Assuming only minimal familiarity with the subject, this student-friendly textbook explores European literature in its many manifestations, starting from its origins in European antiquity, through the Medieval period and early modern Europe, to the opening years of the twenty-first century. Clear, jargon-free chapters contain a wealth of citations from both well-known and lesser-known works of European literature, including Greek and Roman oratory and philosophy, early Christian literature, literary expressions of Enlightenment thought, secular non-classical drama, eighteenth-century novels, modernist poetry, and many more.