"This book introduces thirty-two key works of European literature in translation to ordinary readers. Ranging from Dante's Divine Comedy to Brecht's Threepenny Opera, Philip Gaskell takes a canon of recognised literary classics and introduces each work, setting it in the literary and historical contexts of its time. The selection of works cover the main genres of poetry, prose and drama, and the other authors included are Petrarch, Villon, Ronsard, Montaigne, Cervantes, Moliere, Voltaire, Rousseau, Goethe, Schiller, Pushkin, Lermontov, Balzac, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoievsky, Ibsen, Strindberg, Hamsun, Chekhov, Gorky, Zola, Fontane, Proust, Mann, Kafka, and Pirandello." "The author's skills as critic and bibliographer are demonstrated in the practical guide to translations in and out of print, and the recommendations for further reading. There are four appendices to the book that examine issues and problems of translations giving examples side-by-side of different translations for comparison; provide quotations from texts in their original languages; advise on the form and pronunciation of Russian names; and describe the value of money in the mid-to-late nineteenth century."--BOOK JACKET.