In the late 1980s, Camden House increasingly sought out highly qualified scholars to write or edit commissioned works, especially in its Companion series.
In addition, companions to major works were commissioned and published, including books focused on Goethe's Faust (I and II), the Nibelungenlied, Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan, and Mann's Magic Mountain.
About this volume a reviewer wrote 'The editor and the contributors are to be praised for having accomplished a truly Herculean task through which this period finally receives the recognition it deserves.
'[5] The CH history is prima facie the most voluminous recent analysis of German literature in English; it engaged the collaboration of Germanists from the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Austria, and Australia.
In 1998 Camden House became an imprint of its long-time distributor, Boydell & Brewer, and has continued to publish books in all the areas described above under the editorship of James Walker, who has been associated with the firm since 1994.