Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism (1993) is widely regarded as perhaps the last echo of the great work of European humanism, Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (1946), a book that Said revered. The fiftieth anniversary of the first English translation of Mimesis was published in 2003 (the year Said died) with an introduction by Said. Both books give memorable accounts of an extensive range of works of art that belong to a common tradition. This chapter interrogates Said’s contribution to this humanist tradition.