One of the founders of literary realism and the serial novel, Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) was a prolific writer who produced more than a hundred novels, plays and short stories during his career. With its dramatic plots and memorable characters, Balzac's fiction has enthralled generations of readers. 'La Comédie humaine', the vast collection of works in which he strove to document every aspect of nineteenth-century French society, has influenced writers from Flaubert, Zola and Proust to Dostoevsky and Oscar Wilde. This Companion provides a critical reappraisal of Balzac, combining studies of his major novels with guidance on the key narrative and thematic features of his writing. Twelve chapters by world-leading specialists encompass a wide spectrum of topics such as the representation of history, philosophy and religion, the plight of the struggling artist, gender and sexuality, and Balzac's depiction of the creative process itself.

From the contents: Conrad's debt to Marguerite Poradowska (Susan Jones).- Conrad and Alfred Russel Wallace (Amy Houston).- Conrad's The idiots and Maupassant's La mere aux monstres (Gene M. Moore).- Conrad, Anatole France, and the early French Romantic tradition: some influences (Owen Knowles).- 'One can learn something from Balzac': Conrad and Balzac (J.H. Stape).

Devoted to those practitioners of the art of short fiction, this new 2nd edition offers thorough coverage of approximately 375 authors and 400 of their works. In a single volume, Reference Guide to Short Fiction features often-studied authors from around the world and throughout history, all selected for inclusion by a board of experts in the field. Reference Guide to Short Fiction is divided into two sections for easy study. The first section profiles the authors and offers personal and career details, as well as complete bibliographical information. A signed essay helps readers understand more about the author. These authors are covered: -- Sandra Cisneros -- Nikolai Gogol -- Ernest Hemingway -- Langston Hughes -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- Salman Rushdie -- Jean-Paul Sartre -- Edith Somerville -- Eudora Welty -- And others Section two helps readers gain deeper understanding of the authors and the genre with critical essays discussing 400 important works, including: -- "The Hitchiking Game", Milan Kundera -- "The Swimmer", John Cheever -- "The Dead", James Joyce -- "A Hunger Artist", Franz Kafka -- "How I Met My Husband", Alice Munro -- "Kew Gardens", Virginia Woolf This one-stop guide also provides easy access to works through the title index.

A world list of books in the English language.