Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800 Books

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Book SynopsisThis title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972.

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Book SynopsisThis title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Pressâs mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.

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Book SynopsisThis title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1965.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisThe Ballad-Drama of Medieval Japan delves into the kowaka, a ballad-drama genre that flourished during Japan's tumultuous Medieval Era, a period shaped by samurai culture and the heroic values of loyalty and chivalry. Emerging in the 16th century, kowaka captured the martial exploits and epic struggles of the early Medieval Era, including the famed Genji-Heike conflict. Despite its initial popularity among samurai, the kowaka faded into obscurity during the Edo Period, only to be rediscovered in modern times. This study aims to reconstruct the history, artistry, and literary significance of kowaka, drawing on Japanese scholarship, field observations in Kyushu's Oe Village (where the tradition endures), and textual analysis. The book is divided into two parts. The first examines kowaka as a performing art, detailing its historical development, influences, and stylistic elements while highlighting the author's original fieldwork and critiques of prior research. The second part focuses

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Book SynopsisThis is a bold and original reinterpretation of almost all of Shakespearea s major plays, in the light of the Marxist, feminist and semiotic ideas of our own time.Trade Review"Brilliant little book ... dazzling and exhilarating ... Eagleton is alive to the excitement and originality of a great playwright." Sunday Times "When you read this book you feel Eagleton's pleasure in reading Shakespeare's works. He deals with the plays in chapters which cut across the well-used categories and an excitement is created by the unexpectedness of the directions which he takes." Marxism Today "Always provocative, Mr. Eagleton does in print what directors regularly do on stage: change the century, stitch up new costumes, but preserve the story line and language." Herbert Mitgang, The New York TimesTable of ContentsPreface ix 1 Language: Macbeth, Richard II, Henry IV 1 2 Desire: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night 18 3 Law: The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida 35 4 ‘Nothing’: Othello, Hamlet, Coriolanus 64 5 Value: King Lear, Timon of Athens, Antony and Cleopatra 76 6 Nature: As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest 90 Conclusion 97 Notes 105 Index 109

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Book SynopsisIn Shakespeare and the Popular Voice Annabel Patterson challenges as counter-intuitive the common opinion that Shakespeare was anti-democratic, contemptuous of the crowd and an unfailing supporter of Elizabethan social hierarchy.Table of ContentsCaviar or the general - "Hamlet" and the Popular Theater; the peasant's toe - popular culture and popular pressure; bottom's up - festive theory; back by popular demand, the two versions of "Henry V"; What Matter who's speaking? "Hamlet" and "King Lear"; "Speak, speak!" - the popular voice and the Jacobean state; "Thought is Free" - "The Tempest".

