Literary Criticism Books

Things do indeed fall apart in the mid-20th-century world of West Africa when the British colonize the country, disrupting the ancient ways of life that have provided meaning and structure for the inhabitants of a rural Ibo village. The hero of the story is Okonwo, a revered community leader and the character Achebe frequently uses as a kind of "Everyman"--the brave tribesman who tries to cling to old ways in the face of encroaching western civilization. In this novel, Okonwo represents the rich traditional culture of the tribe, while his son Nwoye is attracted to the changes brought by the Europeans. Achebe's novel is a classic of African literature, suffused with his recognition of the losses that have accompanied the Europeanization of his homeland.

The author tells the story of the Lees, a family of Hmong refugees in California whose epileptic baby daughter, Lia, is taken in hand by the Western medical establishment. The Lees believe that Lia's condition is caused by spirits called dabs, who had caught her and made her fall down. Her doctors want to treat her condition with sophisticated drugs, which her parents refuse to give her. In this sad tale of cultural misunderstanding, two incompatible worlds collide, with heart-wrenching consequences. Nominated for the 1998 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction.

The tale of the orphan, Pip, and his mysterious benefactor provides a grotesque but pointed comedy that explores the many levels of English society with insight and sympathy as well as a satiric eye. Considered by many to be Dickens's best novel, GREAT EXPECTATIONS is the story of a young man who rises out of a rough, deprived childhood to a life in which his expectations--or some of them--are fulfilled: he is a gentleman and a success, though he soon finds that happiness doesn't necessarily accompany money and position. The novel is full of fascinating scenes and characters, among them the coldhearted Estella, the vengeful and dotty Miss Havisham, Joe Gargery the noble blacksmith, the ever-lovable Herbert Pocket, and of course Magwitch, the grotesque and terrifying but ultimately benevolent convict, one of Dickens's most vital creations. As the compelling plot progresses, Pip's fortunes rise and fall, and he slowly gains in wisdom, learning to value what is important and to abandon most of his illusions. But the moral of the story is never heavy-handed or didactic, and in telling his tale, Dickens epitomizes all the best qualities for which he became famous: a comic vision, an inventive imagination, and a bountiful appreciation for the wonderful variety and boundless possibility inherent in the most ordinary humans.

In language of great simplicity and power, Hemingway tells the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck--he hasn't caught a fish in 84 days--who goes out in his small skiff one more time. This time he hooks a huge marlin. During his relentless ordeal, a long and agonizing battle with the marlin far out in the Gulf Stream, the old man faces long days of hunger and exhaustion, his courage and his respect for his adversary never flagging. The man is old and tired and at the end of his life, but he remains the archetypical Hemingway hero who refuses to accept defeat. THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, considered one of Hemingway's best novels, is also his shortest, a mere 27,000 words. It originally appeared in Life magazine in August, 1952, two weeks before it was published in book form. In a statement, Hemingway commented that, with this book, "It's as though I had gotten finally what I had been working for all my life," and claimed that he wanted to make it accessible to people who might not ordinarily be able to afford to buy a book: the Life version was 20 cents, the hardcover book three dollars.

Pope spent his formative years as a poet translating Homer, beginning with "The Iliad", his translation of which Samuel Johnson called "the greatest version of poetry the world has ever seen". This edition makes available for the first time in paperback Pope's notes in their entirety, enabling us to listen in as one poetic genius illuminates the work of another.

Published in 1905, Edith Wharton's first novel, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, navigates the murky waters of class-bound courtship and marriage in turn-of-the-century upper-crust Manhattan. Ironic, sharp, and tragic, the novel follows beautiful, orphaned Lily Bart in her search for a rich husband--the only route open to her if she is to survive in a ruthlessly materialistic world. Mercilessly, Wharton exposes the cruelty and indifference of a society in which such a woman has no role except to be exploited and looked down upon. Nor does she neglect to expose the vanity and delusions of poor Lily herself--qualities that undermine her considerable intelligence and charm. As always, Wharton is writing about a world she knows first-hand, and one in which she suffered her own trials. The complex and poignant tale of Lily Bart is one of her most popular and successful novels

Winner of England's 1999 Whitbread prize, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney's translation of the ancient Anglo-Saxon epic is meant to retrieve the poem from its schoolbook purgatory and establish it as a living, powerful poem for contemporary readers. More than the story of a hero's battle with a gruesome monster, BEOWULF is a story of loyalty, nationalism, and--some say--the dawn of Christianity on what had previously been a violently pagan land.

An Englishman, Archie Jones, and a Bengali Muslim named Samad Iqbal, who first met after World War II in Turkey, encounter each other again 30 years later in the North-West London neighborhood where they live with their families. The daughter of Archie and his Jamaican wife falls in love with Samad's radical fundamentalist son. Archie's sister-in-law is a fervent Jehovah's witness. Samad is plagued by guilt over his affair with his children's schoolteacher. And a nearby Jewish family tries to interfere in their lives. In a stew of often competing multicultural elements, Archie, Samad, and their families struggle to find their identities amid the complexities of the 1970s. Zadie Smith calls her acclaimed novel "a utopian view" of race relations: "It's what it might be and what it should be and maybe what it will be." A New York Times "Editors' Choice" for one of the best books of 2000. Nominated in 2001 for a National Book Critics Circle Award.