This edition is 600 pages shorter than the full "World Masterpieces Revised." It omits British and American literature, including only English translations of selected literature of mainland Europe and the Mediterranean, from the Old Testament and Ancient Greece to the modern literatures of France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, etc. It is for "those teachers whose world-literature courses are concerned entirely with ancient and modern masterworks in foreign languages" (dust jacket)

Includes index.

v. 1 Literature of western culture through the Renaissance. -- v. 2. Literature of western culture since the Renaissance.