Literature of the Western World, Volume I The Ancient World Through the Renaissance

by Wilkie, Brian; Hurt, James

• ISBN13: 9780130186669
• ISBN10: 013018666X
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-29
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

The most comprehensive best-selling anthology of its kind, this two-volume survey enables readers to choose among the most important canonical and less-familiar texts of the Western literary tradition in Europe and the Americas. It offers complete texts whenever possible, uses the best translations of foreign-language material, and, when appropriate, presents more than one text by each author.It provides detailed historical and biographical notes and introductions to six literary periods: The Ancient World; the Middle Ages; the Renaissance; Neoclassicism and Romanticism; Realism and Naturalism; and Modern and Contemporary.Individuals interested in a comprehensive look at Western literature through the ages.

Table of Contents

Preface	xxi
The Ancient World	1	(15)
Introduction	1	(15)
Gilgamesh (c. 2000 s.c.)	16	(49)
Gilgamesh	19	(46)
Danny P. Jackson
Tablet I	20	(6)
Tablet II	26	(2)
Tablet III	28	(3)
Tablet IV	31	(2)
Tablet V	33	(2)
Tablet VI	35	(4)
Tablet VII	39	(3)
Tablet VIII	42	(4)
Tablet IX	46	(3)
Tablet X	49	(5)
Tablet XI	54	(7)
Tablet XII	61	(4)
The Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) (Tenth Century B.C. to Second Century B.C.)	65	(62)
The Old Testament	68	(59)
King James Version
From Genesis	68	(23)
The Creation of the World	68	(1)
The Fall	69	(3)
Cain and Abel	72	(1)
The Flood	73	(3)
The Tower of Babel	76	(1)
The Story of Abraham and Isaac	77	(2)
The Story of Jacob	79	(12)
From Job	91	(30)
From Psalms	121	(6)
Psalm 8	121	(1)
Psalm 23	121	(1)
Psalm 91	122	(1)
Psalm 103	123	(1)
Psalm 114	124	(1)
Psalm 130	124	(1)
Psalm 137	125	(1)
Psalm 139	126	(1)
Homer (Eighth Century B.C.)	127	(468)
From The Iliad	132	(141)
Robert Fitzgerald
Book One: Quarrel, Oath, and Promise	134	(17)
From Book Six: Interludes in Field and City	151	(9)
Book Nine: A Visit of Emissaries	160	(20)
From Book Twelve: The Rampart Breached	180	(2)
Book Sixteen: A Ship Fired, a Tide Turned	182	(23)
From Book Seventeen: Contending for a Soldier Fallen	205	(1)
Book Eighteen: The Immortal Shield	206	(17)
Book Nineteen: The Avenger Fasts and Arms	223	(14)
Book Twenty-Two: Desolation Before Troy	237	(12)
Book Twenty-Four: A Grace Given in Sorrow	249	(24)
The Odyssey	273	(322)
Robert Fitzgerald
Book One: A Goddess Intervenes	273	(12)
Book Two: A Hero's Son Awakens	285	(11)
Book Three: The Lord of the Western Approaches	296	(13)
Book Four: The Red-Haired King and His Lady	309	(21)
Book Five: Sweet Nymph and Open Sea	330	(12)
Book Six: The Princess at the River	342	(8)
Book Seven: Gardens and Firelight	350	(8)
Book Eight: The Songs of the Harper	358	(15)
Book Nine: New Coasts and Poseidon's Son	373	(14)
Book Ten: The Grace of the Witch	387	(15)
Book Eleven: A Gathering of Shades	402	(18)
Book Twelve: Sea Perils and Defeat	420	(13)
Book Thirteen: One More Strange Island	433	(13)
Book Fourteen: Hospitality in the Forest	446	(14)
Book Fifteen: How They Came to Ithaka	460	(15)
Book Sixteen: Father and Son	475	(14)
Book Seventeen: The Beggar at the Manor	489	(18)
Book Eighteen: Blows and a Queen's Beauty	507	(12)
Book Nineteen: Recognitions and a Dream	519	(16)
Book Twenty: Signs and a Vision	535	(11)
Book Twenty-0ne: The Test of the Bow	546	(11)
