This is a reference on how writing from all over the world, and from the earliest times to the present, has crossed into the English language, to enrich and influence English-speaking cultures. There is a language-by-language history of what authors and literary works were translated when, by whom, and with what success.

This book, written by a team of experts from many countries, provides a comprehensive account of the ways in which translation has brought the major literatures of the world into English-speaking culture. Part I discusses theoretical issues and gives an overview of the history of translation into English. Part II, the bulk of the work, arranged by language of origin, offers critical discussions, with bibliographies, of the translation history of specific texts (e.g. the Koran, the Kalevala), authors (e.g. Lucretius, Dostoevsky), genres (e.g. Chinese poetry, twentieth-century Italian prose) and national literatures (e.g. Hungarian, Afrikaans).

Read thoroughly, the introductory essays and the essays on particular literatures illuminate and extend one another. There is a continual raising of vital issues in the best possible way, by concrete examples ... Peter France, whose own contributions are first-rate, is to be congratulated for gathering information, discussion and concrete instances of great interactive and generative power