The Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling students and researchers to read for themselves, for example, comments on early performances of Shakespeare's plays, or reactions to the first publication of Jane Austen's novels.The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to journalism and contemporary opinion, and little published documentary material such as letters and diaries. Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included, in order to demonstrate the fluctuations in an author's reputation.Each volume contains an introduction to the writer's published works, a selected bibliography, and an index of works, authors and subjects.

General Editor's Preface, Donald A. Low; Abbreviations, Donald A. Low; Preface and Acknowledgments, Donald A. Low; Introduction, Donald A. Low; Part 1 Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect; Chapter 1 Thomas Blacklock writes from the capital, Donald A. Low; Chapter 2 Unsigned notice in Edinburgh Magazine, Donald A. Low; Chapter 3 Correspondence in Edinburgh Evening Courant, Donald A. Low; Chapter 4 Henry Mackenzie, unsigned essay in Lounger, Henry Mackenzie; Chapter 5 James Anderson, unsigned review in Monthly Review, James Anderson; Chapter 6 Unsigned notice in New Annual Register, Donald A. Low; Chapter 7 John Logan questions the legend, Donald A. Low; Chapter 8 Unsigned notice in Critical Review, Donald A. Low; Chapter 9 Hugh Blair suggests changes in the poems, Donald A. Low; Chapter 10 James Macaulay questions the legend, Donald A. Low; Part 2 Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect; Chapter 11 Notices in Universal Magazine, Donald A. Low; Chapter 12 Unsigned notice in New Town and Country Magazine, Donald A. Low; Chapter 13 Unsigned notice in General Magazine and ImPart ial Review, Donald A. Low; Chapter 14 James Anderson, unsigned notice in Review, James Anderson; Chapter 15 William Cowper on Bums, William Cowper; Chapter 16 Dorothy Wordsworth on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 17 Verse attack and verse tribute, Donald A. Low; Chapter 18 A. F. Tytler on 'Tam o' Shanter', Donald A. Low; Chapter 19 Robert Heron on three poems, Robert Heron; Chapter 20 Joseph Ritson: Burns and song, Joseph Ritson; Chapter 21 George Thomson, an unsigned obituary notice in London Chronicle, George Thomson; Chapter 22 'Candidior', character sketch in Dumfries Journal, Donald A. Low; Chapter 23 Coleridge on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 24 Charles Lamb on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 25 Thomas Duncan on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 26 Robert Heron, memoir in Monthly Magazine, Robert Heron; Chapter 27 William Reid, unsigned verse tribute, William Reid; Chapter 28 Alexander Campbell on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 29 Wordsworth: 'the presence of hum; life in Burns', Donald A. Low; Chapter 30 James Currie on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 31 Robert Nares, unsigned review of Currie's edition in British Critic, Donald A. Low; Chapter 32 Thomas Stewart: 'The Jolly Beggars', Donald A. Low; Chapter 33 William and Dorothy Wordsworth on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 34 David Irving on Burns, David Irving; Chapter 35 Southey's letters on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 36 Sir Egerton Brydges on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 37 Thomas Moore: Burns and song, Thomas Moore; Chapter 38 Byron on Burns, Donald A. Low; Part 3 R. H. Cromek, Reliques of Robert Burns; Chapter 39 Francis Jeffrey, from an unsigned review in Edinburgh Review, Francis Jeffrey; Chapter 40 Walter Scott, from an unsigned review in Quarterly Review, Walter Scott; Chapter 41 From an unsigned review in Universal Magazine, Donald A. Low; Chapter 42 James Montgomery, from an unsigned review in Eclectic Review, James Montgomery; Chapter 43 John Hodgson, from an unsigned review in Monthly Review, John Hodgson; Chapter 44 Dorothy Wordsworth on Jeffrey's review, Dorothy Wordsworth; Chapter 45 Josiah Walker on Burns, Josiah Walker; Chapter 46 William Peebles on 'Burnomania', Donald A. Low; Chapter 47 The first book on Burns's poetry, Donald A. Low; Chapter 48 Henry Crabb Robinson on Burns, Henry Crabb Robinson; Chapter 49 Byron on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 50 Scott on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 51 Alexander Peterkin: the reviewers reviewed, with letters by Gilbert Burns and James Gray, Alexander Peterkin; Chapter 52 A historic Burns supper: 'The memory of Burns', Edinburgh Evening Courant, Donald A. Low; Chapter 53 Wordsworth on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 54 Jane Austen on an ardent admirer of Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 55 John Wilson in Blackwood's Magazine, John Wilson; Chapter 56 Hazlitt lectures on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 57 Keats on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 58 Burns and Crabbe, Donald A. Low; Chapter 59 John Wilson in Blackwood's Magazine, John Wilson; Chapter 60 Thomas Campbell on Burns, Thomas Campbell; Chapter 61 Byron on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 62 Hazlitt on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 63 Blackwood's Magazine on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 64 Hew Ainslie on Burns, Hew Ainslie; Chapter 65 Allan Cunningham on Burns, Allan Cunningham; Chapter 66 J. G. Lockhart, Life of Robert Burns, J. G. Lockhart; Chapter 67 Thomas Carlyle on Lockhart's Life of Burns, Thomas Carlyle; Chapter 68 Macaulay from an unsigned review, Edinburgh Review, Donald A. Low; Chapter 69 'Christopher North' in Blackwood's Magazine, Donald A. Low; Chapter 70 Wordsworth on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 71 Allan Cunningham on Burns, Donald A. Low; Chapter 72 James Hogg on Burns, James Hogg; Chapter 73 Thomas De Quincey looks back, Donald A. Low; Chapter 74 J. G. Whittier : an American poet's debt to Burns, J. G. Whittier; Chapter 75 Ralph Waldo Emerson: an American tribute, Ralph Waldo EmersonAppendix A The publication of Burns's poems and songs, 1786-1800, Donald A. LowAppendix B Burns in America: a late nineteenth-century view, Donald A. Low;