Why Read?
About the Book Series
The Why Read? series features short and engaging guides offering insight into the significance of celebrated authors. They offer key insight into the uniqueness of authors while also celebrating their work.
The books in the series argue for the value of individual writers within both literary history and the present moment. Original and distinctive, they make compelling cases for reading these authors today. Each book offers a section on biography, cultural contexts, major themes, and critical trends. They also feature helpful further reading sections.
Written in an accessible, lively style, the books in this series aim to provoke a reader response that will be useful in the classroom and beyond.
Why Read Shakespeare?
1st Edition
By Will Stockton
December 07, 2026
Why Read Shakespeare? treats Shakespeare as a dramatist who thinks philosophically through stories. Written for students and general readers, the book argues that Shakespeare is worth reading because of the provocative answers he offers to three philosophical questions: What is love? Do human ...
Why Read Wilde?
1st Edition
By Neil Sammells
December 07, 2026
Why Read Wilde? is an engaging and essential introduction to one of the most important and enigmatic writers of the nineteenth century. It argues that Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is our Victorian Contemporary whose writing tells us as much about ourselves as the nineteenth-century audiences he ...