The most intelligent study guides on the market
Connell Guides English series
“What I love about these is that they’re small & unintimidating, so they make the potentially intimidating accessible”
Helena Bonham Carter
“What I love about these is that they’re small & unintimidating, so they make the potentially intimidating accessible”
“Clear, elegant and authoritative guides – worthy of the great masterpieces they analyse.”
Robert Harris
“Clear, elegant and authoritative guides – worthy of the great masterpieces they analyse.” 
The Connell Guide to How to Write an Essay
£5.99
What’s the secret of writing a good essay? How do you plan it? How do you start it? How do you end it? What do examiners really look for? Dr Jonathan Patrick is the Head of English at St Paul’s Girls School in London. He is also an examiner....
The Connell Guide to How to Write Well
£5.99
What’s the secret of a stylish essay, or story, or email? How do you make your sentences sparkle? In this slim volume, a leading editor who is also a pop critic and sportswriter shows how much fun you can have while sharpening your pen. In a few breezy chapters, Tim...
The Connell Guide to How to Read a Poem
£5.99
This book has one aim: to help you read, understand and appreciate poetry. Do you really need a guide for that? Can’t you just get on and read some of the wonderful poetry that has been published in English? You certainly can, but there are things you really need to...
The Connell Guide to The American Novel
£7.99
What is distinctive about American fiction? What sets it apart from the greatest of English or European fiction? Stephen Fender, who has lectured on the US novel for more than 40 years, explores the forces which shaped it, from the mixture of exhilaration and anxiety caused by living in...
Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House Short Study Guide
£4.99
This short study guide tells you all you need to know about Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and beautifully...
Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire Short Study Guide
£4.99
“Streetcar is a cry of pain,” said Arthur Miller, paying tribute to his fellow playwright, Tennessee Williams’s achievement. What does it mean to be kind? What does it mean to be a stranger? Are we all more or less strangers to one another – even to those we love, and...
E. M. Forster's A Room with a View
£4.99
Often described as E.M. Forster’s most charming novel, A Room with a View has delighted readers ever since it was first published in 1908. Set in Italy and England, it tells the story of Lucy Honeychurch: will she marry the passionate individualist, George Emerson, or the sardonic aesthete, Cecil Vyse?...
George Orwell's Animal Farm Short Study Guide
£4.99
Malcolm Bradbury has called Animal Farm “the most important work of fictional political satire to be written in twentieth-century Britain”. When it was first published in in 1945, it caused a sensation. More than a million copies were sold in the 1940s and 1950s alone, and it quickly became a...
J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls Short Study Guide
£4.99
On one level, An Inspector Calls is a whodunit. But much more importantly it is a morality play – one in which its author sets out to expose what he sees as the arrogance and indifference of Britain’s ruling class. Though written in 1944, it continues to fascinate critics and...
Toni Morrison’s Beloved Short Study Guide
£4.99
This short study guide tells you all you need to know about Toni Morrison's Beloved. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and beautifully designed to...
Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong Short Study Guide
£4.99
People love Birdsong. To date, it has sold more than three million copies. Countless stage adaptations have been made; in 2012 it was turned into a two-part BBC series staring Eddie Redmayne and Clémence Poésy; a Hollywood film, starring Nicholas Hoult, is currently in production. It scores highly in lists...
Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go Short Study Guide
£4.99
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, first published in 2005, has sold more than a million copies and been translated into more than 40 languages. In 2010 Time magazine called it “the best novel of the decade”, while James Wood, one of the most influential of modern critics, has described...
John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men Short Study Guide
£4.99
This short study guide tells you all you need to know about John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and...
Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca Short Study Guide
£4.99
This short study guide tells you all you need to know about Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and beautifully designed...
Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber Short Study Guide
£4.99
This short study guide tells you all you need to know about Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and beautifully...
J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye Short Study Guide
£4.99
This short study guide tells you all you need to know about J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise...
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road Short Study Guide
£4.99
This short study guide tells you all you need to know about Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and beautifully designed...
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
£4.99
The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of Offred, a handmaid in the totalitarian Republic of Gilead. She is allowed to leave the home of the Commander and his wife only once a day to visit the market, whose signs are now pictures not words because women are no longer allowed...
Michael Frayn’s Spies Short Study Guide
£4.99
This short study guide tells you all you need to know about Michael Frayn's Spies. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and beautifully designed to...
Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot Short Study Guide
£4.99
This short study guide tells you all you need to know about Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and beautifully...
Charles Dickens's Great Expectations Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about Charles Dickens's Great Expectations is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise...
Charles Dickens's Hard Times Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about Charles Dickens's Hard Times is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise...
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise...
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about Emily Brontë's's Wuthering Heights is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise...
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are...
Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales Study Guide
£7.99
The Tales covered by this guide include: The Knight's Tale The Miller's Tale The Reeve's Tale The Wife of Bath The Franklin's Tale The Pardoner's Tale Our next edition, published September 2016, will also include The Merchant's Tale. All you need to know about Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is...
George Eliot's Middlemarch Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about George Eliot's Middlemarch is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and...
Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are...
Jane Austen's Emma Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about Jane Austen's Emma is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and...
Jane Austen's Mansfield Park Study Guide
£8.99
All you need to know about Jane Austen's Mansfield Park is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and beautifully...
Jane Austen's Persuasion Study Guide
£7.99
Persuasion was first published in 1818, after Jane Austen’s death. The novel was hardly reviewed at all when it appeared, but over time has become probably the favourite Austen book after Pride and Prejudice. One was written when Austen was a young, marriageable woman, the other when she was in...
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear,...
John Milton's Paradise Lost Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about John Milton's Paradise Lost is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise...
Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are...
Mary Shelly's Frankenstein Study Guide
£7.99
“There never was a wilder story imagined,” wrote one reviewer on the first publication of Frankenstein in 1818. What is perhaps most extraordinary is that Mary Shelley’s novel, capable of producing shock and terror in its unprepared readers, was the work of a young woman of 18. Few works of...
Robert Browning's Poetry Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about Robert Browning's Poetry is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and...
Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are...
Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise...
Shakespeare's King Lear Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about William Shakespeare's King Lear is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise...
Shakespeare's Hamlet Study Guide
£7.99
Hamlet is the most famous literary work ever written. Millions of scholarly words have been devoted to it during the four centuries since it was performed. In this short guide, Graham Bradshaw, one of the greatest modern critics of Shakespeare, analyses the play and examines the arguments which have raged...
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Study Guide
£7.99
Julius Caesar stands at the changing of the tide in Shakespeare’s career. There is a scale to the play, written in 1599, unmatched by anything he had written before it. Our sense of this extraordinary play has evolved over the centuries and most critics now believe Shakespeare was deeply critical...
Shakespeare's Macbeth Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about William Shakespeare's Macbeth is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and...
Shakespeare's Othello Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about William Shakespeare's Othello is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise and...
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear,...
Shakespeare's The Tempest Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about William Shakespeare's The Tempest is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise...
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise...
Shakespeare's Second Tetralogy Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about William Shakespeare's Second Tetralogy is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear, concise...
T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land Study Guide
£7.99
All you need to know about T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land is in this advanced guide to the text. Connell Guides are advanced guide books that offer sophisticated analysis and broad critical perspectives for higher-level GCSE and A Level English Literature students. Written by leading academics, Connell Guides are clear,...
