Literary Guides, Companions & Casebooks

Consulting a literary guide will help you understand the plot, characterization, themes, the use of literary devices in the works of fiction under study, in addition to the cultural significance of the text and its place in the literary canon.

Isabel Allende

Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Isabel Allende: A Literary Companion. McFarland & Company, Inc., 2013.

This reference work provides is a guided overview of her body of work. It consists of an alphabetized, fully-annotated listing of major terms in the Allende canon, including fictional characters, motifs, historical events and themes.

Rodden, John, ed. Isabel Allende. Salem Press, 2011.
The introduction assesses the phases of Allende’s career and her growth as a writer and four introductory essays provide a valuable framework for studying her in greater depth. The main section of the book provides ten in-depth essays that offer an examination of all aspects of the author. All essays include an extensive bibliography with additional resources.

Jorge Luis Borges

Williamson, Edwin. The Cambridge Companion to Jorge Luis Borges. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

A comprehensive account of Borges’s oeuvre and the evolution of his writing. It offers critical assessments by leading scholars of the poetry of his youth and the later poetry and fiction, as well as of the “canonical” volumes of the middle years. Other chapters focus on key themes and interests, and on his influence in literary theory and translation studies.

Also available in print.

Gabriel García Márquez

Stavans, Ilan, ed. Gabriel Garcia Márquez. Salem Press, 2010.

This volume collects varying perspectives on the writer, his work and its lasting importance.

Swanson, Philip, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Gabriel Garciá Márquez. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Includes new and probing readings of all of Márquez’s works, by leading international specialists. His life in Colombia, the context of Latin American history and culture, key themes in his works and their critical reception are explored in detail. Also contains a chronology and a guide to further reading.

Stavans, Ilan, ed. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Salem Press, 2011.

This collection of essays examine the political, social, and literary contexts in which García Márquez wrote, and evaluates the reputation of One Hundred Years of Solitude as a classic novel in a survey of the formative critical responses to it. A variety of critical readings on the themes of the pursuit of knowledge, natural and human-made disasters, and translation continue the discussion.

Additional Resources

Krstovic, Jelena O., ed. Hispanic Literature Criticism. Gale Research, 1994.

Covers literary criticism on the works of 70 Hispanic authors. Each entry includes: critical opinion on the author and his/her works; bibliographical citation for each criticism; a chronology of principal works; biographical and career details; and further reading.

Literature Resource Center

Full-text literary criticism and reviews of the novels (and many others literary and poetic works), in addition to biographical information on authors and overviews of their works.

An excellent, comprehensive online resource for all students of literature, poetry, and drama.