Edward Conze spent his academic career studying and translating the Sanskrit Perfection of Wisdom literature, and his work continues to be the standard for the English-speaking audience. Paired with his other major work (The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom), Perfect Wisdom: The Short Prajnaparamita Texts serves as a broad survey of these texts in English.
This book begins with the smallest of the multi-chapter Perfection of Wisdom texts, the Questions of Suvikrāntavikrāmin, and continues with translations of the Teaching of Mañjuśrī, an excerpt from the Questions of Nāgaśrī, the Diamond and Heart sutras, and many other lesser known texts. Most of the translations represent the Sanskrit versions. Conze also worked with Lewis Lancaster and R. Robinson to include the Nāgaśrī and Humane King sutras from Chinese sources in the collection.
At this point, this book is the best reference work available for reading and comparing these smaller texts. Conze did much of the foundational scholarship to bring these texts to light in the English world, and his translations remain in print thanks to that. My own ability to understand them (to the extent they can be understood) is owed largely to Conze’s translations, which have been available since the 1970s.
Dharma Pearls 