In 1957,just before his death,Erich Auerbach arranged with Meridian Books for the publication of English translations of six of his most important essays.Like his magistral book Mimesis,this volume contains Auerbach's own blend of detailed literary explication combined with the widest range of historical criticism.The virtues of his method are evident in the variety and the freshness of his insights,which nevertheless impart to the most disparate subjects a coherence that reflects the unity of the Western tradition.Included in Scenes from the Drama of European Literature are the difficult but seminal essay "Figura," and chapters on Dante's depiction of St.Francis of Assisi,Pascal's political thought and conception of evil,"court" and "town" in seventeenth century France(with particular reference to the theater),Vico and aesthetic historicism,and the aesthetic dignity of Baudelaire.

Four of the six essays are translated by Ralph Manheim.