This book, part of the acclaimed AATSEEL Critical Companions series, is designed to guide readers through Envy, Yury Olesha's humorous look at the individual's struggle with an increasingly industrialized society. This companion acquaints the reader with the history, biographical context, critical reception, and interpretation problems related to the novel. It also helps the reader decipher the book's difficult features, including its shifting narrators and fluid boundaries between dream and reality.

In addition, this critical companion presents documents from the period pertaining to the novel, excerpts from Olesha's memoirs, and a listing of important criticism.

RIMGAILA SALYS is a professor of Russian in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Colorado at Boulder.