Table of Contents

Introduction PART 1: THE NOVEL Stories Characters Narration Plot Settings The Scope of the Novel PART 2: DRAMA Familiar Drama The Language of the Stage Plots and Actions Characters Audience Watching and Studying PART 3: POETRY Valuing, Performing, Hearing What Poets Make What Poets Think What Poets Do: Words and Meanings Poetic Shapes and Sounds The Work of Poets PART 4: GENRE Classification Tragedy Comedy Epic Lyric Satire Romance Gothic Pastoral PART 5: CONTEXT The Past Religion and the Bible Classical Civilisation Books and Ideas The Arts Society PART 6: INTERPRETATION Discovering Meanings Internal Interpretation: Narratology, Grammar and Genre Internal Interpretation: Formalism Theorists and Literary Features Debating Interpretations External Interpretation: Social External Interpretation: Feminism External Interpretation: Psychological External Interpretation: Ideas Issues in Interpretation PART 7: THEMES The Scope of Literature The Living World The Four Seasons The Earth Aspects of Nature Ideas about Nature Buildings Mortality The Human Mind and Society Love War Glossary Bibliography Index.

Promotional Information

'I think students could do with reading a book like this which covers the main ground quickly and simply. It would also do as a 'refresher' book...many books of this kind can be returned to afterwards for a 'remind read.' - Martin Coyle, Chair of English Literature, Cardiff University, UK

About the Author

RICHARD GILL teaches English at Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, Leicester, UK, and teaches adults at the University of Leicester. He is the author of Mastering Shakespeare and Mastering the Novels of Jane Austen (with Susan Gregory).

Reviews

'I think students could do with reading a book like this which covers the main ground quickly and simply. It would also do as a 'refresher' book...many books of this kind can be returned to afterwards for a 'remind read.' - Martin Coyle, Chair of English Literature, Cardiff University, UK