This volume offers a selection of criticism from Geoffrey Hartman's work of the mid 1960s through Marxist, historicist, structuralist and post-structuralist readings, all of which reflect the implications of the cultural and political changes in the course of the late 18th and 19th centuries. The introduction aims to clarify the issues and sets the critical extracts in context. Each extract has a brief explanatory endnote there is an essay suggesting further reading.