This is the most comprehensive history of modern Swedish literature to have been published in English. The book includes both in-depth studies of major writers like August Strindberg, Hjalmar Soederberg and Par Lagerkvist and survey accounts of the more important periods and movements, from the neo-romantic writers of the 1890s to the uniquely important working-class literature of the 1930s and the modernist lyric poetry of the following decade.

The authors are all acknowledged experts in their respective fields, and the volume is designed and written both for the general reader, who will find it a valuable introduction to a fascinating body of literature, and the specialist student, for whom it provides an authoritative first port of call. The volume is also equipped with suggestions for further reading and a helpful bibliography of English translations of many of the works discussed in the various essays.