Do you want to know the difference between an epic poem and a tragedy? Between 'classical' and 'romantic'? Between 'naturalism' and 'realism'?

Chris Baldick's reference manual to the language of literature answers all these questions - and more besides. With entries which range from definitions of 'the absurd' to 'zeugma', it is in fact a guide to a mixture of old-fashioned grammatical terms, traditional drama, literary history, and textual criticism. It contains over 1000 of the most troublesome literary terms you are likely to encounter. He gives clear and often witty explanations to terms such as 'hypertext', 'multi-accentuality', and 'postmodernism'. He also explains more common figures of speech such as the metaphor (straightforward) and those you can never remember such synecdoche and metonymy (can you really tell the difference between them?)

He also explains literary genres, from 'the madrigal' to 'dirty realism' and 'the boddice ripper', as well as offering potted accounts of theories such as structuralism and hermeneutics.

This will appeal to the general reader with an interest in literary studies, but it's principally a useful reference for the advanced schoolroom or for undergraduates. And in fact - make that teachers too. I've had a copy of the first edition on my shelves for years, and I use it all the time.

© Roy Johnson 2001         [see other books on writing skills]

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Chris Baldick, Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms, Oxford: Oxford University Press, (second edition) 2001, pp.280, ISBN 019280118X