'Readers who know Hart as a superb analyst of the impact of Europe's expansion out into the world from the Renaissance onward will delight in this yet broader, fresh inquiry into the engagement between the realities of 'history' and the copings and imaginings of 'literature.' Hart's enormous erudition underpins his impressive ability to demonstrate how successive generations of authors and readers in a variety of cultures in our so-called 'Common Era' have tried out an array of genres and approaches for dealing both with the world they find themselves in and the past they have come from. Hart trains a powerful, lucid intelligence on culture as a myriad of transactions.' - Gerald Gillespie, Stanford University<br><br>'Hart offers an incisive and sophisticated study of fictional and historical worlds in the framework of current debates on postcolonialism and globalization. Ranging from key works in ancient Greece to contemporary Caribbean poetry, and featuring chapters on Shakespeare and Bunyan, Hart's book is informed by acute awareness of important ethical issues.' - Galin Tihanov, George Steiner Professor of Comparative Literature, Queen Mary, University of London<br>