THE MODERN WORLD Ten Great Writers <i> by Malcolm Bradbury (Penguin: $8.95, illustrated) </i>

Originally issued as a companion volume to the BBC series of the same name, “The Modern World” is a competent, but by no means extraordinary, collection of short biographies of 10 authors “whose achievements marked the birth of modernism in literature.” Malcolm Bradbury concentrates on a single work by each writer, an approach that works more satisfactorily for Marcel Proust than Fyodor Dostoevsky or Thomas Mann. (The chapter on Mann is devoted almost entirely to “The Magic Mountain,” while “Doctor Faustus” and “Joseph and His Brethren” receive short shrift.) Although omissions are inevitable in these brief studies, the text contains some awkward lapses: Bradbury reports that Proust disliked C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s translation of “A la recherche du temps perdu” as “Remembrance of Things Past,” but fails to provide an accurate rendition (“In Search of Lost Time”). Ultimately, the writer is overwhelmed by the tasks of defining modernism and encapsulating the accomplishments of his subjects.