One of the most prolific and popular contemporary novelists, Stephen King has a devoted following of captivated readers. This is the first critical work on King to examine his most recent novels, Dolores Claiborne, Insomnia, and Rose Madder, and to analyze the many threads of his fiction in a way that is accessible to young adults and general readers. It is designed to help the reader understand the carefully organized narrative structure of his novels, the relation of his fiction to the horror and science fiction genres and to each other, character development, and stylistic and thematic concerns that recur and evolve throughout his work.

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) was born in Florence. He served the Florentine republic as secretary and second chancellor, but was expelled from public life when the Medici family returned to power in 1512. His other works include T"he Discourses, The Art of War," and the comic satire "The Mandrake."
Peter Constantine is the recipient of a PEN Translation Prize and a National Translation Award. His Modern Library translations include T"he Essential Writings of Machiavelli, Voltaire's Candide," and Tolstoy's "The Cossacks," He lives in New York City.

J.R.R. Tolkien drew on his professorial expertise in Anglo-Saxon literature and the early mythology and folklore of Great Britain in creating this popular classic centering on the perils of Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo became one of the author's most enduring and vividly realized creations in this precursor to the legendary The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yale literary scholar Harold Bloom introduces this compilation of concise critical excerpts, which also includes an annotated bibliography and an index for easy reference.

After Shakespeare, Charles Dickens is the writer in English whose effect on the world’s readers transcends the apparent limits of literature and so teaches us that imaginative invention itself can be a form of life. Together with The Pickwick Papers, A Christmas Carol seems as though it has always been there, just as Hamlet and Falstaff give us the strong illusion they did not require Shakespeare’s art to have awarded them life.

Maya Angelou is an author who is as popularly received as she is critically praised. Her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings announced the arrival of a distinctive new voice in American letters, noteworthy for its meditation on identity and how notions of race, ethnicity, and gender contribute to and complicate journeys of self-actualization and self-discovery. How to Write about Maya Angelou encourages students to sharpen their critical-thinking skills when writing essays about this venerable author. Bibliographies, an index, and an introduction from esteemed scholar Harold Bloom round out this title.