A confrontation between Marxism and the sociology of literature is long overdue. This is especially so because sociologists so often assume that what they take to be Marxist insights into literature can be grafted on to their sociology. A critical survey of the results of this misapprehension might be interesting, but it would contribute little to demonstrating any unity in the subject matter, and would consist of no more than a series of more or less interesting individual essays. An introductory glance at three texts, in many important ways very different from each other, will help to clarify the need to go beyond such an essentially abstract and academic manner of presentation.