reference book that exists, anywhere.” This nineteenth edition encapsulates all the charm and wit that characterise its predecessors and maintains the standards of scholarship and eclecticism that have long been its hallmark.

Thoroughly updated with over 100 new and revised entries – think crowdsourcing, cyberpunk, iPad and mash-up – this unique resource is guaranteed to delight, entertain and inspire in the best Brewer’s tradition. Discover Brewer’s take on angels, heraldry, pub signs and recluses, and delve into the lexicographical world of the eggcorn. Whether you are a committed Brewerphile or a newcomer to its pages of fascinating entries, this edition will draw you in and keep you glued to its rich mix of eccentric nuggets.

Over 4,900 entries

Based on the bestselling Oxford Companion to English Literature, this is an indispensable guide to all aspects of English literature. Over 4,900 new and revised A to Z entries give unrivalled coverage of writers, works, historical context, literary theory, allusions, characters, and plot summaries.

For this fourth edition, the dictionary has been fully revised and updated to include expanded coverage of postcolonial, African, black British, and children's literature, as well as improved representation in the areas of science fiction, biography, travel literature, women's writing, gay and lesbian writing, and American literature.

The appendices listing literary prize winners, including the Nobel, Man Booker, and Pulitzer prizes, have all been updated and there is also a timeline, chronicling the development of English literature from c. 1000 to the present day.

Written originally by a team of more than 140 distinguished authors and extensively updated for this new edition, this book provides an essential point of reference for English students, teachers, and all other readers of literature in English.

Over 1,400 entries

This impressive Companion is an extensive guide to the lives of influential poets writing in English, in Britain and around the world, illuminating the influences, inspirations, and movements that have shaped the lives and works of our best-loved poets. It provides over 1,400 thoroughly revised and updated entries on modern poets active from 1910 to the present day.

First published in 1994 as the Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry in English and compiled by a team of 230 experts, including famous poets such as Blake Morrison and Andrew Motion, this edition also includes new biographical entries on more contemporary poets such as Don Paterson, Anne Carson, John Kinsella, and Leslie Marmon Silko. It also contains insightful entries by well-known peers, such as Seamus Heaney on Robert Lowell and Anne Stevenson on Sylvia Plath.

The biographies are complemented by entries on poetry events and movements and lists of anthologies and important poetry prizes and prize-winners. In addition, many entries include details of in-depth supplementary material available online on the dedicated companion website. This superb reference work is the ideal companion for students of English Literature, Language, and Creative Writing, as well as for anyone with an interest in modern poetry.

Over 860 entries

Compiled by one of the best-known authorities on Shakespeare's works, this online-only dictionary offers up-to-date information on all aspects of Shakespeare in his own time and on his impact and influence on later ages. It includes entries on the plays and the major characters, on Shakespeare's life and his contemporaries, on actors from Richard Burbage to Judi Dench, on theatres and directors, plus comments on Shakespeare by later authors such as Jane Austen, Dr Johnson, and Bernard Levin.

Brewer's Dictionary of Irish Phrase & Fable is dedicated to the history, culture, and mythology of the Emerald Isle. With a stunningly eclectic array of more than 6,000 entries on words, phrases, names, titles, people, events, and places, it is an invaluable work of reference. And in the great tradition of Brewer's, it is guaranteed to intrigue, inform, and delight lovers of the arcane, the esoteric, and the unexpected.

A work of nearly 900 pages in print, now available for the first time digitally, the uniquely wide-ranging and addictively browsable Brewer's Dictionary of Irish Phrase & Fable takes you on a fascinating journey around the island of Ireland. From Pearse to Paisley, the Floozie in the Jacuzzi to the Hags with the Bags, Kerrygold to Kerry jokes, and Beckett to Boyzone, it is a cabinet stuffed with Irish curiosities of every conceivable variety.

A vivid and affectionate celebration of the whole island of Ireland, this is the perfect book for anyone passionate about Ireland and its history.

From the Bloomsbury Group to the Camberwell Carrot and Samuel Johnson to Boris Johnson, Brewer's Dictionary of London Phrase and Fable shines a welcome light into the enticingly shadowy corners of London's language, culture, and history. More than 2,000 entries encompass words, phrases, historical events, notable London characters (both real and fictional), customs and ceremonies, institutions, artistic and literary works, celebrations and events, inventions, streets and districts, anecdotes, names and nicknames, terminology, and slang.

