Literary Criticism & Essays & Journalism

When the story was first translated from Danish and published in England in the mid-nineteenth century, the Little Match Girl's dying visions of lights and a grandmother in heaven were often interpreted as metaphors of religious salvation. In "Matchless", Maguire adds a different dimension to the story, intertwining the match... read more

he British invented the novel, with the publication of @lt;b@gt;Robinson Crusoe@lt;/b@gt; in 1719 marking the arrival of a revolutionary and distinctly modern form of art. But it's also true, as Sebastian Faulks argues in this remarkable book, that the novel helped invent the British: for the first time we had stories that re... read more

Joy Cowley distils her four decades at the top of the children's writing pyramid for the benefit of anyone engaging in writing for young people. In short chapters she covers developing a plot, dialogue, writers' discipline, humour, early reading, novels, picture books, plays, poetry, editing, and presentation.

Words Chosen Carefully brings together some of New Zealand's finest literary practitioners 15 writers and 15 literary critics - in discussions about each author's work, the nature of writing and the place of land, culture, belonging, society, family and art in their work.

A commonplace book is the repository for a personal collection of quotations and scraps, pensees and poems. In vogue from the late sixteenth-century, their fans include John Milton, W H Auden and now Elizabeth Smither. Here she shares three of her commonplace books and reflects on the quotations she's gathered that act as foi... read more

In June, 1942, Anne Frank received a red-and-white checked diary for her thirteenth birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic. For two years, with ever-increasing maturity, Anne crafted a memoir that has become one of the most compelling, intimate, and important docum... read more

Which 100 novels represent the finest American literature ever produced? Let this book be your guide. Ordered A-Z by author this latest title in the popular Must-Read series provides a rich resource for your reading. It features 100 titles from 19th century classics: Melville's Moby Dick and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, to... read more

Do you know your geek-speak from your geek-chic? Ever wanted to put Humpty Dumpty together again? Can you distinguish Spanglish from Chinglish? We adapt words from other languages, from slang, from developments in science, literature and art. Often, we adopt them from a bright yellow and deeply dysfunctional television cartoo... read more

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A treasure trove of Schama's writing with subjects ranging from cookery to Barack Obama.

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 ... read more

John Crace, creator of the Guardian's 'Digested Read' column, hilariously summarises the great - and not so great - classics of modern literature.
John Crace's 'Digested Read' column in The Guardian has rightly acquired a cult following. Each week fans avidly devour his latest razor-sharp literary assassination, while... read more

If you know sentences, you know everything. Good sentences promise nothing less than lessons and practice in the organization of the world. Some appreciate fine art; others appreciate fine wines. Stanley Fish appreciates fine sentences. "The New York Times" columnist and world-class professor has long been an aficionado of la... read more

When it comes to the natural world, Australia is home to a disproportionately large share of the world's riches. That means we Australians are caretakers of a unique natural heritage in a land which tolerates few mistakes. So how are we doing? In Quarterly Essay 48 Tim Flannery says: we're often failing nature. In the clash b... read more

Few decades have caused more controversy than the 1960s, a time of explosive change in which tradition and authority gave way to freedom - a sweeping transformation crystalized in the 1961 publication of "Webster's Third New International Dictionary". Created by the most respected American publisher of dictionaries and superv... read more

For almost 200 years, the English have been one of the largest migrant streams to New Zealand, yet relatively little has been written about their experiences here. This book brings together leading international and local researchers to explore a wide range of topics and issues at the heart of research into human mobility. ... read more

Written in 1957, but only recently rediscovered in manuscript form in a New Jersey warehouse, Beat Generation bears the hallmarks of vintage Kerouac: flowing, stream-of-consciousness language, orchestrated with a jazz-like sense of adventure and rhythm. Entertaining and exuberant, and conjuring up a thrilling, smoke-filled, ... read more

"Making the Future" is the latest collection of essays from Noam Chomsky, one of our most vital and provocative voices of political dissent. Taking up the thread from 2007's "Interventions", these penetrating and compelling articles examine numerous topics, including the financial crisis, Obama's presidency, WikiLeaks and the... read more

Collection of literary lectures by E.M. Forster, published in 1927.
For the purposes of his study, Forster defines the novel as 'any fictitious prose work over 50,000 words.' Forester's wit and lively, informed originality have made this study of the novel a classic. Avoiding the chronological approach of what he calls... read more

Fifty years after the publication of The Feminine Mystique, have women really exchanged purity and maternity to become desiring machines inspired only by variations of sex, shopping and masochism - all coloured a brilliant neuro-pink? In this volume, fifty women young and old - writers, politicians, actors, scientists, mother... read more