The publication of series has recently become an industry. The Cambridge, Blackwell’s, and oxford “Companions,” the Pickering and Chatto editions, the Palgrave-Macmillan “english dramatists” and “literary lives,” “casebooks,” and many other commissioned books pour onto our heads. The problem for readers is that there are considerable differences in purpose, target audiences, and editorial principles. some Companions, for instance, have many, many short descriptive entries that are designed to be a quick education or review for, basically, nonspecialists. others have lengthy, cutting edge, even revisionary essays that may stimulate and pleasantly challenge true experts but leave some readers to seek elsewhere for, say, a summary of the most recent scholarship and lines of critical inquiry on daniel defoe’s novels.