In addition to writing plays, film scripts, and thousands of newspaper articles, Roger Vailland published nine novels, beginning with Drole de Jeu in 1945 and ending with La Truite in 1964. This study traces in these novels the changing view of the moral and social position of the amateur and the professional, especially in the fields of literature and journalism. The freedom of the uncommitted amateur is increasingly an unacceptable stance for the persona defined in and through the novels, each of which is, in part, a response to the inadequacies or inconsistencies of this stance as revealed by the previous novel. At the same time, the writing and publishing of novels becomes an intrinsic part of the self-definition and self-description taking place in the novels and as a result of them."

The first book to provide a strong theoretical examination of the political ideologies of Brasillach, Vailland, and Malraux, Dr. Tame's study deals in particular with their contributions to the concept of the ideological hero. From different positions of the political spectrum, the three twentieth-century French writers produced what has been called politically committed literature. The principal concepts explored are of «Fascist man» in two novels by Brasillach, the figure of the «Bolshevik» in three novels by Vailland, and that of the Communist hero in three novels by Malraux. One of Dr. Tame's significant findings is that the various images of the ideological hero presented by the three novelists have more in common with one another than has been generally supposed.

Praise for the print edition:"...a useful and engaging reference to the vast world of the novel in world literature."

In Eros and Ethics, Marc De Kesel patiently exposes the lines of thought underlying Jacques Lacan's often complex and cryptic reasoning regarding ethics and morality in his seventh seminar, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1959–1960). In this seminar, Lacan arrives at a rather perplexing conclusion: that which, over the ages, has been supposed to be "the supreme good" is in fact nothing but "radical evil"; therefore, the ultimate goal of human desire is not happiness and self-realization, but destruction and death. And yet, Lacan hastens to add, the morality based on this conclusion is far from being melancholic or tragic. Rather, it results in an encouraging ethics that for the first time in history gives full moral weight to the erotic. De Kesel's close reading uncovers the real scope of Lacan's criticism regarding the moralizing ethics of our time, and is one of the rare books that gives the reader full access to the letter of the Lacanian text.

Henri Lefebvre’s magnum opus: a monumental exploration of contemporary society. Henri Lefebvre’s three-volume Critique of Everyday Life is perhaps the richest, most prescient work by one of the twentieth century’s greatest philosophers. Written at the birth of post-war consumerism, the Critique was a philosophical inspiration for the 1968 student revolution in France and is considered to be the founding text of all that we know as cultural studies, as well as a major influence on the fields of contemporary philosophy, geography, sociology, architecture, political theory and urbanism. A work of enormous range and subtlety, Lefebvre takes as his starting-point and guide the “trivial” details of quotidian experience: an experience colonized by the commodity, shadowed by inauthenticity, yet one which remains the only source of resistance and change. This is an enduringly radical text, untimely today only in its intransigence and optimism.

The three-volume text by Henri Lefebvre is perhaps the richest, most prescient work about modern capitalism to emerge from one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers and is now available for the first time in one complete volume. Written at the birth of post-war consumerism, Critique was an inspiration for the 1968 student revolution in France. It is a founding text of cultural studies and a major influence on the fields of contemporary philosophy, geography, sociology, architecture, political theory and urbanism. Lefebvre takes as his starting point and guide the "trivial" details of quotidian experience: an experience colonized by the commodity, shadowed by inauthenticity, yet remaining the only source of resistance and change. This is an enduringly radical text, untimely today only in its intransigence and optimism.

French novels such as "Madame Bovary" and "The Stranger" are staples of high school and college literature courses. This work provides coverage of the French novel since its origins in the 16th century, with an emphasis on novels most commonly studied in high school and college courses in world literature and in French culture and civilization.