Originally published between 1934 and 1952 these volumes are classics in the field of literary criticism. Their author was a respected scholar whose ability to survey a vast field of literature and criticism and explain and un-tangle it to students was well-known. The volumes:

• Analyze styles of literary criticism prevalent in ancient Greece and after the rise of the Roman Empire
• Illustrates the first phases of the growth of a tradition of criticism
• Review the critical achievement at the Renaissance
• Discuss the theories and judgments of various critics and their bearing on literary appreciation between the Renaissance and the dawn of 19th Century Romanticism.