This new edition of Mary and Henry Garland's classic Oxford Companion to German Literature substantially revises and extends its coverage, making an invaluable reference work available to a new generation of readers.

Designed to be a reliable and easily accessible source of information on the whole sweep of literature from German-speaking countries from the eighth century onwards, the Companion now comes right up to the mid-1990s, including recent works such as Gunter Grass's controversial novel about the unification of East and West Germany, Ein weites Feld (1995). It is addressed not only to specialists and students, for whom it has long been an essential work of reference, but also to the general reader. The entries, arranged in a single alphabetical sequence, cover authors and their major works, and also historical, intellectual, and cultural background.

For this new edition much of the original material has been thoroughly reworked in the light of up-to-date scholarship, and many completely new entries have been added, allowing improved coverage of the twentieth century, general topics, and women writers of all periods.

The Companion's unrivalled historical coverage and depth of information - on subjects as various as Kafka and Kleist, Werther and Christa Wolf, Nietzsche and the Nibelungenlied, Jung and Jelinek, Rilke and Die Reformation - makes it an indispensable reference book for everyone with an interest in the literature and literary culture of the German-speaking world.