The Classical Tradition: Greek and Roman Influences on Western Literature

Originally published in 1949, Gilbert Highet's seminal The Classical Tradition is a herculean feat of comparative literature and a landmark publication in the history of classical reception. As Highet states in the opening lines of his Preface, this book outlines "the chief ways in which Greek and Latin influence has moulded the literatures of western Europe and America". With that simple statement, Highet takes his reader on a sweeping exploration of the history of western literature. To summarize what he covers is a near-impossible task. Discussions of Ovid and French literature of the Middle Ages and Chaucer's engagement with Virgil and Cicero lead, swiftly, into arguments of Christian versus "pagan" works in the Renaissance, Baroque imitations of Seneca, and the (re)birth of satire. Building momentum through Byron, Tennyson, and the rise of "art of art's sake", Highet, at last, arrives at his conclusion: the birth and establishment of modernism. Though his humanist style may appear out-of-date in today's postmodernist world, there is a value to ensuring this influential work reaches a new generation, and Highet's light touch and persuasive, engaging voice guarantee the book's usefulness for a contemporary audience. Indeed, the book is free of the jargon-filled style of literary criticism that plagues much of current scholarship. Accompanied by a new foreword by renown critic Harold Bloom, this reissue will enable new readers to appreciate the enormous legacy of classical literature in the canonical works of medieval, Renaissance, and modern Europe and America.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Preface Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The Dark Ages: English Literature Chapter 3: The Middle Ages: French Literature Chapter 4: Dante and Pagan Antiquity Chapter 5: Towards the Renaissance: Petrarch, Boccaccio, Chaucer Chapter 6: The Renaissance: Translation Chapter 7: The Renaissance: Drama Chapter 8: The Renaissance: Epic Chapter 9: The Renaissance: Pastoral and Romance Chapter 10: Rabelais and Montaigne Chapter 11: Shakespeare Chapter 12: The Renaissance and Afterwards: Lyric Poetry Chapter 13: Transition Chapter 14: The Battle of the Books Chapter 15: A Note on Baroque

About the Author :
Gilbert Highet (1906-1978) was Professor of Greek and Latin and Anthon Professor of Latin Language and Literature at Columbia University. Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University.

Review :
"Solidly grounded and solidly built...[Highet] deals with every period, every movement, every individual, and every separate work as an interesting special case for which he tries to find the special explanation."--The New Yorker "An excellent outline...[an] intelligent, erudite, perceptive interpretation...a book for the times."--The Nation "It is Highet's appreciate of good literature...which gives a special charm to his book...[It] will be read with gratitude by many."--Times Literary Supplement "Having reread Gilbert Highet's The Classical Tradition, I am once again under its spell. The book, like Curtius' European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, is a monument to a certain moment of mid-20th-century classicism, deeply humane, fundamentally conservative, committed to putting back together what seemed like the shattered pieces of Western civilization in the wake of Nazi barbarism. It is its vast scope, its capacious overview, that gives it its power."--Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University "More than sixty years after Gilbert Highet's book first appeared, it remains the best single guide to the whole afterlife of Greek and Latin literature. The Classical Tradition does full justice to the complexity of this millenial story: Highet shows us both how ancient books shaped later readers, and how medieval and modern writers used classical elements to build their own, distinctive literatures. Learned, epigrammatic, and humanely opinionated, Highet's book is as readable as it is comprehensive."--Anthony Grafton, Princeton University