Book Twenty-Two: Death in the Great Hall	557
Book Twenty-Three: The Trunk of the Olive Tree	5'70	(580)
Book Twenty-Four: Warriors, Farewell	580	(15)
Aesop (Sixth Century B.C.)	595	(17)
Fables	597	(15)
Olivia
Robert Temple
3: The Eagle and the Fox	597	(1)
8: The Nightingale and the Hawk	598	(1)
12: The Cat and the Cock	599	(1)
20: The Two Cocks and the Eagle	599	(1)
21: The Cocks and the Partridge	599	(1)
32; The Fox and the Bunch of Grapes	600	(1)
40: The Fox and the Billy-Goat	600	(1)
52: The Middle-Aged Man and His Mistress	601	(1)
58: The Shipwrecked Man	601	(1)
59: The Man and the Lion Travelling Together	602	(1)
65: The Astronomer	602	(1)
78: The North Wind and the Sun	602	(1)
76: The House-Ferret and Aphrodite	603	(1)
96: The Orator Demades	603	(1)
185: The Kite and the Snake	604	(1)
150: The Crab and the Fox	604	(1)
151: The Crab and Her Mother	604	(1)
162: The Jackdaw and the Birds	605	(1)
165: The Raven and the Fox	605	(1)
180: The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox	606	(1)
185: The Dog Who Carried the Meat	606	(1)
192: The Hare and the Fox	607	(1)
194: The Lioness and the Vixen	607	(1)
205: The Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox	607	(1)
206: The Lion and the Mouse Who Returned a Kindness	608	(1)
209: The Lion, the Ass, and the Fox	608	(1)
221: The Wolf and the Lamb	609	(1)
224: The Wolf and the Heron	609	(1)
241: The Ant and the Scarab Beetle	609	(1)
243: The Field Mouse and the Town Mouse	610	(1)
267: The Ass Clothed in the Skin of a Lion, and the Fox	610	(1)
287: The Hen That Laid the Golden Eggs	611	(1)
318: The Joking Shepherd	611	(1)
352: The Tortoise and the Hare	611	(1)
Aeschylus (c. 525-456 B.C.)	612	(129)
The Oresteia	615	(126)
Robert Fagles
Agamemnon	616	(53)
The Libation Bearers	669	(36)
The Eumenides	705	(36)
Sophocles (496-406 B.C.)	741	(98)
Oedipus the King	743	(48)
Stephen Berg
Diskin Clay
Antigone	791	(48)
Robert Fagles
Euripides (c. 480-406 B.C.)	839	(72)
Medea	844	(33)
Philip Vellacott
Helen	877	(34)
Philip Vellacott
Aristophanes (c. 450-c. 386 B.C.)	911	(56)
Lysistrata	914	(53)
Dudley Fitts
Virgil (70-19 s.c.)	967	(112)
From The Aeneid	973	(106)
Rolfe Humphries
Book I: The Landing near Carthage	973	(18)
Book II: The Fall of Troy	991	(18)
Book III: The Wanderings of Aeneas	1009	(16)
Book IV: Aeneas and Dido	1025	(16)
From Book V: The Funeral Games for Anchises	1041	(1)
Book VI: The Lower World	1042	(24)
From Book VIII: Aeneas at the Site of Rome	1066	(3)
From Book XII: The Final Combat	1069	(10)
Ovid (43 B.C.-17 A.D.)	1079	(51)
From Amores	1083	(19)
Peter Green
From Book 1	1083	(11)
From Book 2	1094	(3)
From Book 3	1097	(5)
From Heroides	1102	(17)
Daryl Hine
Paris to Helen (XVI)	1103	(10)
Helen to Paris (XVII)	1113	(6)
Metamorphoses	1119	(11)
Rolfe Humphries
From Book I	1119	(11)
The Creation	1119	(2)
The Four Ages	1121	(2)
Jove's Intervention	1123	(1)
The Story of Lycaon	1124	(1)
The Flood	1125	(2)
Deucalion and Pyrrha	1127	(3)
The New Testament (First and Second Centuries A.D.)	1130	(8)
The New Testament	1133	(5)
King James Version
From The Gospel According to Saint Matthew The Sermon on the Mount	1133	(5)
Greek and Latin Lyric Poetry (Seventh Century B.C. to Second Century A.D.)	1138	(3)
Sappho (Early Sixth Century B.C.)	1141	(7)
Poems	1141	(7)
Mary Barnard
30: We drink your health	1141	(1)
34: Lament for a maidenhead	1142	(1)
37: You know the place	1142	(1)
