Introduction 1
Ⅰ Dante and Petrarch 8
Italy in the early fourteenth century 8
Dante(1265-1321) 9
The Divine Comedy,1307-21 11
Petrarch(1304-74) 15
Love Lyrics,1327-58 16
Ⅱ Villon,Ronsard,and Montaigne 19
France from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance 19
Metre and sound in French verse 20
Villon(1431-63+) 22
Poems,1456-61 22
Ronsard(1524-85) 25
Poems,1550-85 26
Montaigne(1533-92) 29
Essays,1572,1588,1595 30
Ⅲ Cervantes and Molière 35
Spain and France in the seventeenth century 35
Cervantes(1547-1616) 36
Don Quixote,1605-15 38
Molière(1622-73) 41
Tartuffe,1664,1669 42
Ⅳ Voltaire and Rousseau 46
France before the Revolution 46
Voltaire(1694-1778) 47
Candide,1759 49
Rousseau(1712-78) 51
Confessions,1766-70 54
Ⅴ Goethe and Schiller 59
German-speaking countries in the eighteenth century 59
Goethe(1749-1832) 60
Faust,Part One,1775-1808 63
Schiller(1759-1805) 67
Wallenstein,1798-9 70
Ⅵ Púshkin and Lérmontov 75
The Russian Empire in the nineteenth century 75
Púshkin(1799-1837) 80
Eugene Onégin,1831 82
Lérmontov(1814-41) 85
A Hero of Our Time,1840 87
Ⅶ Balzac and Flaubert 91
France:Restoration and the July Monarchy,1815-48 91
Balzac(1799-1850) 93
Le Père Goriot,1834-5 94
Flaubert(1821-80) 97
Women and adultery in the nineteenth century 98
Madame Bovary,1856-7 103
Ⅷ Baudelaire and Rimbaud 107
France:Second Republic and Second Empire,1848-71 107
Baudelaire(1821-67) 109
Les Fleurs du Mal,1857,1861,1868 111
Rimbaud(1854-91) 114
Poems,1870-3 117
Ⅸ Turgénev,Tolstóy,and Dostoévsky 121
The great age of the Russian novel,1856-80 121
Turgénev (1818-83) 123
Fathers and Children,1862 125
Tolstóy(1828-1910) 128
Anna Karénina,1875-7 130
Dostoévsky(1821-81) 134
The Brothers Karamázov,1879-80 137
Ⅹ Ibsen,Strindberg,and Hamsun 142
Scandinavia in the nineteenth Century 142
Ibsen(1828-1906) 144
A Doll's House,1879 146
Strindberg(1849-1912) 149
Miss Julie,1888 152
Hamsun(1859-1952) 154
Hunger,1890 157
Ⅺ Chékhov and Górky 160
Russia at the end of the Old Régime 160
Chékhov(1860-1904) 162
The Cherry Orchard,1903-4 164
Górky(1868-1936) 166
The Lower Depths,1902 169
Ⅻ Zola,Fontane,and Proust 173
France and Germany at the end of the nineteenth century 173
Zola(1840-1902) 175
Germinal,1885 179
Fontane(1819-98) 181
Effi Briest,1895 183
Proust(1871-1922) 184
Swann's Way,1913 187