Get the lowdown on the best fiction ever written. Over 230 of the world’s greatest novels are covered, from Quixote (1614) to Orhan Pamuk’s Snow (2002), with fascinating information about their plots and their authors – and suggestions for what to read next. The guide comes complete with recommendations of the best editions and translations for every genre from the most enticing crime and punishment to love, sex, heroes and anti-heroes, not to mention all the classics of comedy and satire, horror and mystery and many other literary genres. With feature boxes on experimental novels, female novelists, short reviews of interesting film and TV adaptations, and information on how the novel began, this guide will point you to all the classic literature you’ll ever need.

The perfect companion to cinema's most spectacular genre, The Rough Guide to Film Musicals reveals how an escapist entertainment became Hollywood's most ingenious art form. From such enduring classics as Singin' In The Rain and West Side Story to recent successes like Evita and Chicago, this book reviews 50 essential musicals, including several forgotten gems. There are profiles of musical icons such as Fred Astaire, Judy Garland and George Gershwin and details of musicals from around the world. Complete with a list of the best soundtracks, websites and books for further reading, this Rough Guide takes a behind the scenes look at this magical movie genre.

The Rough Guide to Film is a bold new guide to cinema. Arranged by director, it covers the top moguls, mavericks and studio stalwarts of every era, genre and region, in addition to lots of lesser-known names. With each film placed in the context of its director’s career, the guide reviews thousands of the greatest movies ever made, with lists highlighting where to start, arranged by genre and by region. You’ll find profiles of over eight hundred directors, from Hollywood legends Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to contemporary favourites like Steven Soderbergh and Martin Scorsese and cult names such as David Lynch and Richard Linklater. The guide is packed with great cinema from around the globe, including French New Wave, German giants, Iranian innovators and the best of East Asia, from Akira Kurosawa to Wong Kar-Wai and John Woo. With overviews of all major movements and genres, feature boxes on partnerships between directors and key actors, and cinematographers and composers, this is your essential guide to a world of cinema.

This guide gives the lowdown on maverick filmmaking, from sleazy exploitation flicks and satirical documentaries to chilling horror movies and quirky suburban dramas.

The Rough Guide to Cult Movies offers a blend of essential trivia and informed opinion as it takes you on a tour of the most compellingly weird - and weirdly compelling - films in the world. Whether you're a paid-up member of The Big Lebowski fan club or just looking for a night in with an interesting DVD, The Rough Guide to Cult Movies is the ultimate guide to the world's most memorable films. The Rough Guide to Cult Movies selects cinema's most compelling triumphs: films that are brilliant, intriguing or just plain bizarre; from action flicks to zombie films, by way of nuns, yakuza, musicals and mutations. You'll find expert, pithy reviews of over 1500 movies, with forgotten legends like Charlie Chan and the Opera or contemporary classics like There Will Be Blood, plus filmmakers' picks of their favorite cult movies, in their own words. There are good movies and there are bad movies and then there are cult movies.

This book presents over one hundred crime and gangster movies highlighting fifty groundbreaking movies and offering profiles of legendary performers, directors, and other contributors.

The Rough Guide to Chick Flicks is a lively guide to the movies women love, from melodramas to biopics, thrillers to rom-coms. Sassy, informed and occasionally unexpected, it celebrates women's films of every kind. The history: Silent sirens, screwball dames, blonde bombshells, power dressers and indie chicks, The must-sees: The lowdown on 50 essential women's movies, from Breakfast At Tiffany's and Bend It Like Beckham to Pretty Woman and The Piano - with a fair few surprises thrown in, The faces: Heroines and heart-throbs from Audrey Hepburn to Julia Roberts, Cary Grant to Hugh Grant, not forgetting key writers, directors and custome designers, Chick lit and chick flicks: Tracing the relationship between the books and the movies, with juicy back stories about the best women writers from Louisa May Alcott to Virginia Woolf, Women of the world: Historical classics and contemporary hits from countries as different as Australia and Iran. Cover photo: Tara Morice in Strictly Balroom. Book jacket.