This series gathers together a body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling students and researchers to read for themselves, for example, comments on early performances of Shakespeare's plays, or reactions to the first publication of Jane Austen's novels. The carefully selected sources range from important essays in the history of criticism to journalism and contemporary opinion, and documentary material such as letters and diaries. Pieces of criticism from later periods are also included, in order to demonstrate the fluctuations in an author's reputation.

First published in 1995. The Critical Heritage series collects together a large body of criticism on major figures in literature. Each volume presents the contemporary responses to a particular writer, enabling the student to follow the formation of critical attitudes to the writer's work and its place within a literary tradition. This collection of critical writings about Dante, many of them published here in English for the first time, tries to offer a balanced survey of the poet's reception in both time and space. Its scope therefore differs from that of its main predecessors in both English and Italian.