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Book SynopsisProviding a close examination of Milton''s wide-ranging prose and poetry at each stage of his life, Barbara Lewalski reveals a rather different Milton from that in earlier accounts. Provides a close analysis of each of Milton''s prose and poetry works. Reveals how Milton was the first writer to self consciously construct himself as an ''author''. Focuses on the development of Milton''s ideas and his art. Trade Review"Lewalski's is easily the best single-volume life of Milton to date, and it is hard to imagine its being significantly bettered. Every reader will benefit from its insight and compression, and it will be the biography to which I direct my students." Times Higher Education Supplement "Arguably the most readable of modern Milton biographies, it reshapes our understanding of Milton the man, the thinker, political and religious activist, husband, parent, friend ...it is certain to be a classic among Milton studies" Reference Reviews "The Life of John Milton . . . combines lucidity with its formidable erudition." Terry Eagleton, The Observer Books of the Year, 2001 "A rigorous, up-to-date, yet surprisingly readable account of Milton's life and work… anyone concerned with the poet or the period will have to possess this book." The Independent "[Lewalski] has produced an outstanding biography, one that is reliable and readable. [...] It will be vaulable, not only to Milton specialists and students of English literature but to anyone who wants to learn about Milton's life and work." Virginia Quarterly Review "Lewalski's volume is immensely useful. In the process of discussing Milton's life and works, she gives the reader a believable figure facing major events and also the everyday business of moving through life. Such an appealing and readbale portrayal is welcome." Renaissance Quarterly "As a biography of Milton, Lewalski's Life is likely to remain the definitive work for decades to come." Church Times "The Life of John Milton is the magnum opus of Barbara K Lewalski, one of the leading Miltonists of the past half-century. [...] As an introduction to Milton's life and work it is likely to remain unequalled for years to come - that rare thing, a work of reference to be read with profit and pleasure from cover to cover." MLR "Her achievements scarcely need endorsement. Unsurprising, she once more surefootedly picks her way through the polemical prose while writing richly about the major poetry." Milton QuarterlyTable of ContentsList of Plates. Preface. Acknowledgments. List of Abbreviations. 1. ‘The childhood shews the man" (1608-1625). 2. "To Cambridge . . . for seven years" (1625-1632). 3. "Studious Retirement": Hammersmith and Horton (1632-1638). 4. "I became desirous . . . of seeing foreign parts, especially Italy" (1638-1639). 5. "All mouths were opened against . . . the bishops" (1639-1642). 6. "Domestic or Personal Liberty" (1642-1645). 7. "Service . . . Between Private Walls" (1645-1649). 8. "The so-called Council of State . . . desired to employ my services" (1649- 1652). 9. "Tireless . . . for the sake of Liberty" (1652-1654). 10. "I . . . still bear up and steer/ Right onward" (1654-1658). 11 "The last words of our expiring libertie" (1658-1660). 12 "In darknes, and with dangers compast round" (1660-1665). 13. "Higher Argument": Completing and Publishing Paradise Lost (1665-1669). 14. "To try, and teach the erring Soul" (1669-1674). Epilogue: "Something ... Written to Aftertimes.". Notes. Bibliography. Index.

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Book SynopsisIn this fresh alternative to traditional Shakespeare studies, Dympna Callaghan, Lorraine Helms, and Jyotsna Singh address Shakespeare''s works in terms of, amongst other things, the feminist history of sexuality, the ideology of romantic love, and feminist interventions in performance. Their objective is to produce new interpretations of the plays by locating them at the intersections of a range of contemporary critical, theoretical, and cultural practices.Trade Review"This is a fine book. An important and original contribution to feminist Shakespeare studies." Phyllis Rackin, University of Pennsylvania "This is a fresh book, which will have an invigorating effect on Shakespeare studies. Nothing quite like it exists, and I imagine a wide audience among Shakespeare scholars and students." Jean Howard, Columbia UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction. 1. The Interventions of History: Narratives of Sexuality: Jyotsna Singh. 2. The Ideology of Romantic Love: The Case of Romeo and Juliet: Dympna Callaghan. 3. Acts of Resistance: The Feminist Player: Lorraine Helms. Index.

