This volume's predominant theme is bourgeois mentality and its historical development. The works of Lope de Vega, Calderon, Cervantes, and Shakespeare, among others, are analysed within the historical framework of the decline of feudalism and the rise of the absolute regimes. Those of Moliere and Goethe are set against the background of an evolving and consolidating bourgeois society in Western Europe.

AcknowledgmentsPreface: Social Meanings in LiteraturePart I: Studies on the European Drama and Novel from the Renaissance to the Threshold of Modernity1 The Spanish Dramatists Lope de Vega, 1562-1635 Calderon, 1600-16812 Cervantes, 1547-1616 Mobility: Sancho Panza Creativity: Dulcinea Property: The Gypsies Justice: Don Quixote3 Shakespeare's The Tempest The Concept of Human Nature Five Themes on the Island Secularized HumilityExcursus A: The Tempest, Act I, Scene 14 The Classical French Theater Corneille, 1606-1684 Racine, 1639-1699 Moliere, 1622-16735 From Werther to Wilhelm Meister Individualism and the Middle Class Werther: The Dislocated Individual Wilhelm Meister: The Integrated Individual World Literature and Popular Culture6 Henrik Ibsen, 1828-1906 Private Life and Social Forces The Dilemma of Freedom and NecessityExcursus B: Note on August Strindberg7 Knut Hamsun, 1860-1952 Nature Hero Worship Urban Society NihilismPart II: Studies on the German Novel in the Nineteenth Century8 Romanticism: Revolution Repressed9 Young Germany: Prehistory of Bourgeois Consciousness10 Eduard Mo;rike: Troubled Embourgeoisement11 Gustav Freytag: Bourgeois Materialism12 Friedrich Spielhagen: Bourgeois Idealism13 Conrad Ferdinand Meyer: Apologia of the Upper Class14 Gottfried Keller: Bourgeois RepressionAfterword: From Helmut Dubiel, Editor of the German Edition of This Volume