[fantasyfan]

Here's my list in chronological order, generally with the descriptions from Goodreads:

1904 Shakespearean Tragedy by A.C. Bradley

"A.C. Bradley put Shakespeare on the map for generations of readers and students for whom the plays might not otherwise have become 'real' at all" writes John Bayley in his foreword to this edition of Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth.

Approaching the tragedies as drama, wondering about their characters as he might have wondered about people in novels or in life, Bradley is one of the most liberating in the line of distinguished Shakespeare critics. His acute yet undogmatic and almost conversational critical method has—despite fluctuations in fashion—remained enduringly popular and influential. For, as John Bayley observes, these lectures give us a true and exhilarating sense of "the tragedies joining up with life, with all our lives; leading us into a perspective of possibilities that stretch forward and back in time, and in our total awareness of things."

1905 Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster

Another classic. "Forster’s lively, informed originality and wit have made this book a classic. Avoiding the chronological approach of what he calls “pseudoscholarship,” he freely examines aspects all English-language novels have in common: story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm. Index."

1913 The Victorian Age in Literature by G.K.Chesterton

‘I was born a Victorian; and sympathise not a little with the serious Victorian Spirit.’ In this engaging and extremely personal account G K Chesterton expounds his views on Victorian literature. Many of his opinions reflect the conventions of the age; however of the Victorian novel he refreshingly comments ‘it is an art in which women are quite beyond controversy’. Equally uncompromising about poets and poetry he does not hesitate to call Tennyson ‘a provincial Virgil’. This book is an important landmark in our understanding of an age which produced some of Britain’s most widely enjoyed literature.

1942 A Preface to Paradise Lost by C. S. Lewis

Astonishingly, this remarkably perceptive book does not seem to be available for Kindle. Goodreads says little about it, but I have read it and this is a profound and brilliant exposition of the philosophy that underlies the great poem. It is also an attempt to rebut the very attractive views of Shelley who asserts that Satan is the true hero of the poem.
Available in paperback

1948 Yeats: The Man and His Masks by Richard Ellmann

One of the most influential poets of his age, W.B. Yeats eluded the grasp of many who sought to explain him. His life was complex in both its outer and inner events. Yeats's mystical concerns, such as his involvement with spiritualism and construction of a transcendental world system in A Vision, coexisted and occasionally clashed with his active involvement in public affairs. In this classic critical examination of the poet, Richard Ellmann strips away the masks of his subject: occultist, senator of the Irish Free State, libidinous old man, and Nobel Prize winner.

1948 The Great Tradition

Again, there is very little about this book on Goodreads. It has been both influential and controversial. Leavis does brilliant work with James, Eliot, and Conrad. He is dismissive of Fielding and Dickens and doesn't quite know what to make of Emily Bronte.
Some have said that he mistitled his book and should have used "A" instead of "The".

So far the books have all been modestly priced. This one you might want to get from a library.

1949 Seven Types of Ambiguity by William Empson

Revised twice since it first appeared, it has remained one of the most widely read and quoted works of literary analysis. Ambiguity, according to Empson, includes "any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language." From this definition, broad enough by his own admission sometimes to see "stretched absurdly far," he launches into a brilliant discussion, under seven classifications of differing complexity and depth, of such works, among others, as Shakespeare's plays and the poetry of Chaucer, Donne, Marvell, Pope, Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and T. S. Eliot.

This is a trailblazer! It is also quite modestly priced.

1982 The Rhetoric of Fiction Second edition by Wayne Booth

The first edition of The Rhetoric of Fiction transformed the criticism of fiction and soon became a classic in the field. One of the most widely used texts in fiction courses, it is a standard reference point in advanced discussions of how fictional form works, how authors make novels accessible, and how readers recreate texts, and its concepts and terms—such as "the implied author," "the postulated reader," and "the unreliable narrator"—have become part of the standard critical lexicon.

For this new edition, Wayne C. Booth has written an extensive Afterword in which he clarifies misunderstandings, corrects what he now views as errors, and sets forth his own recent thinking about the rhetoric of fiction. The other new feature is a Supplementary Bibliography, prepared by James Phelan in consultation with the author, which lists the important critical works of the past twenty years—two decades that Booth describes as "the richest in the history of the subject."

A major work but quite expensive--I suggest you get it from the library. I have the PB edition which was cheaper than the ebook.

1984 Celtic Dawn: A Portrait of the Irish Literary Renaissance AKA Black Swan by Ulick O'Connor

"It is the small details that make this book such a fascinating read. Often times, O’Connor includes anecdotes that make the characters seem more than characters from a not too distant history, but highlight them in the mind through their personal interactions with each other and with those around them. If you are a fan of any of the authors of the Irish Renaissance, this is a must read." Mr Hardie on Goodreads

I found this book difficult to put down! Ulick O'Connor is a gifted writer and sensitive critic. It is a bit pricey at £7 but worth it.

2003 The Road To Middle Earth Third edition by Tom Shippey

Shippey's classic work, now revised in paperback, explores J.R.R. Tolkien's creativity and the sources of his inspiration. Shippey shows in detail how Tolkien's professional background led him to write "The Hobbit" and how he created a timeless charm for millions of readers.