In this short but vivid discussion of Russia and its rulers, Caroline Brooke draws on the views o...

A riveting account of the way Lord of the Flies came to be written and published, and of the qual...

A fresh look at the way Virginia Woolf shook up the literary world with Mrs Dalloway, one of the ...

Simon Palfrey shows us the passion and the cruelty which lie beneath the surface of Shakespeare’s...

Adrian Poole on why Shakespeare's reworking on the great love story of the ancient world is so po...

Macbeth may well be the most terrifying play in the English language, but it hasn’t always been s...

Western slavery goes back 10,000 years to Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq, where a male slave was worth...

This short study guide tells you all you need to know about John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Con...

The Connell Short Guide To Cormac McCarthy's The Road

A book which, drawing on the best critics of Hardy, explains and analyses his most controversial ...

Graham Bradshaw looks at the critical arguments that have swirled round this shocking tragedy of ...

John Wiltshire, one of the most original critics of Jane Austen, argues not only that Mansfield P...

Chaucer has been called the father of English literature and here Stephen Fender explores his gre...

The Connell Short Guide To Tennesee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire

An entertaining and erudite guide to Shakespeare’s great sequence of history plays, culminating i...

Hastings tells the story of the war in a clear and compelling narrative, ranging across a vast ca...

World War One was the most catastrophic event in 20th century Europe. Distinguished historian Max...

What's the secret of a stylish essay, or story, or email? How do you make your sentences sparkle?...

An incisive, entertaining analysis of one of the greatest romantic novels in the English language...

In his day Winston Churchill was one of the most famous human beings who ever lived. In 1945 most...

Stephen Fender explains why To Kill a Mockingbird has had such an extraordinary impact on America...

A guide which shows the extraordinary impact of Hard Times and how, in his depiction of Victorian...

A concise account of the history of human sexuality, from the times of Ancient Greece to the cont...

Virginia Woolf described Middlemarch as one of the few novels written for grown-ups. Josie Billin...

The Connell Short Guide To Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

A beautifully written study of Shakespeare's most shocking and brutal tragedy, by Valentine Cunni...

“There never was a wilder story imagined,” wrote one reviewer on the first publication of Franken...

The Connell Guide To Louis XIV

Dr Johnson sums up the case against Milton: “the want of human interest is always felt.” It is th...

The Connell Short Guide To George Orwell's Animal Farm

This book has one aim: to help you read, understand and appreciate poetry. Do you really need a g...

The Connell Guide To How To Write An Essay

Tom Bishop, a much respected Shakespearean scholar, looks at the bard's great romantic comedy, an...

A bold, authoritative and illuminating guide to a play which is one of Shakespeare’s most popular...

The Connell Guide To How to Write Well

Beautifully told, this biography is an epic tale of tale of battles, love, jealousy, persecution ...

The Connell Guide To The American Civil War

The Connell Guide To Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

The Connell Guide To Joseph Stalin

Napoleon has long divided historians. In this short, graphic discussion of his life and influence...

The Connell Guide to The American Novel 1880-1940

This short, incisive guide outlines the causes, events and consequences of the French Revolution.

Throughout history, a handful of unusually driven individuals have been inspired to explore the l...

The Connell Guide To How to Read a Poem

The turning point in British history, a story no one with any curiosity about the shaping of Brit...

Graham Bradshaw looks at the dark and disturbing world Emily Bronte creates in Wuthering Heights,...

The Connell Guide To The Rise and the Fall of the Third Reich

Queen Mary - or 'Bloody Mary' as she's better known - has a strong claim to be the most reviled m...