Selection of Foreign Literary Works 2 (18th Century to the Romantic Period Literature)

Author: Nie Zhenzhao
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-08-01
Features: The selection principle of this anthology is to strive to comprehensively reflect the development history of foreign literature from ancient times to the present, so that readers can gain a perceptual understanding of the stylistic characteristics of the works involved when studying the history of foreign literature, thereby deepening their understanding of foreign literature. Therefore, for the important or representative works discussed in the History of Foreign Literature, we have made every effort to include them in the selection. For works with significant literary value that were not included in previous anthologies, we have also included them from the perspective of literary history. During the selection process, the greatest challenge was in controlling the length of the selected works. For poems, dramas, or certain prose works, we have strived to adhere to the principle of including the full text within the limits of the available space to maintain the overall integrity of the works. However, there are many lengthy masterpieces in foreign literary works, and due to the limited space of the anthology, it is impossible to include them in full to preserve their entirety. Therefore, we can only select and include important chapters. In terms of the arrangement, we have tried to keep the anthology consistent with the History of Foreign Literature, organizing the works in chronological and national order to facilitate readers in understanding the works while studying literary history. Most of the selected texts are translations that were previously or currently available domestically, with a few being newly translated works. Since some works have multiple translations in China, each with its own distinct style, we generally prefer to use the most widely accepted versions when making selections.