Through a wide-ranging series of essays and relevant readings, A Companion to Twentieth-Century United States Fiction presents an overview of American fiction published since the conclusion of the First World War. 

• Features a wide-ranging series of essays by American, British, and European specialists in a variety of literary fields
• Written in an approachable and accessible style
• Covers both classic literary figures and contemporary novelists
• Provides extensive suggestions for further reading at the end of each essay

Featuring new essays by international literary scholars, the two-volume Companion to Irish Literature encompasses the full breadth of Ireland's literary tradition from the Middle Ages to the present day.

•  Covers an unprecedented historical range of Irish literature
• Arranged in two volumes covering Irish literature from the medieval period to 1900, and its development through the twentieth century to the present day
• Presents a re-visioning of twentieth-century Irish literature and a collection of the most up-to-date scholarship in the field as a whole
• Includes essays on leading contemporary authors, including Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Roddy Doyle, and Emma Donoghue

Think you know Shakespeare? Think again . . . Was a real skull used in the first performance of Hamlet? Were Shakespeare′s plays Elizabethan blockbusters? How much do we really know about the playwright′s life? And what of his notorious relationship with his wife? Exploring and exploding 30 popular myths about the great playwright, this illuminating new book evaluates all the evidence to show how historical material—or its absence—can be interpreted and misinterpreted, and what this reveals about our own personal investment in the stories we tell.

This Companion illustrates the vitality and diversity of dramatic work 1660 to 1710. Twenty-five essays by leading scholars in the field bring together the best recent insights into the full range of dramatic practice and innovation at the time.

• Introduces readers to the recent boom in scholarship that has revitalised Restoration drama
• Explores historical and cultural contexts, genres of Restoration drama, and key dramatists, among them Dryden and Behn

A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American West presents a series of essays that explore the historic and contemporary cultural expressions rooted in America's western states.

• Offers a comprehensive approach to the wide range of cultural expressions originating in the west
• Focuses on the intersections, complexities, and challenges found within and between the different historical and cultural groups that define the west's various distinctive regions
• Features essays written by many of the leading scholars in western American cultural studies