Whether you are a Londoner through and through or whether you prefer to experience this bustling and cacophonous city from the safety of your armchair, Brewer's Dictionary of London Phrase and Fable will bring the heart and soul of London to your (virtual) bookshelf.

With thousands of contemporary words and phrases and a wide selection of entries on the cultural preoccupations of our times, Brewer’s Dictionary of Modern Phrase & Fable is an invaluable guide to modern language and culture. Focusing on the 20th and 21st centuries, it applies the trademark Brewer’s treatment to a fascinating selection of buzzwords, catchphrases, slang, nicknames, fictional characters and intriguing cultural phenomena from pop culture to politics, literature to technology.

Encompassing everything from the Battle of Britain to the Brazilian wax, McCarthyism to McDonald’s and Waiting for Godot to Wallace and Gromit, Brewer’s Modern is wonderfully diverse, addictively browsable and bound to broaden your horizons.

‘affords many pleasures to the curious... an intellectual inventory. ’ – Andrew Zurcher, Times Literary Supplement

This is the first Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology ever to be published. Dealing with the subject of documentation—which affects everyone's lives (from every-day letters, notes, and shopping lists to far-reaching legal instruments, if not autograph literary masterpieces)—Peter Beal defines, in a lively and accessible style, some 1,500 terms relating to manuscripts and their production and use in Britain from 1450 to the present day.

The entries, which range in length from one line to nearly a hundred lines each, cover terms defining types of manuscript, their physical features and materials, writing implements, writing surfaces, scribes and other writing agents, scripts, postal markings, and seals, as well as subjects relating to literature, bibliography, archives, palaeography, the editing and printing of manuscripts, dating, conservation, and such fields as cartography, commerce, heraldry, law, and military and naval matters.

‘a volume for all seasons... indispensable’—Times Educational Supplement

The third edition of The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature is the complete and authoritative reference guide to the classical world and its literary heritage. It not only presents the reader with all the essential facts about the authors, tales, and characters from ancient myth and literature, but it also places these details in the wider contexts of the history and society of the Greek and Roman worlds. With an extensive web of cross-references and a useful chronological table and location maps (all of which have been brought fully up to date), this volume traces the development of literary forms and the classical allusions which have become embedded in our Western culture.

Extensively revised and updated since the second edition was published in 1989, the Companion acknowledges changes in the focus of scholarship over the last twenty years, through the incorporation of a far larger number of thematic entries such as medicine, friendship, science, freedom (concept of), and sexuality. These topical entries provide an excellent starting point to the exploration of their subjects in classical literature; after all, for many aspects of classical society the literature we have inherited is the primary (and sometimes the only) source material. Additions and changes have been made taking into account the advice of teachers and lecturers in Classics, ensuring that current educational needs are catered for.

In addition to newly covered topics, the Companion still plays to its traditional strengths, with extensive biographies of classical literary figures from Aeschylus to Zeno; entries on a multitude of literary styles from biography and rhetoric to lyric poetry and epic, encompassing everything in between; and character entries and plot summaries for the major figures and myths in the classical canon. It is the ideal guide for students in Classics, and for all who are passionate about the vast and varied literary tradition bequeathed to us from the classical world.

From Haworth to Heathcliff and from Wildfell Hall to The Wide Sargasso Sea, The Oxford Companion to the Brontes provides comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date information on the lives, works, and afterlives of the three Bronte sisters. It is the first time so much information about the family has been gathered together in an accessible A-Z volume.

In-depth surveys of the Brontes’ lives and works and supplemented by entries on their friends and acquaintances, pets, literary and political heroes; on the places they knew and the places they imagined; on their letters, drawings, and paintings.

Extensive coverage of their juvenilia sheds light on their early imaginative worlds, while entries on the sequels and adaptations in film, theatre, and television convey the myriad ways their works live on.

