Classic reference book for any literature buff and first year undergraduates, this dictionary won't leave you indifferent: themes, literary movements and biographies are explained clearly and concisely. It is also very useful for quick reference or as a background check for essays; it can also give some pointers for further reading. This book is recommended for amateur libraries and 1st year undergraduates. ( )

Marvellous Drabble - students of literature, this is your degree! ( )

A perfectly indispensable companion. Accept no substitutes! It MUST be Drabble! ( )

The standard one-volume reference work considerably revised for this edition. but containing some doubtful judgements; Stella Gibbons, for example, doesn't merit a substantive entry even though "Cold Comfort Farm" has been continuously in print since first publication more than seventy years ago. Something which was nothing more than a clever parody of its contemporaries would scarcely have appealed to succeeding generations of readers when many more "literary" writers of the inter-war period have sunk almost without trace. ( )

Not as complete as it could be. Too many minor British authors to the exclusion of some medium and heavyweight Americans. ( )