The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature

Based on the hugely popular Fifth Edition of The Oxford Companion to English Literature, this volume offers more than 5,500 entries on individual novels and plays; songs and poems; the lives and works of authors, poets, playwrights, essayists, philosophers and historians; fictional characters; literary movements; legends; theatres; and periodicals. In adapting the parent volume, the editors have eliminated the most peripheral entries and have condensed many of the remaining articles, while retaining the clear and graceful style that characterized the original. New entries on modern authors such as Jim Crace and Ben Elton have been added, alongside new entries on topics such as travel writing and Anglo-Indian literature. The fully-updated appendices list literary prize-winners, including the Nobel, Man Booker prize, and Pulitzer prizes. The result is a book that readers will find indispensable and highly affordable.