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Book SynopsisThe Life of William Shakespeare is a fascinating and wide-ranging exploration of Shakespeare''s life and works focusing on oftern neglected literary and historical contexts: what Shakespeare read, who he worked with as an author and an actor, and how these various collaborations may have affected his writing. Written by an eminent Shakespearean scholar and experienced theatre reviewer Pays particular attention to Shakespeare''s theatrical contemporaries and the ways in which they influenced his writing Offers an intriguing account of the life and work of the great poet-dramatist structured around the idea of memory Explores often neglected literary and historical contexts that illuminate Shakespeare''s life and works Trade Review“Two of the Mighty dead have been brought back to life in exemplary fashion: Shakespeare in Lois Potter’s The Life of William Shakespeare: A Critical Biography, which very cleverly uses expert theatre-knowledge as a way of making her enigmatic subject seem plausibly substantial; and Keats in Nicholas Roe’s John Keats: A New Life, which puts the poet properly in his place.” (The Guardian, 24 November 2012) “This study will have wide appeal to readers who wish to expand their appreciation of the works of William Shakespeare. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.” (Choice, 1 November 2012) “These form the narrative spine of this richly suggestive, undogmatic book in which Lois Potter ranges across the entire canon and the period that helped produce it.” (Around the Globe, 1 October 2012) “Lois Potter’s Life of William Shakespeare, ranks with the most distinguished examples of its kind … Her achievement lies in her catholicity, her simultaneous commitment to matters personal, historical, theatrical, literary, cultural. She exhibits an absolute command of the available facts, a lifetime’s acquaintance with the works gained in teaching and playgoing, an unparalleled familiarity with theatrical history from 1567 to the present, and a talent for connecting the fictional and the actual.” (Times Literary Supplement, 10 August 2012)Table of ContentsList of Illustrations vi Preface and Acknowledgments vii List of Abbreviations x The Shakespeare Family Tree xii 1 “Born into the World”: 1564–1571 1 2 “Nemo SibiNascitur”: 1571–1578 21 3 “Hic et Ubique”: 1578–1588 40 4 “This Man’s Art and That Man’s Scope”: 1588–1592 64 5 “Tigers’ Hearts”: 1592–1593 86 6 “The Dangerous Year”: 1593–1594 106 7 “Our Usual Manager of Mirth”: 1594–1595 134 8 “The Strong’st and Surest Way to Get”: Histories, 1595–1596 162 9 “When Love Speaks”: Tragedy and Comedy, 1595–1596 181 10 “You Had a Father; Let Your Son Say So”: 1596–1598 201 11 “Unworthy Scaffold”: 1598–1599 231 12 “These Words Are Not Mine”: 1599–1601 258 13 “Looking Before and After”: 1600–1603 277 14 “This Most Balmy Time”: 1603–1605 300 15 “Past the Size of Dreaming”: 1606–1609 330 16 “Like an Old Tale”: 1609–1611 360 17 “The Second Burden”: 1612–1616 384 18 “In the Mouths of Men”: 1616 and After 414 Bibliography 443 Index 475

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Book SynopsisProvides work by fifty poets in texts freshly credited from contemporary sources. Offers much fuller annotation than customarily available. Includes canonical poets and works as well as works of writers rarely anthologised.Table of ContentsIndex of Topics. Alphabetical List of Authors. Acknowledgements. Preface. Goerg Chapman (1559-1634). Michael Drayton (1563-1631). Thomas Campion (1567-1620). Aemilia Lanyer (1569-1645). John Donne (1572-1631). Be3n Jonson (1572-1637). Martha Moulsworth (1578-1646). Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648). William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649). Lady Mry Wroth (1587-c.1653). Robert Herrick (1591-1674). Henry King (1592-1669). Francis Quarles (1592-1633). Thomas Carew (1595-1640). Owen Felltham (1602-1668). Thomas Randolph (1605-1654). Edmund Waller (1606-1687). Sir Richard Fanshawe (1608-1666). John Milton (1608-1674). Sir John Suckling (1609-1642). Richard Crawshaw (1612-1649). Samuel Butler (1613-1680). John Cleveland (1613-1658). Sir John Denham (1615-1669). Richard Lovelace (1618-1658). Abraham Cowley (1618-1667). Lucy Hutchinson (1620-1681). Andrew Marvell (1621-1678). Henry Vaughan (1622-1695). Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastel (1624-1674). Charles Cotton (1630-1687). John Dryden (1631-1700). Katherine Philips (1632-1664). Thomas Traherne (1637-1674). Aphra Behn (1640-1689). John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1674-1680). John Oldham (1653-1683). Anne Wharton (1659-1685). Index of Authors Cited. Index of Titles and First Lines.

