An innovative study of artists balancing tradition with creativity

This compact anthology provides a thorough introduction to the major works of the Western literary tradition from Antiquity to 1700. It includes excerpts from seventy texts composed in eight ancient and modern languages and in genres as diverse as epic, lyric, and dramatic verse; prose narrative including story, romance, and novel; and non-fiction prose including autobiography, biography, letter, speech, dialogue, and essay. Contents include selections from the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and works by Homer, Euripides, Virgil, Ovid, Saint Augustine, Dante, Chaucer, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Milton, and many more. Further distinguishing this collection is the inclusion of works by women writers often overlooked in other literary anthologies, including works by Sappho, Margery Kempe, Marie de France, Christine de Pizan, and others. Margaret L. King's clear, engaging introductions and notes support an informed reading of the texts while extending reader's knowledge of particular authors and problems of interest. See available book previews to view the entire Table of Contents, or visit www.hackettpublishing.com for more information. The Western Literary Tradition's modest length and cost allow for the use of full-length works—many of which are available in Hackett Publishing's own well-regarded and inexpensive translations and editions—alongside the anthology without adding undue cost to a reader's total textbook fees.

Nearly as global in its ambition and sweep as its subject, Franco Moretti's The Novel is a watershed event in the understanding of the first truly planetary literary form. A translated selection from the epic five-volume Italian Il Romanzo (2001-2003), The Novel's two volumes are a unified multiauthored reference work, containing more than one hundred specially commissioned essays by leading contemporary critics from around the world. Providing the first international comparative reassessment of the novel, these essential volumes reveal the form in unprecedented depth and breadth--as a great cultural, social, and human phenomenon that stretches from the ancient Greeks to today, where modernity itself is unimaginable without the genre. By viewing the novel as much more than an aesthetic form, this landmark collection demonstrates how the genre has transformed human emotions and behavior, and the very perception of reality. Historical, statistical, and formal analyses show the novel as a complex literary system, in which new forms proliferate in every period and place. Volume 1: History, Geography, and Culture, looks at the novel mostly from the outside, treating the transition from oral to written storytelling and the rise of narrative and fictionality, and covering the ancient Greek novel, the novel in premodern China, the early Spanish novel, and much else, including readings of novels from around the world. These books will be essential reading for all students and scholars of literature.

This reference is a comprehensive guide to literature written 500 to 1500 A.D., a period that gave rise to some of the world's most enduring and influential works, such as Dante's Commedia, Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and a large body of Arthurian lore and legend. While its emphasis is upon medieval English texts and society, this reference also covers Islamic, Hispanic, Celtic, Mongolian, Germanic, Italian, and Russian literature and Middle Age culture. Longer entries provide thorough coverage of major English authors such as Chaucer and Sir Thomas Malory, and of genre entries, such as drama, lyric, ballad, debate, saga, chronicle, and hagiography. Shorter entries examine particular literary works; significant kings, artists, explorers, and religious leaders; important themes, such as courtly love and chivalry; and major historical events, such as the Crusades. Each entry concludes with a brief biography. The volume closes with a list of the most valuable general works for further reading.