This title is the first of the series, Orient BlackSwan Annotated Study Texts, which is designed to bring the classics closer to students so that they are able to enjoy and understand such literary works. The annotations, notes and commentary enable the student to perceive and comprehend the significance of a particular text in the literary canon as well as to view the complete literary and cultural matrix of the work in question.

The book provides a very comprehensive introduction that offers a reading and analysis of the play’s thematic and formal aspects. There are detailed comments on the themes, the background and the affiliations of the work in terms of literary canons and traditions. There is also a very useful glossary, a select bibliography of critical studies on Synge and the play, Riders to the Sea.

Ashok Sengupta has been teaching English and American literature at the University of Kalyani in West Bengal for over three decades. He is also currently the Dean, Faculty of Arts and Commerce at that university. He has published a study of the fiction of John Dos Passos and a collection of essays on the American novel. He has lectured and written on American fiction, popular culture and film studies. He is guest faculty member at the University of Calcutta.