Ten star rating and more - Rated 
This book achieves the impossible. It makes the difficult and obtuse polemical and theoretical debates of recent history easy to read. Yes, believe it or not! I cannot find enough congratulations to give for this excellent and learned book. The achievement of the age. Thank you for making clear sense of it all.My newly found bible for Literary Critical research.
A worthy introduction but only goes so far - Rated 
This book is a useful tool for students wishing to grasp the basics, and sample a broad range, of critical approaches to literature. However, if you wish to explore a particular approach to a higher level, then this book will not be adequate on its own. For example, the fact that only a few pages are dedicated to the concept of 'gender' goes to show that this really is only an introductory work, and it could be argued that literary theory is not something that can be 'summed up' in the form of brief, introductory chapters.
Having said this, each chapter provides reading lists for additional relevant material, and therefore it is a good way to break into the field. Just be prepared to get in the library and seek out other books if a particular approach interests you. Don't expect to rely entirely on this.
I love this book! - Rated 
Whilst trying to write an essay about desire, I became so confused I just wanted a book that would explain the various theories in simple language so that I would understand it. This book did just that. It provides introductions to complex topics and establishes a foundation of knowledge that you can build on with the handily referenced further reading, or reading of your own. Its now become my first port of call when writing essays, so I don't become tangled up in complex criticism and theories.
Superficial and condescending. - Rated 
In my first year as an UG philosophy and literature student, this book very nearly put me completely off literary theory: each of its chapters would be brilliant as an INTRODUCTION to an essay on each of the topics it pretends to discuss. Not only is the tone it takes insultingly condescending, but its authors have a real penchant for making seriously unsubstantiated statements. It's also stultifyingly politically correct, refusing to take any account of points of view that don't belong to the prevalent orthodoxy. It places excessive emphasis on 'close reading', which, even if intelligently and insightfully done (as it is here), is always prone to cause major lapses in the maintenance of a sense of perspective. Theory IS difficult, and it isin't by means of such reductionism that it will, lo and behold, be made entertaining and accessible to all.
Superb - Rated
This book offers a real insight into the vast world of literary criticism and theory: it delves into fundamental subject areas, asking questions like, 'What is the text? Where does it begin?' Bennett & Royle consistently keep our interest (no mean feat in a book of this scope) and write concisely, intelligently and fluently. Case studies are used, so the theory really comes into play. I would recommend this book to anyone starting a course on literature or merely with an interest in the texts that make up our world. Particularly useful are the 'Further Reading' footnotes at the end of each chapter, which will advise you on texts to read according to what you found interesting about the subject. This is a relatively short book, but covers all its subject matter well and references other works which can provide a deeper insight. Don't expect to use this as a complete reference book; you will need to do some more reading, but as a comprehensive summary of modern literary theory this book is perfect.
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