Essentially Lukacs' first work, a compilation of very early essays which appeared in 1908/11, with a particular focus on the function of form in literary works (a focus on mainly German literature in this volume, which of course is no surprise, but is not the only focus).
These essays are written by a very young and pre-Marxist Lukacs who is still very much under the influence of Kant, there is not so much Hegel here either. One detects some Fichte, but I ought to get more clear on that relation (I've heard many different conjectures).
The various essays present a focus on form, but it is not merely the method but the very thing being interrogated: what is "form"? What is it for a work of literature to take this or that form? Further, what is the critical essay? (on this latter question, the opening letter which serves as the volume's introduction, is very informative).
There is no basic gist to this volume, mainly due to its subject matter. There is a guiding thread but it is there to interrogate. This early Lukacs is deeply suspicious of external measures of truth and beauty when it comes to the work of art. Indeed, there is a commonality between he and later Existentialists (Sartre especially, and as noted in the afterword) which is striking, in that the measure of truth often comes down to the commitment to a form by an author, or a commitment to a fundamental gesture (as in Kierkegaard's break with Regine Olsen), the truth is often made in this creation of a totality that still bears the marks of the conditions in which it was made. This becomes the metacritical theme of a dialogue written on Sterne (which all else suspended, is a surprisingly engaging piece of fiction alone).
A good volume with a lot to offer, not only of itself, but as illuminating to Lukacs' aesthetic development.