38: Prayer to my lady of Paphos	1143	(1)
39: He is more than a hero	1144	(1)
40: Yes, Atthis, you may be sure	1144	(1)
41: To an army wife, in Sardis	1145	(1)
42: I have had not one word from her	1146	(1)
43: It was you, Atthis, who said	1146	(1)
97: I have often asked you	1147	(1)
Pindar (518-438 B.C.)	1148	(5)
First Olympian Ode	1149	(4)
Frank Nisetich
Theocritus (Third Century B.C.)	1153	(5)
Idyll l: Song of Thyrsis	1153	(5)
Thelma Sargent
Catullus (c. 84-c. 54 B.C.)	1158	(9)
Poems	1159	(8)
Horace Gregory
1: Who shall receive my new-born book	1159	(1)
51: He is changed to a god	1160	(1)
3: Dress now in sorrow	1160	(1)
5: Come, Lesbia, let us live and love	1161	(1)
85: I hate and love	1161	(1)
109: My life, my love, you say our love will last forever	1162	(1)
99: Egnatius has white teeth	1162	(1)
8: Poor damned Catullus	1163	(1)
76: If man can find rich consolation	1163	(1)
11: Furius, Aurelius, bound to Catullus	1164	(1)
62: Twilight and star we hope to see arise	1165	(2)
101: Dear brother, I have come these many miles	1167	(1)
Horace (65-8 B.C.)	1167	(22)
Odes, Book 1	1168	(21)
1.1---Translated by David West	1168	(2)
1.1---Translated by Anthony Hecht	1170	(1)
1.2---Translated by David West	1171	(2)
1.2---Translated by Frances Sylvester Mahony	1173	(2)
1.3---Translated by David West	1175	(1)
1.3---Translated by John Dryden	1176	(2)
1.4---Translated by David West	1178	(1)
1.4---Translated by Christopher Smart	1179	(1)
1.4---Translated by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu	1179	(1)
1.5---Translated by David West	1180	(1)
1.5---Translated by John Milton	1181	(1)
1.5---Translated by Aphra Behn	1181	(1)
1.5---Translated by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu	1182	(1)
1.6---Translated by David West	1183	(1)
1.6---Translated by Patrick Branwell Bronte	1184	(1)
1.7---Translated by David West	1184	(2)
1.7---Translated by Christopher Smart	1186	(1)
1.8---Translated by David West	1187	(1)
1.8---Translated by Sir Richard Fanshawe	1187	(1)
1.9---Translated by David West	1188	(1)
1.9---Translated by Alfred, Lord Tennyson	1189	(1)
Propertius (c. 50 B.C.-after 16 B.C.)	1189	(8)
Elegies	1190	(1)
Book I, no. 6: ``I Am No Ordinary Coward''	1190	(1)
Constance Carrier
Book II, no. 15: ``No Man More Blest! ``	1191	(2)
Constance Carrier
Book III, no. 16: ``Midnight, and a Letter Comes to Me''	1193	(1)
Ezra Pound
Book IV, no. 7: ``A Ghost Is Someone''	1194	(3)
Translated by Robert Lowell
Cultural Texts of the Ancient World	1197	(1)
Plato (427 c. 341 B.C.)	1197	(23)
From The Republic	1197	(3)
Benjamin Jowett
The Apology	1200	(20)
Benjamin Jowett
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)	1220	(21)
From Nicomachean Ethics	1220	(5)
W. D. Ross
From Poetics	1225	(16)
Samuel Henry Butcher
Louise Ropes Loomis
Herodotus (490-c. 425 B.V.)	1241	(9)
From The History	1241	(9)
George Rawlinson
Thucydides (Middle Fifth Century-399 B.C.?)	1250	(10)
From The Peloponnesian Wars	1250	(10)
Benjamin Jowett
Livy (59 B.C.-A.D. 17)	1260	(11)
From The History of Rome	1260	(11)
Daniel Spillan
Marcus Aurelius (121-180)	1271	(8)
From Meditations	1271	(8)
George Long
The Middle Ages	1279	(10)
Introduction	1279	(10)
The Koran (Qur'an) (Seventh Century)	1289	(13)
From The Koran	1292	(10)
Arthur J. Arberry
The Opening	1292	(1)
From The Cow	1292	(1)
Light	1293	(4)
Ya Sin	1297	(4)
Sincere Religion	1301	(1)
The Cattle Raid of Cooley (Seventh Eighth Centuries)	1302	(10)
Exile of the Sons of Uisliu	1304	(8)
