This fascinating collection of 18 essays sets out to discover the distinctiveness of modern British and American literature by comparing and contrasting the two traditions. It covers all the principal generic categories, poetry, drama and prose, from Eliot, Waugh and Fitzgerald, to Fowles and Philip Roth, and considers some major themes such as women's and black fiction. It uses particular case studies to consider both the way the two literatures have influenced one another and what distinguishing characteristics they each possess.