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Mimesis
By Erich Auerbach (1892-1957)

Auerbach was a German philologue, literature critic and author of the German Romantic tradition.

‘Mimesis� or by the subtitle ‘Imitation of Reality in Western Literature� is a work of Philological analysis of selected chapters of outstanding works of literature since the beginning of records.

Instead of providing a definition to explain his aim, the author takes the reader to comparisons of historical and linguistic aspects.

-By Homer in the Odyssey; the return of Ulysses to Penelope
-The Old Testament by early Hebraic authors; God’s test of Abraham’s faith.
-Petronius’s Satyricon.
-Ammianus Marcellinus� report of the arrestation of Petrus Volvomeres.
-Grégoire de Tours' Histoire des Francs.
-Rolands Song; how he was appointed to lead the rearguard of the French army.
-Chretien de Troyes� Yvain, the story of one of King Arthurs knights.
-Adam, a mystery Christmas play of the 12th century, by anonymous.
-Dante Alighieri’s Devine Comedy, Farinata and Cavalcante.
-Boccaccio’s Decameron, Frate Alberto.
-Antoine de la Sale’s Madame du Chastel.
-Rabelais� Pantagruel.
-Montaigne's� Essais, the Human condition.
-Shakespeare's Henry IV., the tired Prince.
-Cervantes Don Quijote; Dulcinea bewitched.
-La Bruyere’s Caracteres; The Hypocrite.
-Abbé Prevost's Manon Lescaut.
-Schiller's drama Luise Millerin.
-Stendhal’s Rouge et Noire; Hotel de la Mole.
-Brothers Goncourt’s Germinie Lacerteux.
-Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse;

We can see that the author's selection of literature covers almost three thousand years.
His proposed chapters are presented in its original language.
It is, therefore, an advantage for the reader to be multilingual for easy reading and understanding.

This book is for me the first purely Philological work with a wealth of culture revealed in each chapter.

I would highly recommend it to all readers of classics and lovers of literature per se.