Thomas Kinsella
Hrafnkel the Priest of Frey (Twelfth Fourteenth Centuries)	1312	(20)
Hrafnkel the Priest of Frey	1314	(18)
Gmyn Jones
Marie de France (Late Twerlfth Century)	1332	(30)
Lais	1335	(18)
Robert Hanning
Joan Ferrante
Bisclavret (The Werewolf)	1335	(6)
Yonec	1341	(12)
From Fables	1353	(9)
Harriet Spiegel
The Mouse and the Frog	1353	(2)
The Frogs Who Asked for a King	1355	(1)
The Wolf King	1356	(3)
The Peasant and His Jackdaw	1359	(1)
The Vole Who Sought a Wife	1360	(2)
Epilogue	1362	(1)
Renard the Fox (Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries)	1362	(36)
From Renard the Fox	1364	(34)
Patricia Terry
The Trial of Renard	1364	(34)
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)	1398	(174)
The Divine Comedy	1405	(167)
H. R Huse
Inferno	1405	(140)
From Purgatory	1545	(18)
From Paradise	1563	(9)
The Thousand and the Green Knight (Fourteenth Century)	1572	(41)
The Story of Sindbad the Sailor	1575	(38)
Husain Haddawy
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Late Fourteenth Century)	1613	(57)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight	1615	(55)
Theodore Howard Banks, Jr.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400)	1670	(92)
From The Canterbury Tales	1674	(88)
Theodore Morrison
Prologue	1674	(18)
Prologue to the Miller's Tale	1692	(2)
The Miller's Tale	1694	(14)
Prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale	1708	(18)
The Wife of Bath's Tale	1726	(8)
Prologue to the Pardoner's Tale	1734	(3)
The Pardoner's Tale	1737	(10)
The Knight's Interruption of the Monk's Tale	1747	(1)
The Nun's Priest's Tale	1748	(14)
Christine de Pizan (1364-1430?)	1762	(21)
From The Book of the City of Ladies	1765	(18)
Earl Jeffrey Richards
Everyman (Late Fifteenth Century)	1783	(25)
Everyman	1786	(22)
Cultural Texts of the Middle Ages	1808	(1)
John of Salisbury (1115?-1180)	1808	(2)
From Polycraticus	1808	(2)
John Dickinson
Pope Eugene III (d. 1153)	1810	(2)
General Summons to a Crusade	1810	(2)
Ernest F. Henderson
Usamah Ibn-Munqidh (1095-1188)	1812	(7)
From Memoirs	1812	(7)
Philip K. Hitti
Andreas Capellanus (Late Twelfth Century)	1819	(6)
From The Art of Courtly Love	1819	(6)
John Jay Perry
Giraldus Cambrensis (c. 1146-1223)	1825	(2)
From The Topography of Ireland	1825	(2)
Thomas Wright
Saint Francis of Assis (1182?-1226)	1827	(1)
The Canticle of the Sun	1828	(1)
Paschal Robinson
Roger Bacon (c. 1214-1294?)	1828	(6)
From Opus Majus	1828	(6)
Robert Belle Burke
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)	1834	(7)
From Summa Contra Gentiles	1834	(7)
English Dominican Fathers
Pope Boniface VII (1235-1301)	1841	(2)
The Bull ``Unum Sanctum''	1841	(2)
Ernest F. Henderson
``The Goodman of Paris'' (Fourteenth Century)	1843	(6)
From The Goodman of Paris	1843	(6)
Eileen Power
The Renaissance	1849	(16)
Introduction	1849	(16)
Francis Petrarch (1304-1374)	1865	(11)
Rhymes	1868	(8)
Anthony Mortimer
I: All you that hear in scattered rhymes	1868	(1)
III: It was that very day on which the sun	1869	(1)
XC: Upon the breeze she spread her golden hair	1869	(1)
CXXVI: Waters fresh and sweet and clear	1870	(2)
CXXIX: From thought to thought, from mountainside to mountain	1872	(2)
CXXXIV: I find no peace, and have no arms for war	1874	(1)
CCLXV: Fierce heart and bitter, and most cruel will	1874	(1)
CCXCII: The eyes I spoke of once in words that burn	1874	(1)
CCCLXV: I keep lamenting over days gone by	1875	(1)
