The volume contains a selection of the fruits of 35 years of study and research. Almost all of the essays have been published previously. Areas represented are (1) essays on major literary figures (Shakespeare, Goethe, Stefan George etc.); (2) translation critiques; (3) German academic history of the 19th and 20th centuries; (4) reviews; (5) some of the author's translations of German poetry (chiefly George's) into English.
The majority of the articles and reviews cross borders between individual literatures and offer new insights into international literary relations, comparison of motifs and structures being at the heart of the hermeneutic process.