"History of English Literature", prepared for publication. Institute of World Literature . A. M. Gorky Academy . Science of the USSR, is the first in the Soviet. the experience of systematic presentation of the history of English literature from its inception to the present time. The need for this kind of work is long overdue. The friendship of the peoples of the Soviet Union and England, now united in the struggle against fascist barbarism, is based on long-standing cultural ties that have affected the literary life of both countries. English literature has long enjoyed the widest popularity and love in our country. Shakespeare, Byron, Dickens found a second homeland Belinsky rejoiced at the successes of the realistic . the School of the ' English novel and compared them with the victory of Gogol's trend in Russian literature of the 1840s . Gorky regarded England as the birthplace of European realism. In turn, the influence of Russian literature Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Gorky left deep traces in the work of a number of major English writers. Numerous editions of English writers in the Russian translation and works of Soviet writers in English translations testify to the mutual, lively interest of the literalgur of friendly peoples ;. Soviet readers are able to appreciate the humanity and democracy of English literature in medieval English folk ballads and in Chaucer's humor. in Shakespeare's grand and wise-mindedness and in Milton's revolutionary Puritan heroic pathos, bitterness Swift's satire of striking fun1 Fielding, in a rebellious romance. Byron and Shelley, in the realism of Dickens1 and Thackeray and the incessant quest for critical thought of Shaw, Wells, and their younger contemporaries, the English writers of our day "The History of English Literature" is calculated not only by naspedaalioto" - literary workers and teachers, but also by students and wide circles of Soviet readers interested in the centuries-old literature of the English people.