"The First Printed Translations" by William James Harris is a bibliography that has been compiled with the view of supplementing existing textbooks on English literary history and assisting students in preparing for examinations in Bibliography and Literature. It will also be of service to those who are working for the professional examinations of the Library Association. The great foreign classics have exercised a direct and decided influence upon English literature and the object of this bibliography is to give in concise form the authors and titles, translations, and dates of the first English translations of the chief foreign authors, and incidentally to enable students to note the effect of such translations on the works of many of our great imaginative writers. Excerpt: "ACHILLES TATIUS. Fourth Century. Greek writer. CLEITOPHON AND LEUCIPPE. Tr. by Rev. R. Smith, 1855. One of the decadent Greek novelists. An erotic novel of a conventional type. ÆLFRIC. c. 1006. THE CATHOLIC HOMILIES. Ed. with tr. B. Thorpe, Ælfric Soc., 1844-46. LIVES OF SAINTS. Ed. Text and Tr. W. W. Skeat, E.E.T.S., 1881. Eminent Saxon prelate, one of the most learned of his time. His works, upwards of eighty in number, have been republished by the Ælfric Soc. (London, 1844-46)."

The "world of letters" has always seemed a matter more of metaphor than of global reality. In this book, Pascale Casanova shows us the state of world literature behind the stylistic refinements--a world of letters relatively independent from economic and political realms, and in which language systems, aesthetic orders, and genres struggle for dominance. Rejecting facile talk of globalization, with its suggestion of a happy literary "melting pot," Casanova exposes an emerging regime of inequality in the world of letters, where minor languages and literatures are subject to the invisible but implacable violence of their dominant counterparts. Inspired by the writings of Fernand Braudel and Pierre Bourdieu, this ambitious book develops the first systematic model for understanding the production, circulation, and valuing of literature worldwide. Casanova proposes a baseline from which we might measure the newness and modernity of the world of letters--the literary equivalent of the meridian at Greenwich. She argues for the importance of literary capital and its role in giving value and legitimacy to nations in their incessant struggle for international power. Within her overarching theory, Casanova locates three main periods in the genesis of world literature--Latin, French, and German--and closely examines three towering figures in the world republic of letters--Kafka, Joyce, and Faulkner. Her work provides a rich and surprising view of the political struggles of our modern world--one framed by sites of publication, circulation, translation, and efforts at literary annexation.