Literary Criticism

Essays and Literary Studies

Read by TriciaG


Stephen Leacock


A collection of wry looks at literature, education, and other social phenomena by Canadian humourist and economics professor, Stephen Leacoc…

Voltaire and the French Enlightenment

Read by Pamela Nagami


Will Durant


In this Little Blue Book Number 512, Will Durant describes François-Marie Arouet, the writer, historian, and philosopher known as Vol…

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences (Version 2)

Read by John Greenman


Mark Twain


This is Mark Twain's vicious and amusing review of Fenimore Cooper's literary art. It is still read widely in academic circles. Twain's essa…

Emily Brontë

Read by Pamela Nagami


Agnes Mary Frances Robinson


Emily Brontë (1818-1848) is best known for her only novel, "Wuthering Heights." She was born in Yorkshire, northern England, …

Stage Land

Read by David Muncaster


Jerome K. Jerome


A comic look at the curious habits and customs of the inhabitants of 'Stage Land'. Dedicated to 'that highly respectable but unnecessarily r…

The Lost Art of Reading

Read by Joseph Tabler


Gerald Stanley Lee


Gerald Stanley Lee speaks here-in of books and self in the time of factories, tall buildings and industry and big city making, the effects o…

Reviews

Read by LibriVox Volunteers


Oscar Wilde


Wilde’s literary reputation has survived so much that I think it proof against any exhumation of articles which he or his admirers would hav…

Appreciations, with an Essay on Style

Read by LibriVox Volunteers


Walter Pater


Appreciations, with an Essay on Style, is a collection of Walter Pater's previously-published essays on literature. The collection was well …

The Tale of Terror: A Study of the Gothic Romance

Read by Timothy Ferguson


Edith Birkhead


A seminal essay on the development of horror as a genre, highly influential on later writers. - Summary by Timothy Ferguson

Bunyan Characters Volume II

Read by LibriVox Volunteers


Alexander Whyte


This is the second volume of four which goes into the details of Characters from John Bunyan's books. This one continues with the characters…

Old and New Masters

Read by LibriVox Volunteers


Robert Lynd


Jane Austen, WB Yeats, Chesterton, Shaw... these are personal and intelligent short essays on a selection of great (and great-ish) writers: …

A Student's History of American Literature

Read by Bellona Times


William Simonds


Engaging history of American Lit from the 1600's up through the late 1890's. The author, who was a professor at Knox College, really put a …

Shakespeare Identified

Read by LibriVox Volunteers


J. Thomas Looney


That one who is not a recognized authority or an expert in literature should attempt the solution of a problem which has so far baffled spec…

Companionable Books

Read by MaryAnn


Henry van Dyke


Many books are dry and dusty, there is no juice in them; and many are soon exhausted, you would no more go back to them than to a squeezed o…

The Quintessence of Ibsenism

Read by Expatriate


George Bernard Shaw


Ein Vade mecum für den Hrn. Sam. Gotth. Lange Pastor in Laublingen

Read by Marilianus


Gotthold Ephraim Lessing


Lessings Kritik an der Horazübersetzung des seinerzeit bekannten Pastors Lange ist unerbittlich und von fast brutaler Genauigkeit. Aus …

Ars Poetica and Carmen Saeculare

Read by Leni


Quintus Horatius Flaccus


The Ars Poetica, by Horace, also known as Epistula ad Pisones, is a treatise on poetry written in the form of a letter, and published around…

Prejudices, First Series

Read by LibriVox Volunteers


H. L. Mencken


Mencken sharpens his pen and in a collection of short essays delivers acerbic opinions on issues and persons of the time. Among his targets…

Characters of Shakespeare's Plays

Read by LibriVox Volunteers


William Hazlitt


This famous Shakespearean exploration illuminates its plays through the frame of character, while also weighing theme, mood, structure and p…

On the Sublime

Read by Amelia Chesley


Unknowntranslated Byherbert Lord Havell and Translated Byherbert Lord Havell


This is a classical text on aesthetics and proper style in writing and rhetoric, including commentary on various ancient Greek works such as…

< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >