Bücher der Reihe Cambridge Companions to Literature

This 2004 Companion provides a full introduction to the famed pioneer of both the Elizabethan stage and modern English poetry, Christopher Marlowe. Sixteen leading scholars provide accessible and authoritative chapters and the volume includes a chronology of Marlowe's life, a note on reference works, and a reading list for each chapter.

This Companion presents new essays covering the one hundred and fifty year history of the African American novel. Experts in the field from the US and Europe address some of the major issues in the genre: passing, the Protest novel, the Blues novel, and womanism among others.

Offers a comprehensive account of his life and work, providing a rounded contemporary appraisal of Central Europe's most distinctive Modernist. Contributions cover all the key texts, and discuss Kafka's writing in a variety of critical contexts such as feminism, deconstruction, psycho-analysis, Marxism, Jewish studies.

This Companion presents fifteen original and engaging essays by leading scholars on one of the most influential genres of Western literature, offering a clear introduction to a rich array of traditions and texts. An introduction, a chronology and a bibliography of texts and translations complete this lively, useful overview.

The first comprehensive account of English Renaissance literature in the context of the culture which shaped it: the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, the Reformation, the age of printing and of discovery. The Companion covers poetry, prose, religious writing and drama in fourteen newly-commissioned essays, written for students.

In the Companion to the Victorian Novel, first published in 2000, a series of specially-commissioned essays examine the work of Charles Dickens, the Brontes, George Eliot and Wilkie Collins. Contributors engage with topics such as industrial culture, religion, science, sexuality and race. The Companion includes a chronology and a comprehensive guide to further reading.

Specially commissioned essays examine all of Dickinson's major writings, and places her work in a variety of literary, cultural and political contexts. It features a detailed chronology and a comprehensive guide to further reading.

In The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley, leading scholars discuss her work in several fascinating contexts: literary history, aesthetic and literary culture, the legacies of her parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and of course the life and afterlife of her most famous work, Frankenstein.

The Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw is an indispensable guide to one of the most influential and important dramatists of the theatre. The volume offers a broad-ranging study of Shaw with essays by a team of leading scholars. The Companion covers all aspects of Shaw's drama, focusing on both the political and theatrical context.

The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy is an essential introduction to this most important and enigmatic of writers. These commissioned essays from an international team of contributors comprise a general overview of all Hardy' s work and specific demonstrations of Hardy's ideas and literary skills.

This Companion offers a broad overview of the Latin American novel's history and analyses in depth several representative works by, for example, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Machado de Assis, Isabel Allende and Mario Vargas Llosa. Students of Latin American studies and comparative literature will find this a stimulating and indispensable guide.

Ralph Ellison's 1952 novel Invisible Man is one of the most important and controversial novels in the American canon and remains widely read and studied. This Companion provides an introduction to this influential and significant novelist and critic and to his masterpiece.

This 1992 Companion addresses both British and international performance, on subjects such as British performing tradition, tragic and comic acting, and women performers of Shakespeare. Designed for readers interested in past and present productions of the plays and to accompany courses in the history of Shakespeare in performance.

Leading scholars from both sides of the Atlantic provide an accessible, up-to-date introduction to the life and works of Ben Jonson. The volume is an invaluable guide to current critical perspectives, focusing not only on Jonson's achievement as a dramatist but also as a poet and literary critic.

This book provides an introduction to the issues that absorbed the attention of poets from the 1830s to the 1890s. The volume, which will be of interest to scholars and students alike, features a detailed chronology of the Victorian period and a guide to further reading.

Essays by leading scholars explore the works of the three Bronte sisters, including two of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century, Charlotte Broente's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights, and the myths which grew up around them A detailed chronology and guides to further reading are provided.

This book is an introduction to travel writing in English between 1500 and the present. Six essays survey the period's travel writing; six more focus on areas of particular interest; while the final three analyse the theoretical and cultural dimensions to this enigmatic and influential genre of writing.

Key dimensions of Tolstoy's writing and life are explored in this collection of specially commissioned essays. The essays are well supported by supplementary material including a chronology of the Tolstoy's life and detailed guides to further reading. Altogether the volume provides an invaluable resource for scholars and students.

The Cambridge Companion to Nabokov provides a concise introduction to one of the twentieth century's most important writers, covering Nabokov's style, preoccupations, and evolution as a writer and the impact of his controversial masterpiece Lolita. The 2005 volume also contains a chronology of his life and a guide to further reading.

Specially commissioned essays by leading scholars discuss Keats's work in several fascinating contexts: literary history and key predecessors; Keats's life in London's intellectual, aesthetic and literary culture; and the relation of his poetry to the visual arts.

This Companion covers British and American crime fiction from the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth. As well as discussing the detective fiction of writers like Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, it considers other kinds of fiction where crime plays a substantial part, such as the thriller and spy fiction.

A unique and valuable insight into the novel in French over the past two centuries.

This volume, first published in 2000, explores the world of Anton Chekhov and the creation, performance and interpretation of his works. The Companion also offers insights on acting Chekhov, by Ian McKellen, and directing Chekhov, by Trevor Nunn and Leonid Heifetz, and essays on Chekhov as writer, Chekhov and women, and the Chekhov comedies.

This 2002 volume provides an accessible, wide-ranging and informed introduction to Shakespeare's history and Roman plays. It offers chapters on the individual plays as well as accounts of the genre of the history play and includes genealogical tables and a list of principal and recurrent characters.

This 2003 Companion explores crucial dimensions of Swift's life and works. As well as ensuring a broad coverage of Swift's writing, it offers a way into critical and theoretical issues surrounding the author. The volume features a detailed chronology and a guide to further reading.

The Cambridge Companion to D. H. Lawrence offers a series of alternative perspectives on one of the most important and controversial writers of the twentieth century. These essays offer diverse and stimulating readings of Lawrence's major novels, short stories, poetry and plays.

Specially commissioned essays examine all of Dickinson's major writings, and places her work in a variety of literary, cultural and political contexts. It features a detailed chronology and a comprehensive guide to further reading.

The essays in this collection cover the whole range of Irish drama from the late nineteenth-century melodramas to the contemporary Dublin of theatre festivals. With a full chronology and bibliography, this collection is an indispensable introduction to one of the world's most vibrant theatre cultures.

In this Companion an international team of scholars discusses Herodotus' Histories, the first major surviving prose work from antiquity, and explores their background, methodology and ideas. Each chapter introduces the reader to relevant Herodotean scholarship, providing critical insights and a guide to further reading on the subject.

Key dimensions of Dostoevskii's writing and life are explored in this collection of specially commissioned essays. The essays are well supported by supplementary material including a chronology of Dostoevskii's life and detailed guides to further reading. Altogether the volume provides an invaluable resource for scholars and students.