The intellectual scope and cultural impact of British writers cannot be assessed without reference to their 'European' fortunes. This collection of 20 essays, prepared by an international team of scholars, critics and translators, records the ways in which Macpherson's Ossian has been received, translated and published in different areas of Europe. The Ossian poems caused a sensation on their first appearance in the early 1760's. Indeed, there is hardly a major Romantic poet on whom they failed to make a significant impression. The essays brought together in this volume explore the reception of Ossian in a wide range of European countries, in both literary and non-literary forms of reception and in the work of both individual writers and national literary cultures.
For the 18th century, Ossian was the great discovery of a Northern epic poet equal to Homer, whose oral tales had survived from bardic times. This text charts his reception in Europe.
