This 1973 text provides a critical introduction to the writings of Franz Kafka. Within it Ronald Gray surveys the novels and short stories, and glances also at the religious or confessional writings.  Meer

Up until the last century there was a tendency, among directors in the theatre and academic critics alike, to stress the philosophical and satirical content of Molière's comedy and to overlook the fact that he was a professional man of the theatre.  Meer

An attempt to interpret and appraise the work of Boris Pasternak as lyrical and narrative poet, writer of prose fiction, and verse translator (notably from Shakespeare).  Meer

This digitally reprinted edition of Pushkin: A Comparative Commentary has the same content as the original 1971 edition. Professor Bayley, in this first critical assessment in English of the whole range of Pushkin's writing, examines his achievement in relation to Russian literature and the European tradition, analysing Pushkin's language in detail to illustrate how he obtains his literary effects.  Meer

This critical study of the group of remarkably talented poets who flourished in Spain between the First World War and the Spanish Civil War includes copious quotations accompanied by English prose translations.  Meer

Don Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–81) was, with Lope de Vega, the greatest exponent of Spanish Golden Age drama. Professor Parker's essays are the fruits of a highly distinguished career spanning forty-five years.  Meer

When it was published this was the full, post-glasnost critical biography of Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940), a great comic writer whose works are regarded as modern classics.  Meer

A study of Rabelais (?1494–1553) as a literary artist giving special attention to the form and language of his fiction. Coleman uses a genuinely literary approach, using some of the techniques of stylistic analysis.  Meer

This is one of the first studies to treat Valéry's theory and practice of poetry together and is the first full-length study of his poetry in English.  Meer

This 1977 study of Chekhov examines his development and achievement as prose-writer and dramatist. Beverly Hahn draws attention to the range and depth of Chekhov's imagination, disputing any limited conception of him as a 'poet of twilight Russia'.  Meer

Originally published in 1981, this critical survey of Rimbaud's work was intended mainly for the student and the general reader, but the specialist will also find in it fresh and illuminating comments.  Meer

This is a critical introduction to the novels and short stories of Tolstoy, treating them in their own right as works of literature, not as biographical evidence or contributions to a philosophical system.  Meer

In this 1976 introduction to Brecht's theatre and theory, Ronald Gray explores the dramatist's interacting roles as a committed Marxist seeking to influence audiences and as one of the most innovative craftsmen ever to work in the theatre.  Meer

This book is a comprehensive study of the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre. As well as examining the drama and the fiction, the book analyses the evolution of his philosophy, explores his concern with ethics, psychoanalysis, literary theory, biography and autobiography and includes a lengthy section on the still much-neglected study of Flaubert, L'Idiot de la famille.  Meer

This 1982 book was the first major critical study of Jaroslav Hašek and his most important literary creation, The Good Soldier Švejk. For many people Hašek's book is simply extremely funny.  Meer

Among seventeenth-century classical French writers La Rochefoucauld owes his renown to his maxims and La Bruyère to his stylised portraits, or caractères.  Meer

This is a concise survey and criticism of Goethe's work, for the general reader and the student. It is intended as a useful first book from which the reader can proceed to more specialised studies.  Meer

This is a digital reprint of Mme de Mourgues' critical introduction to the work of Racine for the student and the general reader. It concentrates entirely on the plays themselves, and attempts to say what they are and how they work on the mind of the spectator or reader.  Meer

Boileau has traditionally been regarded as the spokesman of French neo-classicism, but some elements of scholarship have discounted the importance of neo-classical doctrine in general and of Boileau's particular contribution to it.  Meer