‘Scholarly, ambitious and scrupulous’ – Matthew Beaumont, Times Literary Supplement

Over 400 entries cover Conrad’s Conrad’s life (health, Polish inheritance, the sea, ships and voyages), people (Borys Conrad, Apollo and Ewa Korzeniowski, J. M. Barrie, Stephen Crane, Stefan Zeromski), places (America, Bangkok, Berdyczow, Congo, Cracow, Marseilles), novels (Almayer’s Folly, Lord Jim, Nostromo), stories, essays, and reviews (‘An Anarchist’, ‘Typhoon’, ‘Autocracy and War‘, ‘Legends’, ‘Tales of the Sea’), influences and sources (James Brooke, Alighieri Dante, Charles Dickens, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emile Zola), characters (Almayer family, Mr Jones, Jim, Captain Mitchell, Nostromo, the Professor, Edith Travers), reputation (biographies, films, influences on other writers, portraits and other images, translations), and historical context (First World War, Polish question, women’s suffrage movement).

Written in a lucid, easy style, The Oxford Reader’s Companion to Dickens draws together an unparalleled diversity of information on one of our greatest writers: his life, his works, his reputation, and his cultural context.

Dr Paul Schlicke and his distinguished team of contributors have created a unique volume that offers a more extensive and comprehensive range of information than any other reference work on Dickens, indispensible for students and general readers alike.

‘Scholarly, ambitious and scrupulous’—Matthew Beaumont, Times Literary Supplement

Under the editorial guidance of John Rignall, over 50 literary scholars from a variety of backgrounds offer here the latest thinking and expertise on George Eliot, providing a rich diversity of information and critical insight into her fiction and its contexts, invaluable for both students and general readers.

‘Scholarly, ambitious and scrupulous’—Matthew Beaumont, Times Literary Supplement

Norman Page, with the help of his team of expert contributors, presents here in one volume a unique synthesis of understanding and insight into the life and works of Thomas Hardy. By incorporating different national interests and traditions of scholarship, The Oxford Reader’s Companion to Hardy gives the assurance of sound knowledge, which is indispensable for students and general lovers of Hardy’s work.

Interest in the writing of Thomas Hardy never seems to falter, not just in scholarly circles but also among readers of Victorian fiction. Hardy was a prolific writer of both prose and poetry, he started writing in his teens and continued literally until the day of his death. His work is valued not only in terms of literature, but also in terms of the history, sociology, philosophy, folklore, and religion of his times.

Scholarly, ambitious and scrupulous’ – Matthew Beaumont, Times Literary Supplement

The Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope encompasses all the latest scholarship on this fascinating writer in one single volume. Thirty-six contributors have come together to bring a wealth of biographical, bibliographical, and historical information to illuminate the wider literary and cultural context of Trollope's life and work. Over 500 A-Z entries cover Trollope's literature; his work as biographer, journalist and travel writer; subsequent criticism and praise of his work; his family members, friends, and acquaintances; the social context of his life; his influences and the things he influenced; his interests and ideas.

‘the finest reference book of its kind: a brilliant and meticulous interweaving of anecdote and quotation … it provides the ideal way to plan any kind of literary pilgrimage in Britain or Ireland … a book of quite extraordinary evocative power … permanent magic’ Richard Holmes, The Times

First published in 1977, this classic reference work is a gazetteer of almost 2,000 places - villages, towns, cities, and landscapes - in Britain and Ireland detailing their connections with the lives of famous writers. It invites the reader to explore the places where their favourite writers - from Jane Austen to Philip Pullman - were born, lived, were educated, worked, and drew inspiration. The entries elegantly interweave information with anecdote and quotation, to build a vivid picture of the day-to-day lives of the writers. The Guide is the ideal resource and companion for any literary pilgrimage in Britain or Ireland, and for the armchair literary traveller.

New to this edition are special feature entries on writers particularly associated with places, including the Brontes, Walter Scott, and James Joyce, contributed by high-profile authors including Margaret Drabble and John Sutherland. The Guide also provides an index of author names, with mini biographies, enabling the reader to track down all the places associated with their favourite writers.

‘No guide could come more classic than The Oxford Companion to English Literature … the literary reference source of first resort’ ― The Times

The Oxford Companion to English Literature has long been established as the leading reference resource for students, teachers, scholars, and general readers of English literature. It provides unrivalled coverage of all aspects of English literature ― from writers, their works, and the historical and cultural context in which they wrote, to critics, literary theory, and allusions.

