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literary analysis Essay Examples

8262 total results

A Literary Analysis of along Comes a by Tom Bullough (381 words, 1 pages)

Road trippingA by Tom Bullough 256pp, Sort Of BooksSeveral years after the world grew tired of "chemical generation" drug lit, along comes A, the debut novel from 26-year-old Tom Bullough. A stood for acid long before E stood for ecstasy, but acid is still around, even if confined to small ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Shield of Achilles: War, Law and the Course of the History by Philip Bobbitt (1544 words, 2 pages)

Still riding the Trojan horse The Shield of Achilles War, Law and the Course of History by Philip Bobbitt 960pp, Allen Lane This is a book of extraordinary ambition. It could well have been called A General Theory of War, Peace and History . For that is what it proffers, ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Loner in the Emperor of Ocean (1500 words, 2 pages)

The loner in his labyrinth The Emperor of Ocean ParkStephen L Carter 660pp, Jonathan Cape To stumble upon one of the great, sprawling masterpieces of early 20th-century American naturalist fiction - set against which Stephen L Carter's accomplished debut can stand some faint comparison - is to be struck, above ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of a Strange Boy by Paul Magrs (731 words, 1 pages)

Strange boy, stranger point-of-viewStrange Boy by Paul Magrs (224pp, Simon Schuster) The publicity for this novel has made much of the fact that it has a gay theme. Or else that it doesn't it's hard to tell. The book's editor says, disingenuously "Some people will doubtless pick up on the ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan (402 words, 1 pages)

Power to the potatoThe Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan 306pp, BloomsburyIn 1985 Henry Hobhouse published an important and original piece of historical writing called Seeds of Change Five Plants that Transformed Mankind. In 1999 Anna Pavord's masterpiece, The Tulip, appeared, which even tulipomaniacs would agree said everything there was ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Four Women of Spain by Paul Preston (1059 words, 2 pages)

Love and death on the front line Doves of War Four Women of Spain Paul Preston 471pp, HarperCollins Little has been written about the role of women in the Spanish civil war. If quizzed about it, most of us would probably have exhausted our knowledge after invoking the name of ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Little, Brown by Linda Grant (806 words, 1 pages)

Mersey beatStill Hereby Linda Grant 375pp, Little, BrownAlthough Linda Grant's fine third novel opens with a death, it is ultimately about that which endures, often against considerable odds. Set in Liverpool, Chicago and Dresden - three cities that know something about endurance, having all survived considerable conflagration and decay - ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Gould’s Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan (1093 words, 2 pages)

In the hands of madmen Gould's Book of Fish Richard Flanagan 404pp, Atlantic Books Richard Flanagan's third novel has divided opinion in the author's native Tasmania, between those whose swoon at its audacity and the excess of its imagination, and those who complain of its capacity to flummox and disorientate ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Pinochet in Piccadilly (786 words, 1 pages)

When Pinochet came to teaPinochet in PiccadillyAndy BeckettFaber 15.99, pp286Idi Amin eats nothing but oranges, on the orders of his physicians. He dreams of leaving Saudi Arabia and returning to Uganda. Baby Doc Duvalier fled Haiti in 1986 with millions of dollars in his luggage. Having emptied out his monogrammed ... Read More

An Introduction to the Literary Analysis of Lost in France by Pears (562 words, 1 pages)

Lost in FranceThe Dream of ScipioIain PearsJonathan Cape 17.99, pp392Golden age crime writers, like bigamists, enjoyed the freedom granted by a double identity. Oxford don J.I.M. Stewart published racy thrillers as Michael Innes poet C. Day Lewis masqueraded as Nicholas Blake and 'Edmund Crispin' was in fact the composer Bruce ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Life of Pi by Yann Martel (635 words, 1 pages)

A fishy taleLife of PiYann MartelCanongate 12.99, pp330About a third of the way through this novel, you find yourself being asked to believe in the following scenario a 16-year-old Indian boy named Pi (short for 'Piscine' - don't ask) has been cast overboard from a sinking ship. The ship had ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Gould’s Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan (1485 words, 2 pages)

Con fishingGould's Book of FishRichard FlanaganAtlantic Books 16.99, pp404Prison islands are notoriously wordless places. The authoritarian fear that language might get out of control has led to inmates being denied writing materials or even confined to silence. Yet so often this repression of language has resulted eventually in its outpouring.Think ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Structure of Evolutionary Theory by Stephen Jay (1487 words, 2 pages)

Adventures in evolution The Structure of Evolutionary Theory Stephen Jay Gould 1,464 pages, Harvard I Have Landed Splashes and Reflections in Natural History Stephen Jay Gould 401pp, Cape There are many reasons to regret the death of Stephen Jay Gould one of the weightiest is that he never had time ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Animal Magnetism in Life of Pi by Yann Martel (892 words, 1 pages)

Animal magnetism Life of Pi Yann Martel 319pp, CanongateIn the author's note that prefaces this vertiginously tall tale, Yann Martel blends fact and fiction with wily charm. Yes, he'd published two books that failed to shake the world - eager, studious-young-man's fiction with a strain of self-conscious experimentalism - and ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Vile Bodies Don’t You Want Me by India Knight (859 words, 1 pages)

Vile bodies Don't You Want Me India Knight 272pp, Penguin In this follow-up to her hugely successful My Life On a Plate, India Knight explores new shallows. Her heroine, 38-year-old Stella, shares her Primrose Hill house with her 18-month-old daughter, Honey, and her handsome but red-haired lodger, Frank. Stella does ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Novel the White Family (1097 words, 2 pages)

