The paperback edition, in four volumes, of this standard work will make it readily available to students.

The scope of the work makes it valuable as a work of reference, connecting one period with another and placing each author clearly in the setting of his time.

Reviewing the first edition, The Times Literary Supplement commented: 'in inclusiveness and in judgment it has few rivals of its kind'.

This third volume covers the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (1660-1789) and is co-authored by George Sherburn and Donald F. Bond (both at the University of Chicago).