The most comprehensive, best-selling anthology of its kind, this two-volume survey allows students and instructors to choose among the most important canonical and less-familiar texts of the Western literary tradition in Europe and the Americas. It offers complete texts whenever possible, uses the best translations of foreign-language material, and, when appropriate, presents more than one text by each author. It provides extensive analytic and explanatory apparatus, including detailed historical and biographical notes and introductions to six literary periods.