The Cambridge History of Italian Literature

Apart from the useful Macmillan Dictionary of Italian Literature[1], it must be all of 50 years since a substantial survey in English of the whole extent of Italian literature was published. In the meantime, scholarly and critical studies of specific periods and of individual writers, classical and modern, have proliferated and have radically revised one’s understanding of Italy’s rich and influential literature since the thirteenth century. From that intellectual ferment has emerged this elegant compendium of erudite studies, all presented lucidly and accessibly for the general reader as well as for scholars and students.

Peter Brand of the University...