20 Essays about literature

The Blade of Conan is a 1979 collection of essays edited by L. Sprague de Camp, published in paperback by Ace Books. The material was originally published as articles in George H. Scithers' fanzine Amra. The book is a companion to Ace’s later volume of material from Amra, The Spell of Conan (1980). Most of the material in the two volumes, together with some additional material, was reprinted from three previous books issued in hardcover by Mirage Press; de Camp’s collection The Conan Reader (1968), and the de Camp and Scithers-edited anthologies The Conan Swordbook (1969). and The Conan Grimoire (1972).

Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages is a 1975 collection of essays on the fantasy writers Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft by science-fiction writer L. Sprague de Camp, first published by T-K Graphics. It was reissued in 1986 by Borgo Press as number 2 in its Essays on Fantastic Literature series.

The Conan Swordbook is a 1969 collection of essays edited by L. Sprague de Camp and George H. Scithers, published in hardcover by Mirage Press. The essays were originally published as articles in Scithers' fanzine Amra. The book is a companion to Mirage’s other two volumes of material from Amra, The Conan Reader (1968) and The Conan Grimoire (1972). Most of the material in the three volumes, together with some additional material, was later reprinted in two de Camp-edited paperback anthologies from Ace Books; The Blade of Conan (1979) and The Spell of Conan (1980).

Critical and Historical Essays: Contributed to the Edinburgh Review (1843) is a collection of articles by Thomas Babington Macaulay, later Lord Macaulay. They have been acclaimed for their readability, but criticized for their inflexible attachment to the attitudes of the Whig school of history.

Critical Essays (1946) is a collection of wartime pieces by George Orwell. It covers a variety of topics in English literature, and also includes some pioneering studies of popular culture. It was acclaimed by critics, and Orwell himself thought it one of his most important books.

Crossing Borders: Personal Essays is a collection of essays by Sergio Troncoso first published in 2011 by Arte Público Press. The book of sixteen personal essays explores how Troncoso made the leap from growing up poor along the Mexico-U.S. border to the Ivy League, his wife's battle against breast cancer, his struggles as a writer in New York and Texas, fatherhood, and interfaith marriage.

H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life is a work of literary criticism by French author Michel Houellebecq regarding the works of H. P. Lovecraft. The English-language edition for the American and UK market was translated by Dorna Khazeni and features an introduction by American novelist Stephen King. In some editions the book also includes two of Lovecraft's best known short stories: "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Whisperer in Darkness."

Hunger und Seide is a book of essays by Nobel Prize-winning author Herta Müller. It was first published in 1995.

Less Than One: Selected Essays is a collection of literary and autobiographical essays by the Russian poet and Nobel Prize-winning author Joseph Brodsky. It was published in 1986 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and was awarded that year's National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. The book includes essays on fellow Russian writers like Dostoyevsky, Mandelstam, and Platonov, as well as the poet W.H. Auden.

Literature and Science, published in September 1963, was Aldous Huxley's last book prior to his death two months later. The grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, Charles Darwin's "bulldog," and the grand-nephew of English poet and essayist Matthew Arnold, Aldous Huxley strived to harmonize the scientific and artistic realms. In Literature and Science, he hones in on language as the stumbling block that divides the realms. He analyzes and discusses how scientists and literary artists use language differently to achieve their desired effects. Recognizing that many differences in language use must persist, he nevertheless urges both camps to seek mutual understanding and appreciation. He directs his persuasions primarily to literary artists, writing, "Whether we like it or not, ours is the Age of Science."

The Neil Gaiman Reader: Essays and Explorations is a collection of essays on fantasy and horror writer Neil Gaiman and his works, edited by Darrell Schweitzer. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback in 2007 by Wildside Press.

The Perpetual Orgy: Flaubert and Madame Bovary is a book-length essay by the Nobel Prize–winning Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa which examines Flaubert's 1857 book Madame Bovary as the first modern novel. The first part of the book has an autobiographical tone; Vargas Llosa then goes on to examine the structure and meaning of Madame Bovary as well as its role in the development of the modern novel. First published in Spanish in 1975, the book was translated into English in 1986 by Helen Lane.

The Robert E. Howard Reader is a collection of essays on fantasy writer Robert E. Howard and his works, edited by Darrell Schweitzer. Originally scheduled for publication in 2007, it was ultimately published in September 2010 by Wildside Press.

The Simple Art of Murder is the title of several quasi-connected publications by hard-boiled detective fiction author Raymond Chandler:The first, and arguably best-known, is a critical essay on detective fiction, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in December 1944. A revised, expanded version was included in Howard Haycraft's 1946 anthology The Art of the Mystery Story. The second is a separate, shorter essay, mostly describing Chandler's personal experiences writing for pulp magazines, originally published in Saturday Review of Literature, April 15, 1950. The third is a short story collection, also originally published in 1950, which contains eight of Chandler's stories pre-dating his first novel The Big Sleep, that he wanted remembered. While first editions of this collection feature the Saturday essay as an introduction and the Atlantic essay as an afterword, later editions tend to feature the Atlantic essay as the introduction and relegate the Saturday essay to other collections.

Sun and Steel: Art, Action and Ritual Death is a book by Yukio Mishima. It is an autobiographical essay, a memoir of the author's relationship to his body. The book recounts the author's experiences with, and reflections upon, his bodybuilding and martial arts training.

The Temptation of the Impossible is a book-length essay by Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa which examines Victor Hugo's Les Misérables.

The Thomas Ligotti Reader: Essays and Explorations is a collection of essays on horror writer Thomas Ligotti and his works, edited by Darrell Schweitzer. It was first published in trade paperback in April 2003 by Wildside Press, with a hardcover edition from the same publisher following in July of the same year.

Vampires: The World of the Undead is an illustrated monograph on cultural history of vampires and vampire folklore and literature, published in pocket format by Éditions Gallimard, in 1993. Written by the French professor of English literature and specialist on vampire myth, Jean Marigny, this work is the 161st volume in the 'Découvertes Gallimard' collection.

What Is Literature?, also published as Literature and Existentialism,) is an essay by French philosopher and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre, published by Gallimard in 1948. Initially published in freestanding essays across French literary journals Les Temps modernes, Situations I and Situations II, essays "What is Writing?" and "Why Write?" were translated into English and published by the Paris-based literary journal Transition 1948. The English translation by Bernard Frechtman was published in 1950.