In the nineteenth century, literary criticism first developed into an autonomous, professional discipline in the universities. This volume provides a comprehensive and authoritative study of the vast field of literary criticism between 1830 and 1914. In over thirty essays written from a broad range of perspectives, international scholars examine the growth of literary criticism as an institution, the major critical developments in diverse national traditions and in different genres, as well as the major movements of realism, naturalism, symbolism and decadence. The History offers a detailed focus on some of the era's great critical figures such as Sainte-Beuve, Hippolyte Taine and Matthew Arnold; and it includes essays devoted to the connections of literary criticism with other disciplines in science, the arts and Biblical studies. The publication of this volume marks the completion of the monumental Cambridge History of Literary Criticism from antiquity to the present day. "… a model of how to present sharp, original thinking without scanting the responsibility to provide a usable map … This volume provides a series of helpful starting points for exploring the range of thinking about literature that [the] extraordinary growth in critical writing helped to stimulate." Stefan Collini, Modern Philology '… this volume clearly serves its purpose as a landmark for the multiple theoretical and practical issues that shaped nineteenth-century criticism within various national contexts …' Usha Wilbers, English Studies A lucid account of the vast field of literary criticism from 1830 to 1914. M. A. R. Habib is Professor of English at Rutgers University. He is the author of seven books, including A History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to the Present (2005), Modern Literary Criticism and Theory: A History (2007) and An Anthology of Modern Urdu Poetry (2003).