For the seventh edition, the Companion has been thoroughly revised and updated to meet the needs and concerns of today's students and general readers. Over 1,000 new entries have been added, ranging from new writers ― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Patrick Marber, David Mitchell, Arundhati Roy ― to increased coverage of writers and literary movements from around the world. Coverage of American literature has been substantially increased, with new entries on writers such as Cormac McCarthy and Amy Tan and on movements and publications.

Contextual and historical coverage has also been expanded, with new entries on European history and culture, post-colonial literature, as well as writers and literary movements from around the world that have influenced English literature.

The Companion has always been a quick and dependable source of reference for students, and the new edition confirms its pre-eminent position as the A-Z resource of first choice. All entries have been reviewed, and details of new works, biographies, and criticism have been brought right up to date. So also has coverage of the themes, approaches and concepts encountered by students today, from terms to articles on literary theory and theorists. There is increased coverage of writers from around the world, as well as from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and of contextual topics, including film and television, music, and art. Cross-referencing has been thoroughly updated, with stronger linking from writers to thematic and conceptual entries.

Meanwhile coverage of popular genres such as children's literature, science fiction, biography, reportage, crime fiction, fantasy or travel literature has been increased substantially, with new entries on writers from Philip Pullman to Anne Frank and from Anais Nin to Douglas Adams.

The seventh edition of this classic Companion ― now under the editorship of Dinah Birch, assisted by a team of 28 distinguished associate editors, and over 150 contributors ― ensures that it retains its status as the most authoritative, informative, and accessible guide to literature available.

“An outstanding work of reference” – THES

For the first time in this innovative reference book the Romantic Age is surveyed across all aspects of British culture, rather than in literary or artistic terms alone. The Companion's two-part structure presents forty-two essays on major topics, by leading international experts, cross-referenced to an extensive alphabetical section covering all the principal figures, events, and movements in the broad culture of the period. Aimed at students and general readers as well as scholars, the essays constitute an accessible, pluralistic, and modern social history of the epoch; the alphabetical entries can either be used alongside them, for deeper information on specific subjects, or as a free-standing reference tool. The volume as a whole embraces both high and low culture, and explores its subject across the whole breadth of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.

The book's multi-disciplinary approach treats Romanticism both in aesthetic terms-its meaning for painting, music, design, architecture, and above all literature-and as a historical epoch of 'revolutionary' transformations which ushered in modern democratic and industrialized society. In this period Wedgwood turned taste into a commercial enterprise, Pierce Egan took Britain by storm with his sensational accounts of low-life in the capital, and Mary Shelley created, in Frankenstein, one of the enduring myths of scientific advance. The Companion revitalizes canonical Romantic figures in the context of the historical events, political and linguistic debates, commercial pressures, and plebeian subcultures of their day, as well as bringing back into historical focus individuals and events whose impact has often been muffled or forgotten.

This is the first historical dictionary devoted to science fiction. It shows the development of science-fiction words and their associated concepts over time, with full citations and bibliographic information. Citations are drawn from science-fiction books and magazines, fanzines, screenplays, newspapers, comics, folk songs, and the Internet. The dictionary reveals how many words we consider to be everyday expressions, like ‘space shuttle’, ‘blast off’, and ‘robot‘, have their roots in imaginative literature and not in hard science. It also charts the transfer of science-fiction vocabulary to different subcultures and endeavours, such as neo-paganism, aerospace, computers, and environmentalism.

This Companion offers a comprehensive record of New Zealand writing in easily accessible form. It contains more than 1,500 entries on writers, novels, plays, poetry, journals, periodicals, anthologies, literary movements, and professional organisations. The generous range of plot summaries and author entries will prove invaluable to students and the interested lay reader alike.

The second edition of the acclaimed Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature has been thoroughly updated with more than 340 new entries on new writers, new books, and extended entries on established authors. In keeping with the original, entries cover fiction, prose, poetry, drama, prominent writers, literary magazines, publishers, and more general topics. From The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz to the Rebel Angles, Sandra Birdsell to Eric Wright, Caribbean-Canadian literature to War literature, this completely revised edition is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Canadian literature.

