The Cambridge Companion to the Classic Russian Novel offers a thematic account of a tradition that produced some of the most influential novels of the Western world. In newly-commissioned essays by prominent scholars, the work of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Bulgakov, Nabokov, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn and many others is described and discussed. There is a chronology and guide to further reading, and all quotations are in English. The volume will be invaluable for students, scholars and anyone interested in the Russian novel.

The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde offers an essential introduction to one of the theater's most important and enigmatic writers. Although a general overview, the volume also offers some of the latest thinking on the dramatist and his impact on the twentieth century. Part One places Wilde's work within the cultural and historical context of his time and includes an opening essay by Wilde's grandson, Merlin Holland. Part Two looks at Wilde's essential work as playwright and general writer. The third group of essays examines the themes and factors that shaped Wilde's work and includes Wilde...

Theodor Fontane, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, and Gunther Grass are among the writers examined in this comprehensive introduction to the development of the German novel in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Including a chronology and guide to further reading, the Companion conveys the vitality and complexity of the modern German novel, and the debates surrounding it.

This volume of essays offers fresh examinations of Wharton's fiction designed both to engage the interest of the student or general reader encountering Wharton for the first time, and to be valuable to advanced scholars looking for new insights into her creative achievement. Written by a mix of established commentators on Wharton and newer scholars in the field, the essays cover Wharton's most important novels as well as some of her shorter fiction. The Introduction supplies a valuable review of the history of Wharton criticism; a detailed chronology of her life and publications and a useful...

This is a collection of thirteen original essays from a team of leading Williams scholars. This wide-ranging volume covers Williams' works, from the early apprenticeship years through to his last play before his death in 1983. In addition to essays on the major plays, the contributors also consider selected minor plays, short stories, poems, and biographical concerns. The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams also features a bibliographic essay surveying the major critical statements on Williams.

This volume offers an insight into the French novel over the past two centuries. In a series of essays, acknowledged experts discuss a variety of topics including 19th-century realism, women and fiction, popular fiction, experiment and innovation, war and the Holocaust, the Francophone novel and postmodern fiction. It offers a reassessment of major figures, while deliberately reading traditional views of literary history against the grain. Theoretical discussion is combined with close reading of texts and exploration of context, comparison with other genres and other literatures, and...

The Cambridge Companion to Henry James is intended to provide a critical introduction to James' work. Throughout the major critical shifts of the past fifty years, and despite suspicions of the traditional high literary culture that was James' milieu, as a writer he has retained a powerful hold on readers and critics alike. All essays are written at a level free from technical jargon, designed to promote accessibility to the study of James and his work.

The Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson is intended to provide a critical introduction to Emerson's work. The tradition of American literature and philosophy as we know it at the end of the twentieth century was largely shaped by Emerson's example and practice. This volume offers students, scholars, and the general reader a collection of fresh interpretations of Emerson's writing, milieu, influence, and cultural significance. All essays are newly commissioned for this volume, written at an accessible yet challenging level, and augmented by a comprehensive chronology and bibliography.

Key dimensions of Tolstoy's writing and life are explored in this collection of specially commissioned essays. While the essays focus on Tolstoy's artistic production, the introduction provides a brief, unified account of the man for whom art was only one activity among many. The essays are enhanced by supplementary material including a chronology of the period and detailed guides to further reading. Altogether the volume provides an invaluable resource for scholars and students.

Traditionally known as the first professional woman writer in English, Aphra Behn (1640-1689) has now emerged as one of the major figures of the Restoration, providing more plays for the stage than any other author and greatly influencing the development of the novel. Behn's work straddles the genres of drama, fiction, poetry and translation. With its full bibliography, detailed chronology and a description of the known facts of her life, this Companion is essential to studying her work.