Booklist Review
New edition of a classic, first published in 1976 and last revised in 1991. Among the new or revised entries are crime fiction, punctuation, and sonnet cycle. Cuddon, the original editor, passed away in 1996; this edition was compiled from his drafts and notes.
Choice Review
This fifth edition of the late Cuddon's A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (4th ed., CH, Mar'99, 36-3654) has been updated by Habib (Rutgers) et al. with focused consideration for modern literary studies. The alphabetical listing includes new entries for contemporary and theoretical concepts such as "reception theory," "transgender studies," "theatre of the absurd," and "hypertext." The volume also offers more critical consideration of popular literary forms such as ghost stories and horror. All entries include notes on a term's historical origins and quotations from authors and works of literature and criticism. Overall, the diversity of terms makes this book stand out as a solid resource for comparative literature as well as English studies. It is lacking, however, in additional scholarly resources. It does not contain a critical bibliography, such as those featured in Chris Baldick's The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (3rd ed., CH, Feb'09, 46-2989). Aimed at undergraduates and beginning students, the text is written in a simpler style than the Oxford work. The volume's content is not quite substantial enough to allow it to stand on its own as the sole literary reference in a collection; however, it would work well in conjunction with other literary glossaries. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-level undergraduate students in English and comparative literatures; general readers. H. E. Green University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
