Booklist

When you read literary criticism you should have a thorough knowledge of the text first, against which you can weigh your response to others' critical views.

Below is a selection of possible critical reading on The Winter's Tale. (The date given is usually the date of first publication, though some of these texts have gone into later editions, which in some cases have then had different publishers.)
 

Useful historical context

General background, dealing with Shakespeare's life

Bill Bryson	Shakespeare. Harper Collins, 2007
James Shapiro	1599: a year in the life of William Shakespeare. Faber, 2005
Peter Ackroyd	Shakespeare, the Biography. Chatto and Windus, 2005
Michael Wood	In Search of Shakespeare. BBC Books, 2003
A.L.Rowse	Shakespeare the Man. Macmillan, 1973

Women in Shakespeare

Lisa Jardine

Still Harping on Daughters: Women and Drama in the Age of Shakespeare. Brighton: Harvester, 1983

Critical views on The Winter's Tale

(in reverse order of original publication from present day)

[Note that in some cases these are essays on The Winter's Tale or references to it within a book on more than one Shakespearean play.]

Sheila Innes	Cambridge Student Guide to The Winter's Tale. Cambridge University Press, 2002
Kiernan Ryan	Shakespeare. Harvester New Readings, 1989
Fitzroy Pyle	Winter's Tale: A Commentary on the Structure. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969
Kenneth Muir (ed.)	The Winter's Tale (critical essays). Macmillan Casebook series, 1968
M. M. Mahood	Shakespeare's Wordplay. Methuen, 1957
F.R. Leavis	The Common Pursuit. Peregrine Books 1952 (reprinted Pelican, 1976)
E.W. Tayler	Nature and Art in Renaissance Literature. Columbia University Press, 1964
Harold Goddard	The Meaning of Shakespeare. University of Chicago Press, 1951
E.M.W. Tillyard	Shakespeare's Last Plays. Chatto and Windus, 1938 (first published Macmillan, Toronto).

Pre-twentieth century critics of Shakespeare

(See also reproduction of earlier criticism in Macmillan Casebook ed. Stead, above)

Nineteenth century

Walter Pater	Appreciations. Macmillan, 1890. Reprinted Echo library, 2006
William Hazlitt	The Characters of Shakespeare's Plays. Originally 1817, but reproduced Dent, 1960

Eighteenth century

Samuel Johnson

Reproduced in Dr. Johnson on Shakespeare ed. W.K. Wimsatt. Penguin, 1969

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