2006 ALA/RUSA Best Reference

2006 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

2006 Booklist Editor's Choice

The Encyclopedia provides comprehensive coverage of literature from the Abbey Theatre to Israel Zangwill, covering the entire history of literature in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in the major literary languages (Anglo-Saxon, English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, and Latin). It includes substantial accounts of individual authors (e.g., Spenser, Pope, Austen) and detailed histories of particular themes, movements, genres, and institutions, whose impact upon the writing or the reading of literature was significant (e.g., The Stationers' Company, the sonnet, the ‘School of Night, ’ or the Sublime).

2006 ALA/RUSA Best Reference

2006 Booklist Editor's Choice

2006 Library Journal Best Reference

Written by an international roster of more than 300 authors, the Encyclopedia comprehensively documents and interprets the books read by children throughout the world. With a global perspective that pays attention to significant international trends and the multicultural expansion of the field, it includes brief biographies of every major author and illustrator. Also included are feature essays on all genres of children's literature, individual works, and prominent trends and themes, as well as general essays on the traditions of children's literature in many countries throughout the world.

‘This is an impressive volume which is an indispensable reference work for anybody who takes an interest in literary translation’, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology

Written by eminent scholars from many countries, this Guide highlights the place of translation in our culture, encouraging awareness of the process of translating and making the translator more visible. It covers translations out of many languages, from Greek to Korean, Swahili to Russian. For some works (e.g. Virgil's Aeneid) which have been much translated, the discussion is historical and critical; with less familiar literatures, the Guide examines the extent to which translation has done justice to the range of work available. It contains entries on individual texts (such as the Thousand and One Nights), writers (Ibsen or Proust), genres (Chinese poetry), or national literature (for example, Hungarian). These entries are complemented by more substantial essays on theoretical questions, a pioneering outline of the history of translation into English, and discussions of the problems raised by specific types of text (for example, poetry or oral literature).

Recent years have seen a boom in translation studies, and this is the first comprehensive guide to this essential element of literature in English.

‘ground-breaking’, Writing Magazine

This authoritative dictionary draws on Oxford's unrivalled bank of reference and language resources in order to explore the stories behind names and sayings that can be found in classic literature or today's news. Questions it seeks to answer include: What are Anglo-Saxon attitudes? Who first tried to nail jelly to the wall? When was the Dreamtime? Would you want the Midas touch? Should you worry about grey goo? Answers cover a range of topics, such as classical and other mythologies, history, religion, folk customs, superstitions, science and technology, philosophy, and popular culture.

‘...a tremendous achievement...it resuscitates hundreds of authors and drives fresh pathways through the field’, Times Literary Supplement

This Companion examines the broad sweep of fiction-writing in the first decade and a half of the twentieth century, from 1900 to the outbreak of the First World War, a period when novels in Britain were produced more cheaply, and read more widely, than ever before. All of the classics of the period are explored: Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, Henry James's The Golden Bowl, E M Forster's A Room with a View, Conrad's Lord Jim, and D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. The Companion also surveys a huge variety of neglected and forgotten books, and covers genres such as spy fiction and feminist fiction, and institutions such as the suburb, the publishing trade, and the literary agent. Significant social developments and themes are examined in topic entries, which allow the reader to explore all the novels in a particular genre. Notably, women writers make up nearly half of the biographical entries, reflecting the unprecedented number of women who began to publish during the period.

Indispensable for students and lovers of literature, the Companion offers unique access to the works, writers, and preoccupations of this absorbing period in history.

‘a superb act of homage at a critical moment in French literary fortunes’, Observer

This Companion is a new and completely reconceived work, rather than a revision of the 1959 Oxford Companion to French Literature. As the change in title implies, it presents an authoritative guide not only to ten centuries of literature produced in the territory now called France, but also to the rich literary output of other French‐speaking countries around the world. Written by an international team of specialists, entries cover individual authors and works from the troubadours to Césaire, and from La Princesse de Clèves to La Vie mode d'emploi. Substantial essay‐entries reflect the latest scholarship on topics such as chivalry, Occupation and Resistance in wartime France, scholasticism, the sciences, literary movements and genres, as well as opera, cinema, and press.

Adventurous and wide‐ranging, The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French is an indispensable and hugely enjoyable reference work for all scholars, students and general readers.

