Robert Vilain received his M.A. and D.Phil. in French and German from Oxford University. He is Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he has taught since 1991. He is co-editor of the journal Austrian Studies, author of numerous publications on French, German and Comparative Literature, and has held a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship for a project on the mutual influence of French and German Literature c. 1870–1936.