This is not intended to be a definitive study of all the picaresque novels of the last two decades. It is, instead, a representative study which includes those authors who have attained the most prominence and who have contributed most to the delineation and advancement of the picaresque genre.

The phrase "existential predicament" is a summary of Moravia's preoccupation as a novelist. In his fiction there is constant, unrelenting obsession with the situation of a single, particular character confronting, through his own existence in a physical, historical setting, the forces or powers of negation which threaten him with the frightening personal awareness of the possibility, even inevitability, of his own dissolution into nothingness.

This thesis examines the idea of modern love as expressed in the four novels of Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the problem of whether or not the female characters are lively, active, and essential in the Tamburlaine plays. The study has been broadened to include a consideration of the general attitudes toward women expressed in the plays. However, the central emphasis is on Zenocrate's characterization and function.

It is the purpose of this research to explore the role that animals played in both the life and writings of Lord Byron. The first areas of concentration are on the specific examples of Byron's affection for animals and on the psychological aspects of this love. Secondly, the thesis attempts to explore the symbolic importance of animals in relation to Byron and his works. Finally, the research is focused on Byron's concepts and ideas, which he frequently illustrated and clarified by animal symbolism.

This study will be an investigation of character, therefore an investigation of the salient characters which have stirred the interest that has made Ayn Rand such a popular novelist.