‘The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature is a landmark’ A. D. Hope, London Review of Books

Foremost in its field, the second edition of The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature offers a comprehensive record of Australian writing from European settlement to the early 1990s. Written in clear, accessible language, the Companion contains entries on writers, plays, novels, poems, newspapers, journals, anthologies, literary prizes, movements, and professional organizations. It also includes useful plot summaries, detailed biographies, and a number of essay-length articles on key areas, such as Aboriginal writing and science fiction.

Written by an international team of scholars, the Oxford Companion to Chaucer provides a wealth of clear, up-to-date assessments on all aspects of Chaucer. Entries provide information on Chaucer's life and times, his works and the characteristics of them, his language and metre, his reading and the creative uses he made of it, and his major moral and literary themes. Extensive reference is also made to the development of critical opinion about his works over the centuries.

This Companion provides a fascinating and practical guide to Chaucer for readers at every level.

‘A treasure trove ... One that lovers of crime and mystery writing will want on their shelves’, P D James

This Companion provides scholars and fans of the crime and mystery genre with an authoritative yet playful compendium of knowledge about a literature known for its highly entertaining treatment of deadly serious puzzles. Written by such authorities as Edward D Hoch, Sara Paretsky, and the late Julian Symons, entries cover biographies of great mystery writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe, Rex Stout, and Ruth Rendell, as well as favourite sleuths, such as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade, and Adam Dalgliesh, and master criminals, such as Professor Moriarty and Fu Manchu. Character types, such as the country constable or the femme fatale, are discussed along with other components of mystery writing, including famous clues, authorial ingenuity, and how ‘The Butler Did It’. The Companion also features extended essays on the development of the genre and related schools of writing.

‘thoroughly researched, impartial, scholarly, wonderfully illustrated and enormous fun’, The Independent on Sunday

This online edition was reviewed and selectively updated by the original editor in 2011.

This Companion is the first authoritative reference source for the complex and captivating genre of the fairy tale. It provides full coverage of stories and characters, from Ali Baba, Aladdin, and Cinderella, to Hansel and Gretel, the Moomins, and Tom Thumb, along with the writers who wrote and reworked them, such as Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkein, A. S. Byatt, and Gabriel García Marquez, and the artists who illustrated them, including Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, and Maurice Sendak. The Companion also examines related topics such as Disney, opera, science fiction, music, even advertising. Special survey articles explore the development of the fairy-tale tradition in individual countries, focusing particularly on the European and North American traditions.

Written by a team of 67 specialist contributors from around the world, this is an essential companion for anyone interested in literature, film, or art, or for anyone who values the traditions of storytelling.

‘the scope of this Companion is vast’, Modern Language Review

This new edition of Henry and Mary Garland's classic Oxford Companion to German Literature substantially revises and extends its coverage. Designed to be a reliable source of information on the whole sweep of literature from German‐speaking countries from the eighth century onwards, the Companion now comes right up to the mid–1990s, including recent works such as Günter Grass's controversial novel about the unification of East and West Germany, Ein weites Feld (1995). The entries cover authors and their major works, as well as historical, intellectual, and cultural backgrounds. Subjects include Kafka and Kleist, Werther and Christa Wolf, Nietzsche and the Nibelungenlied, Jung and Jelinek, Rilke and Die Reformation. For this new edition much of the original material has been reworked in the light of recent scholarship, and many completely new entries have been added, for example those on Rose Ausländer, Günter de Bruyn, and Yiddish.

This is an indispensable reference book for everyone with an interest in the literature and literary culture of the German‐speaking world.

‘… impressive list of contributors … a substantial achievement’, Italian Studies

Embracing the whole of Italian literature, from the early thirteenth century to the present, The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature takes a broad view of what constitutes literature, covering historical writing, travel writing, theatre, and philosophy as well as the novel, poetry, literary dialogues, and critical theory. Providing generous coverage of canonical figures — from Dante and Petrarch to Montale and Calvino — it also contains a wealth of short entries on significant minor figures. The Companion also explores Latin literature written by Italian authors — a major feature of Renaissance culture — and Italian dialect literature. A range of contextual entries places writers and works in their wider social, historical, artistic, and political circumstances.

Written by expert contributors, the entries reflect the current state of international scholarship, which has developed in many different and exciting directions in recent years.