An attempt to provide students of literature with an introduction to literary analysis this seeks to involve the student in the process of thinking about literature, showing how to start with one idea and move on to further insights. To do this, several methods - such as using close textual analysis, finding connections, making comparisons, and looking for structures, are described and variously illustrated in action. Works used to illustrate the text include those by Shakespeare, Pope, Chaucer, James, Jonson, Woolf, Fielding, Milton, Hardy, Swift and Melville.