The Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a wroiter's work, enabling students and researchers to read the material themselves.

Introduction; Part 1 A Letter from Xo Ho, A Chinese Philosopher at London; Chapter 1 Unsigned notice, Monthly Review; Chapter 2 Unsigned review, Journal encyclopédique; Part 2 A Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors; Chapter 3 Owen Ruffhead, unsigned review, Monthly Review; Chapter 4 Unsigned review, Gentleman's Magazine; Chapter 5 Edmund Burke, unsigned review, Annual Register for 1758; Chapter 6 George Osborn (?), unsigned pamphlet, Remarks on Mr. Walpole's Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England; Chapter 7 Henry Headley, essay on the Catalogue; Part 3 Anecdotes of Painting in England; Chapter 8 William Shenstone, two letters; Chapter 9 William Kenrick, two unsigned reviews, Monthly Review; Chapter 10 Edmund Burke, unsigned review, Annual Register for 1762; Chapter 11 Unsigned review, Critical Review; Chapter 12 Paul-Henry Maty, unsigned review, New Review; Chapter 13 Unsigned review, Retrospective Review; Part 4 A Catalogue of Engravers; Chapter 14 Unsigned review, Critical Review; Chapter 15 William Kenrick, unsigned notice, Monthly Review; Part 5 The Castle of Otranto; Chapter 16 Walpole's Prefaces to the first and second editions; Chapter 17 Walpole, letter to William Cole; Chapter 18 Gilly Williams and William Mason on Otranto; Chapter 19 Unsigned reviews, Critical Review; Chapter 20 John Langhorne, two unsigned reviews, Monthly Review; Chapter 21 Friedrich Melchior Grimm on a French translation of The Castle of Otranto; Chapter 22 William Warburton, a note on The Castle of Otranto; Chapter 23 Clara Reeve, Preface to The Old English Baron; Chapter 24 Ann Yearsley's poem on The Castle of Otranto; Chapter 25 Eleanor Fenn, The Castle of Otranto for children; Chapter 26 Thomas Green, diary entry; Chapter 27 Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Introduction to The Castle of Otranto; Chapter 28 Walter Scott, Introduction to The Castle of Otranto; Chapter 29 John Dunlop on The Castle of Otranto; Chapter 30 William Hazlitt, Lectures on the Comic Writers; Part 6 A Lette