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Changing her name early in her career because her parents disapproved of her writing, Jamaica Kincaid crossed audiences to embrace feminist, American, postcolonial and world literature. This book offers an introduction and guided overview of her characters, plots, humor, symbols, and classic themes.

A three-time National Book Award for Fiction winner, Saul Bellow is one of the most highly regarded American authors to emerge since World War II. His career produced 14 novels and novellas, two volumes of nonfiction, short story collections, plays and a book of collected letters. This companion provides more than 200 entries about his works, literary characters, events and persons in his life.

Surveys the life, works, and awards of Irish playwright Brian Friel. Entries investigate his milieu and such topics as religion, violence, and achievement. Character summaries reprise his most significant figures, particularly St. Columba, the victims of Derry's Bloody Sunday, and Hugh O'Neill, the Lord of Tyrone.

The creator of Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux and characters based on his own family, James Lee Burke has used the mystery genre to explore enduring issues such as the nature of evil and the responsibility an individual has to his family and society at large. This companion is designed for general readers and scholars interested in Burke's work.

Provides an extensive chronology and 175 entries about both George Orwell's literary works and personal life. Also included are discussion questions and research topics, notable quotations by Orwell and an extensive bibliography of related sources.

This literary companion surveys the works of Lee Smith, a Southern author lauded for her autobiographical familiarity with Appalachian settings and characters. An A to Z arrangement of entries incorporates specific titles, and themes such as belonging, healing and death, humour, parenting and religion.

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist credited with the founding of the ecology movement and the rise in ecofeminism. This literary companion provides readers with Carson's key messages via an A-to-Z index of topics discussed in her works including carcinogens, endangered species, and radioactivity.

James Joyce, one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, continues to fascinate readers all over the world. This volume provides historical and biographical background, plot summaries of the novels and stories, and critical insight helpful for any reader of Joyce's works. It also offers an A-Z guide to the life, works, people, history, and context that informed Joyce's writing.