Too close to home The White Family Maggie Gee 420pp, Saqi Books 'How does it feel to be a problem?" James Baldwin was once asked. Maggie Gee's eighth novel deftly inverts the question, exploring the "problem" of race as it originates and festers in the minds of present-day white Britons. ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Pinochet in Piccadilly: Britain and Chile’s Hidden History (1161 words, 2 pages)

General studies Pinochet in Piccadilly Britain and Chile's Hidden History Andy Beckett 280pp, Faber On October 16, 1998, General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, former dictator of Chile and self-appointed senator for life, was unexpectedly arrested while undergoing medical treatment at a clinic in London. The order for his arrest was issued ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Longing to Belong in Liverpool (731 words, 1 pages)

Longing to belong in LiverpoolStill HereLinda GrantLittle, Brown 10.99, pp375Alix has been listening to Joseph, an architect, telling her about his style. 'Makes you wonder what the definition of Jewish minimalism is,' she remarked, lifting her coffee cup to her crimson mouth. 'I suppose it would be, "I want the ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Marx’s Revenge (891 words, 1 pages)

Can you hear Marx tittering in Highgate?Marx's RevengeMeghnad DesaiVerso 19, pp383Practical jokes, last laughs and vengeance would have been more the sphere of Groucho rather than Karl Marx. But Meghnad Desai argues that the great thinker's most prominent legacy was a huge confidence trick. Capitalism has now triumphed, it is ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Art of Travel by Alain De Botton (1035 words, 1 pages)

Toothbrush, bikini... and dead poetThe Art of TravelAlain de BottonHamish Hamilton 14.99, pp272Travel is now the world's biggest industry, according to the World Trade Organisation. It beats arms and pharmaceuticals both in turnover and in numbers of people employed. Despite the post-11 September dip, forecasts for the sector are measured ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte (949 words, 1 pages)

In search of lost treasureThe Nautical ChartArturo Prez-RevertePicador 16.99, pp465Towards the end of The Nautical Chart, the central character, Coy, finds a turtle caught in a net. He dives into the sea to free her, slashing away at a thousand feet of fishing mesh that trap her until, finally, she ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter’s Memoir (829 words, 1 pages)

The truth about Daddy The Devil That Danced on the Water A Daughter's Memoir Aminatta Forna 409pp, HarperCollins When western television screens began to show women and children with amputated limbs, and other devastating evidence emerged of the descent into violence in Sierra Leone's civil war in the late 1990s, ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the World We’re in by Will Hutton (1504 words, 2 pages)

Friends across the water The World We're In Will Hutton 320pp, Little, Brown Will Hutton's latest book, The World We're In , is only about the world we're in on the author's terms. Funny old world. Turn to the index. No mention of China, India, Latin America, Africa or Islam. ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Vanilla Skies by Peter Stanford (753 words, 1 pages)

Vanilla skies Heaven Peter Stanford 3844pp, HarperCollins St Augustine thought nobody farted there. St Thomas Aquinas saw it as a celestial Trades Union Congress - a place where the "communion of the saints" ruled co-operatively. But the Scandinavian version meant a lot of singing, boar-eating and mead-drinking. Heaven can't always ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Coming to Light by Edward S Curtis (1158 words, 2 pages)

Go west, young lady Edward S Curtis Coming to Light Anne Makepeace 216pp, National Geographic Sacagawea's Nickname Larry McMurtry 178pp, NYRB I Dwell in Possibility Donna M Lucey 256pp, National Geographic Phoebe Ann Mosey doesn't figure in I Dwell in Possibility, a history of women who built the United States ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Don’t You Want by Melinda Knight (498 words, 1 pages)

In search of Mr AnybodyDon't You Want MeIndia KnightPenguin 6.99, pp272Sex and the Single Girl may be a worn-out old trollop of a theme, but there's mileage yet in Sex and the Single Mum - or so India Knight believes.Like Clara Hutt, the heroine of her hyped debut novel My ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams (505 words, 1 pages)

A deadline bandit's last hurrahThe Salmon of DoubtDouglas AdamsMacmillan 16.99, pp299When I was in publishing in the 1980s, hardly a season went by without some wonderful piece of gossip about the brilliant new book Douglas Adams was not writing. These tales were matched by scarcely credible reports of the increasingly ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Subject Steve by Sam Lipsyte (376 words, 1 pages)

Walking, talking, living dull...The Subject SteveSam LipsyteFlamingo 9.99, pp272A caption writer for silicon companies, Steve, the narrator of Sam Lipsyte's satirical novel, is a sardonic, self-deprecating man in his late thirties given to faking fits in order to get out of any difficult situation. He is a careless parent whose ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams (1215 words, 2 pages)

Gently does it The Salmon of Doubt Douglas Adams 336pp, Macmillan James Boswell was taken aback by Samuel Johnson's verdict on Gulliver's Travels "When once you have thought of big men and little men, it is very easy to do all the rest." So are we - but part of ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Better the Mo (812 words, 1 pages)

Better the Mo we knowMomentumMo MowlamHodder Stoughton 20, pp320The fundamental - and fundamentally vicious - rules of autobiography apply. Ex-politicians who write their memoirs have no future favours left to dispense or secrets to impart so they can be slagged off with impunity. Ex-Labour ministers who sell their extracts to ... Read More

Published: Friday 25th of January 2013