"The object of this book is to provide, in a single volume, the information which students require complementary to a history of English literature, or to the special study of a part of it. The dictionary is also a general sketch of European literature as well as a comprehensive survey of the periods of European literature. The period covered by this massive work extends from the twelfth to the twentieth century.

The Dictionary of European Literature comprises general articles on movements or topics continuous through several centuries and countries; concise surveys of the literary history of the chief countries; critical and biographical accounts, with a minimum of bibliography, of minor and major writers, and definitions of such literary terms as the student or general reader is likely to encounter." (jacket)