A landmark in the development of the twentieth-century novel, the Notebooks is the story of a young Danish aristocrat , told in a series of notes that explore Malte's life in Paris, childhood memories and reflections in highly crafted poetic prose. A radical departure from literary realism, it is an archetypal confrontation with the modern.

Robert Vilain specializes in German, Austrian, French and comparative literature in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and has published widely on authors such as Hofmannsthal, Rilke, and Thomas Mann. He is Germanic Editor of the Modern Language Review and Series Editor for 'Studies in Modern German and Austrian Literature' (Peter Lang). He reviews regularly for the TLS and academic journals.