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Book Synopsisaeo Contains 28 newly commissioned essays written by the most distinguished historians and literary scholars. aeo Situates Shakespeare in the historical and cultural conditions in which he wrote.Trade Review"This collection of 28 essays provides a historical overview of the conditions of Shakespeare's world." Library Journal "No playgoer, reader, teacher or scholar should be without this elegant and indispensable guide to Shakespeare. It brings together the best in recent scholarship on the social history, contemporary reading, and institutions and material practices of writing, playing and printing in early modern England. Kastan has assembled a collection of essays with his peers and presented them with his characteristic intelligence and grace. The definitive Companion to Shakespeare." Karen Newman, Brown University "A worthy companion indeed - every serious student of Shakespeare should carry this adroitly compiled collection of specialist essays on essential background constantly with them. Kastan has brought together a star cast of experts to help us to hear Shakespeare's distinctive voice, with all its historical and intellectual resonances, in a fresh and sharply clarified context." Lisa Jardine, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London "Literally indispensable for anyone interested in Shakespeare." Patricia Parker, University of Stanford "David Kastan has put together a dazzling collection of essays on Shakespeare. And one doesn't expect to be dazzled by that rather sedate animal, a Companion. This Companion represents the very best in recent scholarship and is at the same time lively, accessible, and often surprising. It is indeed indispensible." Peter Stallybrass, University of Pennsylvania "Between them these specialist writers have assembled a series of essays which represent, for the time being at least, the last word in Shakespearean scholarship and research. It is difficult to think of any aspect of the dramatist's life, times and work which is not covered by this companion." "This companion can be confidently recommended as a paragon of Shakespearean research." K.C.Harrison, Reference Reviews "The publication [...] of the monumental Companion to Shakespeare, edited by David Scott Kastan, is a major event and one that should be celebrated for the breadth and depth of scholarship the book makes available to students." Year's Work In English StudiesTable of ContentsIllustrations viii Notes on Contributors ix Part One Introduction Part Two Shakespeare I Part Three Living Part Four Reading Part Five Writing Part Six Playing Part Seven Printing Part Eight Shakespeare II Index 503

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Book SynopsisThis Guide steers students through the critical writing on Shakespeare's tragedies from the sixteenth century to the present day. Guides students through four centuries of critical writing on Shakespeare's tragedies. Covers both significant early views and recent critical interventions. Substantial editorial material links the articles and places them in context. Annotated suggestions for further reading allow students to investigate further. Table of ContentsIntroduction. Part I: Criticism 1592-1904:. Part II: Twentieth-Century Criticism:. 1. Genre. Overview. 2. Dollimore, King Lear and Essential Humanism. Cavell, Coriolanus and Interpretations of Politics. Character. Overview. 3. Holland, The Resources of Characterisation in Othello. Leverena, The Woman in Hamlet: An Interpersonal View. Language. Overview. 4. Kermode, Anthony and Cleopatra. Evans, Imperfect Speakers. Gender and Sexuality. Overview. 5. Kahn, The Daughter’s Seduction in Titus Andronicus. Newman, Femininity and the Monstrous in Othello. History and Politics. Overview. 6. Kastan, Macbeth and the Name of King. Wilson, Is this a holiday? Shakespeare’s Roman Carnival. Texts. Overview. 7. Warren, Quarto and Folio King Lear. Marcus, Bad Taste and Bad Hamlet. Performance. Overview. 8. Cox, Titus Andronicus. Loehlin, Baz Luhrmann’s Millenial Shakespeare. Bibliography. Index.

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Book SynopsisThis Guide steers students through the critical writing on Shakespeare's tragedies from the sixteenth century to the present day. Guides students through four centuries of critical writing on Shakespeare's tragedies. Covers both significant early views and recent critical interventions. Substantial editorial material links the articles and places them in context. Annotated suggestions for further reading allow students to investigate further. Table of ContentsIntroduction. Part I: Criticism 1592-1904:. Part II: Twentieth-Century Criticism:. 1. Genre. Overview. 2. Dollimore, King Lear and Essential Humanism. Cavell, Coriolanus and Interpretations of Politics. Character. Overview. 3. Holland, The Resources of Characterisation in Othello. Leverena, The Woman in Hamlet: An Interpersonal View. Language. Overview. 4. Kermode, Anthony and Cleopatra. Evans, Imperfect Speakers. Gender and Sexuality. Overview. 5. Kahn, The Daughter’s Seduction in Titus Andronicus. Newman, Femininity and the Monstrous in Othello. History and Politics. Overview. 6. Kastan, Macbeth and the Name of King. Wilson, Is this a holiday? Shakespeare’s Roman Carnival. Texts. Overview. 7. Warren, Quarto and Folio King Lear. Marcus, Bad Taste and Bad Hamlet. Performance. Overview. 8. Cox, Titus Andronicus. Loehlin, Baz Luhrmann’s Millenial Shakespeare. Bibliography. Index.

