This comprehensive guide to literature in English is a source to the vast heritage of literature in the English language throughout the world. It ranges from Britain and Ireland to the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, the Caribean and India. Clear explanations of genres, movements, critical terms and literary concepts are given - from irony to structuralism, from romanticsm to Science Fiction. There are descriptie entires for major works and literary journals, as well as detailed biographies of novelists, poets, playwrights, essayists, journalists and critics, from the giants of the past to the writers of today.