Volume 1 was edited by David Daiches and deals with British and Commonwealth literature.
[1] Volume 2, published in 1969, was edited by Anthony Thorlby and deals with the literature of Continental Europe since the fifth century AD.
Volume 3 deals with the literature of the United States and Latin America.
Volume 4, edited by D R Dudley and D M Lang deals with Classical, Byzantine, Oriental and African literature.
The Penguin Companion to World Literature was published by McGraw-Hill.