'Janiform Novels' and Other Literary Essays gathers 25 essays by Cedric Watts, MA, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English at Sussex University.
Previously published in a diversity of magazines and books, these conveniently-gathered literary discussions deal with such authors as Sophocles, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne, Marvell, Milton, Defoe, Richardson, Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Conrad, Hemingway, Graham Greene, William Golding, Samuel Beckett and Chinua Achebe.
Topics include covert plotting, the conceit of the conceit, the fallacies of structuralist and post-structuralist literary theory, delayed decoding, Shakespeare's scepticism, Conrad's opposition to racism and imperialism, Hemingway's profoundly ambiguous style, and Lévi-Strauss's ludicrous naivety.
Cedric Watts's critical writings have been described as 'fearless', 'perceptive', 'provocative', 'incisive' and 'entertaining' (Neil Sinyard, Graham Greene Newsletter).