This thesis analyses the contemporary reception of the translations of oriental literature by Sir William Jones (1746-1794), within the timeframe of 1770 to ca. 1835. Jones is often mentioned as one of the most influential orientalists of the eighteenth century. The influence of his linguistic hypothesis and his translations from Sanskrit are mentioned as the origins of what have become the studies of Comparative Linguistics and Indology. This thesis, however, asks the question of the influence of his literary translations, with which he planned to rejuvenate European literature by introducing Asiatic literature.

The initial responses to Jones’s works are examined here, primarily in the shape of reviews published in journals, and letters written to or about Jones. Furthermore, the reprint and translation history of his work is taken into account. These sources establish an overview of who read Jones’s translations and how they interpreted them. Since Jones balanced between being a scholar and a poet, this thesis evaluates these two sides of his work by examining his various audiences. A third audience considered are Romantic poets, who he attempts to inspire by making new oriental imagery available in Britain.

The analysis of these sources leads to the conclusion that the goal Jones formulates in his oriental translations was met, after a slow start. His first attempts at popularising eastern poetry were met with incomprehension, but early nineteenth-century poetry shows it is retrospectively being used. Jones’s Sanskrit translations, after his arrival as a judge in India, indeed played a role in public interest in the earlier translations, but vice versa did the Persian and Arabic works prepare the audience for Sacontala (1789). I conclude, moreover, that Jones’s view on language acquisition played an important role in the institutionalisation of language study within the East India Company.