An outstanding researcher, a recognized expert in European classics, L. E. Pinsky (1906–1981) reveals in this book his inherent wealth and originality of thoughts, a deep sense of form and subtle taste. The essays included in the book are devoted to the realism of the Renaissance as stage in the history of realism. The author analyzes the largest literary monuments, the problems associated with their assessment (the comic in Rabelais, the historical content of Shakespeare's tragedy, the significance of the quixotic situation), clarifies the general nature of Renaissance realism, its main themes. The peaks of humanism of the 16th century - Erasmus, Rabelais, Shakespeare, Cervantes - in the most characteristic form represent the realism of the Renaissance in all its historical originality.