A practical introductory textbook for literary studies, which can be used either for independent study or as part of a taught class. Lays the groundwork for further study of literature, introduces students to essential analytic and inte

Acknowledgements. Using this book. 1. Miniature Poems: Reading the Elizabethan Sonnet as a Jewel 2. What's Syntax Got to do with Poetry?: On Puritan Mind-Style and Romantic World-View 3. Women's Poetry: Same or Different? 4. Death on Stage: Learning to Die in a Revenge Tragedy 5. Sheridan's School for Marriage: The Effect of Education and the Nature of Comedy 6. Degenerate Apemen or Heroic Dreamers?: On Cultural Stereotypes and Synges's The Playboy of the Western World 7. Talking About the Weather: Emma and the Social Web of Dialogue 8. Of Elephants, Serpents and Fairy Palaces: Simile and Metaphor in Dickens' Hard Times 9. Laughter in Patriarchy and Colonialism: Lexical Repetition and Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea 10. Point of View and its Effects: Resisting Brian Moore's Lies of Silence Glossary. Index.

Clara Calvo is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Murcia, Spain. Her publications include Power Relations and Fool-Master Discourse in Shakespeare, and she is a regular contributor to The Year's Work in English Studies.
Jean Jacques Weber is Professor of English at University Centre Luxembourg. His publications include Critical Analysis of Fiction, Twentieth-Century Fiction (co-edited, Routledge 1995) and The Stylistics Reader (co-edited for Routledge 1996).