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)	1876	(40)
The Decameron	1878	(38)
Richard Aldington
The First Day	1878	(10)
Third Day, Tenth Tale	1888	(6)
Fourth Day, Second Tale	1894	(6)
Fifth Day, Tenth Tale	1900	(6)
Tenth Day, Tenth Tale	1906	(8)
From Conclusion	1914	(2)
Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549)	1916	(28)
The Heptameron	1921	(23)
P. A. Chilton
Story Eight	1922	(4)
Story Eighteen	1926	(4)
Story Nineteen	1930	(9)
Story Thirty-Six	1939	(3)
Story Fifty-Five	1942	(2)
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)	1944	(43)
Essays	1948	(39)
Donald M. Frame
Of Cannibals	1948	(10)
From Apology for Raymond Sebond	1958	(29)
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616)	1987	(44)
Don Quixote	1990	(41)
Walter Starkie
From Part I	1990	(41)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)	2031	(68)
The Tempest	2036	(63)
John Milton (1608-1674)	2099	(104)
Paradise Lost	2104	(99)
From Book I	2105	(11)
From Book II	2116	(14)
From Book III	2130	(7)
From Book IV	2137	(19)
Book IX	2156	(29)
From Book X	2185	(9)
From Book XII	2194	(9)
Renaissance Lyric Poetry (c. 1500-c. 1660)	2203	(6)
Garcilaso de la Vega (c. 1501-1536)	2209	(1)
Your Face Is Written in My Soul	2209	(1)
Edwin Morgan
While There Is Still the Color of a Rose...	2209	(1)
Edwin Morgan
Santa Teresa de Jesus (1515-1582)	2210	(1)
If, Lord, Thy Love for Me Is Strong	2210	(1)
Arthur Symons
Let Nothing Disturb Thee	2210	(1)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Joachim Du Bellay (1522-1560)	2211	(1)
Regrets, XXXI	2211	(1)
David Sanders
From a Winnower of Wheat to the Winds	2211	(1)
David Sanders
Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585)	2212	(2)
To Cassandre	2212	(1)
David Sanders
On the Death of Marie	2213	(1)
David Sanders
To Helene	2213	(1)
David Sanders
Sonnet to an Unnamed Person	2214	(1)
David Sanders
Fray Luis de Leon (c. 1527-1591)	2214	(4)
Ode to Francisco Salinas	2214	(2)
David Sanders
The Life of the Blessed	2216	(1)
William Cullen Bryant
At the Ascension	2217	(1)
James Edward Tobin
The Assumption of the Virgin	2218	(1)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
San Juan de la Cruz (1542-1591)	2218	(5)
One Dismal Night	2218	(1)
Kate Flores
O Living Flame of Love	2219	(1)
Stephen Stepanchev
I Entered Where I Did Not Know	2220	(2)
Willis Barnstone
A Shepherd, Young and Mournful, Grieves Alone...	2222	(1)
James Edward Tobin
I Know Full Well the Water's Flowing Power...	2222	(1)
James Edward Tobin
Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)	2223	(11)
Epthalamion	2223	(11)
Luis de Gongora (1561-1627)	2234	(5)
A Rose	2234	(1)
Sir Richard Fanshawe
A Nightingale	2235	(1)
Sir Richard Fanshawe
The Spring	2235	(1)
Sir Richard Fanshawe
Soar High, My Love	2236	(1)
Sir Richard Fanshawe
Life's Greatest Misery. Addressed to a Friend on His Marriage	2236	(1)
Edward Churton
Allegory of the Brevity of Things Human	2237	(1)
Roy Campbell
The Rosemary Spray	2238	(1)
Edward Churton
Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola (1562-1631)	2239	(1)
I Must Confess, Don Juan	2239	(1)
James Young Gibson
Mary Magdalene	2240	(1)
William Cullen Bryant
Lope de Vega (1562-1635)	2240	(5)
The Good Shepherd	2240	(1)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Tomorrow	2241	(1)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
At Dawn the Virgin Is Born...	2241	(1)
W. S. Merwin
Ice and Fires Contend with My Child...	2242	(1)
