Books in the Cambridge Companions to Literature series

The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens offers a valuable introduction to Dickens for students and general readers, as well as fresh insights, informed by recent critical theory, that will be of interest to scholars and teachers of the novels.

The Cambridge Companion to Edith Wharton 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.

This rich and varied portrait of the drama from 1660 to 1714 provides students with essential information about playwrights, staging, dramatic themes and genres in their social and political contexts. There are also useful reference features. All essays have been newly commissioned for this Companion.

Specially commissioned essays by major Fitzgerald scholars present a clear and comprehensive assessment of F. Scott Fitzgerald. No aspect of his career is overlooked, from his first novel published in 1920, through his more than 170 short stories, to his last unfinished Hollywood novel.

Key dimensions of Thomas Mann's writing and life are explored in this collection of specially commissioned essays. Introductory chapters covering all the main works of fiction, the essays and diaries, are followed by four chapters examining Mann's oeuvre in relation to major themes.

This is an accessible, wide-ranging and informed introduction to Shakespeare's comedies and romances, first published in 2001. Rather than taking each play in isolation, the chapters trace recurring issues through Shakespeare's early and middle comedies, dark comedies and late romances, suggesting the creative use he made of the conventions he inherited.

This Companion, first published in 2004, offers students and specialists an authoritative introduction to that dazzling cultural phenomenon, now known collectively as German Romanticism. All German quotations are translated to make this volume fully accessible to a wide audience interested in how Romanticism evolved across Europe.

This 2006 collection of original essays is a comprehensive survey of the life, works and times of this radical Romantic poet. With its chronology and guide to further reading, this lively and accessible Companion is an invaluable guide for students and scholars of Shelley and of Romanticism.

This is the most accessible guide available both for students of literature new to this developing field, and for students of gender studies and readers interested in the interactions of feminism, literary criticism and literature.

First-time readers of Yeats as well as more advanced scholars will welcome this comprehensive account of Yeats's career with its useful chronological outline and survey of the most important trends in Yeats scholarship as an essential introduction for students and teachers of Yeats.

Alexander Pushkin holds a unique position as the founding father of Russian literature. In this Companion, leading scholars discuss Pushkin's work in its political, literary, social and intellectual contexts. No other volume available brings together such a range of material and such comprehensive coverage of Pushkin's major and minor writings.

The Cambridge Companion to Dante was fully updated in 2007 to take account of the recent scholarship and includes three new essays on Dante's works. This edition will ensure that the Companion continues to be the most useful single volume for new generations of students of Dante.

This Companion provides an introductory overview of Wallace Stevens' life and poetry. Leading Stevens scholars explain in clear language fundamental aspects of Stevens' work. The book also contains a chronology and a useful guide to further reading.

This collection of essays provides lively and innovative readings of every aspect of E. M. Forster's diverse career. It includes substantial chapters on Forster's two major novels, Howards End and A Passage to India. Other topics include his vexed relationship with Modernism and his role as a literary critic.

This Companion, first published in 2004, offers students and specialists an authoritative introduction to that dazzling cultural phenomenon, now known collectively as German Romanticism. All German quotations are translated to make this volume fully accessible to a wide audience interested in how Romanticism evolved across Europe.

An invaluable guide for both student and teacher, this collection of specially written essays offers the most up-to-date scholarship and introduces students to the current thinking and debates about John Donne - the pre-eminent 'metaphysical' poet, and one of the greatest lyric poets of all time.

The controversies that surround Sylvia Plath's life and work mean that her poems are more read and studied now than ever before. With its invaluable guide to further reading and chronology of Plath's career, this Companion will help students and scholars understand and enjoy Plath's work and its continuing relevance.

The Irish novel has had a distinguished history. It spans such diverse authors as James Joyce, George Moore, Maria Edgeworth, Bram Stoker, Flann O'Brien, Samuel Beckett, Lady Morgan, John Banville, and others. Yet it has until now received less critical attention than Irish poetry and drama. This volume covers three hundred years of Irish achievement in fiction, with essays on key genres, themes, and authors. It provides critiques of individual works, accounts of important novelists, and histories of sub-genres and allied narrative forms, establishing significant social and political contexts for dozens of novels. The varied perspectives and emphases by more than a dozen critics and literary historians ensure that the Irish novel receives due tribute for its colour, variety and linguistic verve. Each chapter features recommended further reading. This is the perfect overview for students of the Irish novel from the romances of the seventeenth century to the present day.

Emile Zola is a major literary figure of the nineteenth century. The essays in this volume focus on Zola's originality, his works, his life and times and his role in the Dreyfus Affair. The Companion also includes a chronology, summaries of all of Zola's novels and suggestions for further reading.

Now best known for three great novels - Tom Jones, Joseph Andrews and Amelia - Henry Fielding (1707-54) made a substantial contribution to eighteenth-century culture. This collection of specially-commissioned essays, with a chronology and guide to further reading, offers a comprehensive account of Fielding's life and work.

George Orwell is regarded as the greatest political writer in English of the twentieth century. Chapters in this 2007 Companion address his positions on war and pacifism, patriotism, his anti-Communism and his status in the literary academy, among other topics. A detailed chronology of Orwell's life and work is also included.

A broad and detailed introduction to Moliere and his plays, this Companion examines Moliere's life and career, his theatres, comedy and satire in his plays, and his innovative comedies-ballets.

This collection is designed for readers interested in seeing Shakespeare's life and works in the context of popular forms of performance, literature, media, music and art, from their original circumstances of composition to the present day. Essays address topics such as tourism, television serialization and the Shakespearean pop song.

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison is one of the most widely studied of contemporary American authors. This comprehensive and accessible 2007 Companion, featuring a chronology and guide to further reading, was the first guide to her work to discuss her entire career as a writer, critic, editor and teacher.

Horace is a central author in Latin literature and his work spans a wide range of genres. In this 2007 volume a superb international cast of contributors present an assessment of the poet, his work, its themes and its reception, aimed primarily at students and non-specialists.

Albert Camus is one of the iconic figures of twentieth-century French literature. This 2007 Companion explores his best-selling novels, his ambiguous engagement with philosophy, his theatre, his work as a journalist and his reflections on ethical and political questions that continue to concern readers today.

This Companion offers a multi-disciplinary approach to literature on film and television. Writers are drawn from different backgrounds to consider broad topics, such as the issue of adaptation from novels and plays to the screen, canonical and popular literature, fantasy, genre and adaptations for children.

This 2007 Companion offers a wide-ranging picture of the performance conditions and background of theatre in the classical world from Homer to the end of the Roman Empire. It will be of interest to students of drama and classics, and also readers with an interest in the theatre's history and practice.

This Companion examines the slave narrative in relation to its historical context as well as the African American literary tradition. With its chronology and guide to further reading, the Companion provides both an easy entry point for students new to the subject and comprehensive coverage for scholars in the field.

The last century was characterised by an extraordinary flowering of the art of poetry in Britain. These specially commissioned essays by highly regarded poetry critics offer a stimulating and reliable overview of English poetry of the twentieth century.