The present volume represents the results of ideas put forward by specialists of literature, linguistics and translation studies at the Institution of Translation in Europe conference held at the University of Provence in June/July 2006. Its aim is to investigate how English-language literary works have been translated, with the focus primarily on French, and how they have been disseminated in Europe throughout a period going as far back as the Renaissance.Exactly how were translations carried out and with whose support? Which official institutions were involved? What were the translators’ intentions? How ‘faithful’ were translations with regard to source texts? What kind of linguistic and literary difficulties were involved in the translations?These are just some of the questions that the present volume aims to answer. It attempts to give an overview which covers a variety of aspects on the complex task of making suitable translations available to the European public. The result, however, is that translations have often been portrayed in quite a different light to the original…