Böcker av Peter Widdowson

Widely popular throughout the world, Hardy still seems to speak to us, in fiction and in poetry, as our contemporary. In this new edition of his popular study, Peter Widdowson identifies the elements in his work which enable Hardy to be read in this way: the focus on unstable class and sexual relations in a society undergoing rapid change;

The author, a leading and influential critic of Thomas Hardy, brings together for the first time essays representing both his major critical work over the last fifteen years and three entirely new pieces. This volume allows readers to test the force of Widdowson's critical polemic in undispersed form.

This study offers a close reading of each of Swift's novels, exploring the innovative formal strategies and identifying such recurrent themes as the presence of the past in the present, the blurring of distinctions between 'history' and 'story', fact and fiction, and the possibilities of redemption in a contemporary social and emotional wasteland.

This brilliant guide provides an introductory overview of the history of 'literature' as a cultural concept, reflecting on its contemporary nature, place and function, and what the literary might mean for us today.

This comprehensive guide to the historical and cultural context of English Literature covers the core periods of literature, and history, from the English Renaissance to the present.