A Reader's Companion to the Novel In this introduction to Stendhal's masterpiece, Jefferson Humphries demonstrates how The Red and the Black deconstructs the genre of the realistic novel and explores its essential theme: the function of desire in the post-Romantic age. Twayne's Masterwork Studies, Robert Lecker, McGill University, Series Editor Each volume in Twayne's Masterwork Studies is written by a respected scholar with years of classroom experience and includes: • a discussion of key themes and concepts • historical context • critical reception • chronology, bibliography, and index What the critics are saying about Twayne's Masterwork Studies: "Thoughtful and thought-provoking...new analyses such as this are in constant demand." —School Library Journal "Offers a wealth of information...A necessary addition to collections serving high school and university students." "...suitable not only for students but also for general readers inspired to reread the classics." —Booklist "A welcome addition to the ranks of major readings." —Choice The Author: Jefferson Humphries is professor of French, English, and comparative literature at the Louisiana State University. Educated at Duke and Yale universities, he is the author of The Puritan and the Cynic: The Literary Moralist in America and France (1987), Losing the Text: Readings in Literary Desire (1986), Metamorphoses of the Raven: Literary Overdeterminedness in France and the South since Poe (1985), and The Otherness Within: Gnostic Readings in Marcel Proust, Flannery O'Connor, and François Villon (1983). He edited Southern Literature and Literary Theory (1990), and his stories and poems have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies.