This poem-by-poem guide to Lorca's Romancero gitano was prompted by the need for some form of guidance to the overwhelming amount of critical material published on the book, the relative neglect or misunderstanding of certain poems and a concern to counter a recent tendency to eccentric interpretation.

Herbert Ramsden's comprehensive collection of commentaries will be useful both for students and teachers and for the Lorca specialist. With each poem the author offers a brief introduction to relevant background material, a comprehensive commentary, a brief indication of interpretations notably different from his own and a select critical bibliography. In a more general bibliography, the author lists a number of translations of Romancero gitano into English and a selection of commentary-based studies. The great diversity and allusive richness of Lorca's poetic masterpiece demands more space than a compact student edition allows, and all serious students of Romancero gitano will want to use Herbert Ramsden's Eighteen commentaries alongside his simultaneously-published edition of the text.