W. S.
Where, Are You Going, Maiden...?	2243	(1)
W. S. Merwin
A Little Carol of the Virgin	2243	(1)
Denise Levertov
A Sonnet All of a Sudden	2244	(1)
Doreen Bell
Michael Drayton (1563-1631)	2245	(1)
How Many Paltry, Foolish, Painted Things	2245	(1)
Since There's No Help	2245	(1)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)	2246	(3)
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?	2246	(1)
Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought	2246	(1)
Sonnet 64: When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced	2247	(1)
Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold	2247	(1)
Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds	2247	(1)
Sonnet 129: The expense of spirit in a waste of shame	2248	(1)
Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun	2248	(1)
Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth	2249	(1)
Thomas Campion (1567-1620)	2249	(1)
I Care Not for These Ladies	2249	(1)
Follow Your Saint	2250	(1)
John Donne (1572-1631)	2250
The Good-Morrow	2250
Song	2251
The Canonization	2252
The Funeral	2253
The Flea	2254
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning	2255
Love's Diet	2256
Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed	2257
Holy Sonnets:	2258
X: Death be not proud	2258
XIV: Batter my heart	2258
A Hymn to God the Father	2259

Excerpts

Preface This fifth edition of Literature of the Western Worldintended, as its predecessors were, to provide the best possible materials for courses in the literatures of Europe and America from the earliest times to the present. It is a textbook in the broad sense of "a book of texts," rather than in the narrow one of a book arranged along the lines of a single course. It is a small library of Western literature upon which a wide range of courses might be based and which students might preserve after a particular class is over as a useful part of their personal libraries. Through the successive incarnations of the book, the editors have clung to a quite personal conception of their roles as participants in a conversation with instructors and students who use the book, and they have made choices of texts and presentation accordingly. In such a conversation, the first question is, inevitably, "What shall we read?" This text is limited to the literatures of Europe and America and thus is designed either for courses in Western literature or for the Western portions of courses in global literature. The editors are acutely aware that the West is not the world and that a course in Western literature, even a two-semester one, should be part of a curriculum that includes non-Western literature as well, preferably with books that treat the literatures of East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America as thoroughly as this one does Western literature. Even within Western literature, two volumes, thick as they are, can include only a tiny fraction of the most highly regarded and most influential works. The editors have adopted principles of both balance and range in making their hard choices. The text goes from about 2000 B.C. to 2000 A.D., and the editors have tried to represent the earlier periods as fully and fairly as the later ones. The temporal range and balance are matched by a range and balance of literary modes. If the works included were divided into the modes of lyric, narrative, and drama, the result would be three substantial anthologies of poems, stories, and plays. The national literatures within the boundaries of the subject have been represented in a balanced way as well, as far as possible. Balance, too, has been the goal in the representation of "high" and "low" literature (both Oedipus Rexand Aesop''s Fables) and literature by women and men (Marguerite de Navarre as well as Boccaccio, Anna Akhmatova as well as Rainer Maria Rilke). The way the texts are presented has been as important to the editors as their selection. The editors are aware that most students who use Literature of the Western Worldare encountering the works in it for the first time. Therefore, they try to make the initial encounter as rich and meaningful as possible. This means that translations of works in languages other than English must be carefully chosen, not only for accuracy but also for readability and, above all, for capturing the literary quality of the original as vividly as possible. Robert Fitzgerald''s translations of the Iliadand the Odyssey,the longest selection from a single author in the anthology, achieve these goals, as do Robert Fagles''s