Begins directly with the characteristics of nihilistic thought and the contrast between nihilism and humanism, and then proceeds to give an account of the religious battles against this negative and deathfearing philosophy. Also discusses Kafka, Camus, Sartre, Ionesco, Beckett and others.

A survey of the development of the theme of the lost and alienated self in modern literature that ranges from Kierkegaard through the nihilistic writing of Ibsen, Strindberg, Pirandello, Gide, and Malraux to the Existentialist hero and the "positive heros" of recent Russian fiction. Included are intensive analyses of Brand, Peer Gynt, The Road to Damascus, the Immoralist, The Alexandria Quartet, Doctor Zhivago, and the principle works of lonesco and...