and Phillip Vellacott''s translations of Greek tragedy, H. R. Huse''s translation of the Divine Comedy,Louise and Aylmer Maude''s translations of Tolstoy, and Stephen Mitchell''s translations of Rilke. In a number of cases, we have been able to include translations by distinguished writers in their own right. Thus the Irish poets Thomas Kinsella and Derek Mahon translate the Irish Tainand the poems of Gerard de Nerval; the American poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, W. S. Merwin, and Denise Levertov translate some of the Renaissance lyrics; Marianne Moore and Richard Wilbur translate La Fontaine and Moliere respectively; and Randall Jarrell translates Faust.The great English novelist Tobias Smollett translates Voltaire, his contemporary; and D. M. Thomas translates both Alexander Pushkin and Anna Akhmatova. Such pairings of congenial temperaments often result in happy blendings that read like original works. Introductions and annotations are also intended to help the student feel at home in the often remote and unfamiliar worlds of the writers. Extensive period introductions survey historical events and provide syntheses of the thematic and aesthetic preoccupations of each period. Detailed introductions to individual authors and works place each work in the context of its author''s life and times and suggest what to look out for in a first reading without giving away the content or imposing a single interpretation. Annotations are economical and factual rather than interpretive but ample enough to minimize trips to the dictionary or encyclopedia. The fifth edition retains much from the previous editions, especially texts that instructors told us were especially important in a course in Western literature, but it also includes a great deal of new material. The most striking innovation is perhaps the sections of "Cultural Texts" for each period. These are made up of selections that, though they may have considerable literary value themselves, are likely to be read principally for their ideas rather than their literary merits. A few of these are works of literary theory, such as Aristotle''s Poetics,Boileau''s Art of Poetry,and the selection from Raymond Williams''s The Long Revolution.Most, though, are works of philosophy, history, political science, and other nonliterary fields that express directly some of the ideas that poets, storytellers, and playwrights express indirectly. A total of forty-three of these cultural texts appear in the two volumes as illuminating companion pieces to the works of literature proper. A second structural change is not strictly new but represents an expansion of features of the earlier editions: a number of sections of lyric poetry in both volumes, a series of minianthologies within the anthology. The fourth edition included such a section of French Symbolist and Modernist Poetry. This edition adds similar sections of Greek and Latin Lyric Poetry, Renaissance Lyric Poetry, and Romantic Lyric Poetry. Some of the poets included in these sections appeared separately in previous editions; placing them in the contexts of their contemporaries considerably enriches our reading of them. A third new feature of the book is greater attention to popular literature. There is a temptation in compressing all of Western literature into two volumes to focus on the most heroic works, often aristocratic in origin. But the "high" literature of the West has always been accompanied by the "low," and we have tried to acknowledge its presence by including such popular forms as folktales, beast fables, and tales of wonder throughout the two volumes. Thus in Volume I Aesop''s fables follow the Odyssey,the medieval beast-epic Renard the Foxfollows the Laisof Marie de France, and the Thousand and One Nightsfollows the Divine Comedy.Folk tales in sophisticated retellings appear near the beginning and near the end of Volume II, in La Fontaine''s suave, ironic Fablesand Calvino''s Italian Folktales,in which folk tradition meets postmodernism. A number of other changes are local rather than structural. Euripides''s extraordinary Helenis a metaplay that forms a good companion piece not only to the horrific Medeabut also to Homer''s account of Helen in the Iliadand the Odyssey. Beowulfhas given way to a selection from the Irish national epic The Cattle Raid of Cooleyand an Icelandic saga. Strong recent postcolonialist readings of Shakespeare''s The Tempestled us to substitute it for Henry IV, Part 1(though postcolonial themes are not absent from that play,