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Book SynopsisCriticism of Shakespeare's comedies has shifted from stressing their light-hearted qualities to giving a stronger sense of their dark aspects and social resonances. This work introduces key debates under the following headings: genre, history and politics, gender and sexuality, language and performance.Trade Review"clearly designed to make friendly that enormous and daunting edifice of Shakespeare criticism. [...] extremely helful historical and generic overviews" THES [and talking about all three books together:] "Altogether, either as the source of critical thinking or as reference guides and bibliographies, these volumes will prove convenient and interesting as auhtoritatively conducted tours of their domains." THESTable of ContentsPreface. Acknowledgements. 1 The Development of Criticism of Shakespeare's Comedies. 2 Genre. Marriage as Comic Closure. False Immortality in Measure for Measure. 3 Language. Here Follows Prose. Transfer of Title in Love's Labour's Lost. 4 Gender and Sexuality. Helena's Bed-trick. The Homoerotics of Shakespearian. Comedy. 5 History and Politics. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?. Bottom's Up. 6 Performance. Kate: Interpreting the Silence. As You Like It. Index

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Book SynopsisThis lively and stimulating book guides students through the historical contexts, key figures, texts, themes and issues in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century English literature. The English Renaissance, 1500-1620 sets out the historical and cultural contexts of Renaissance England, highlighting the background voices and events which influenced literary production, including the Reformation, the British problem, perceptions of other cultures and the voyages to the Americas. A series of short biographical essays on the key writers of the period explain their significance, and explore a variety of perspectives with which to approach them. In-depth analyses of a number of well-studied texts are also provided, indicating why each text is important and suggesting ways in which each might usefully be read. Texts featured include Astrophil and Stella, Othello, Utopia, Dr Faustus, The Tragedy of Miriam, The Unfortunate Traveller and the Faerie Queene. The voTrade Review"Hadfield's The English Renaissance 1500-1620 admirably acheives the author's intention, clearly set out in a preamble, to provide essentials to readers new to the territory. It is divided into helpful sections, providing a succint historical overview of the period and of major religious, political, exploratory and colonising movements. And it is written in lucid, jargon-free prose. Hadfield's book is a leader in its field." Times Higher Education Supplement "This guide will be useful precisely because it is a supplement to (and not a substitute for) the primary materials from the period. It self-consciously raises the proper questions not only for the authors and texts it includes, but also for the very process involved in making those selections. As such, it is a guide that can lead undergraduate students profitably through the Dark Wood of English Renaissance literature, as well as the critical debates generated by the literature." Reference Reviews "Andrew Hadfield's The English Renaissance, 1500-1620 in the series Blackwell Guides to Literature - lucid little introductions to issues, authors, and texts, aimed at the undergraduate but also useful for Ph.D. students - is remarkable because he wrote it all himself." Studies in English Literature "What makes these pieces particularly useful in one's teaching is that they are short but also insightful and provocative. They therefore manage to be accessible to students and to exemplify the kind of work that one would seriously expect one's students to aspire to. ... The English Renaissance 1500-1620 is an informative work and an engaging read. I hope that it will be appearing under the heading of required secondary reading in undergraduate module and course guides for many years to come." English: The Journal of the English AssociationTable of ContentsAcknowledgements. List of Illustrations. Chronology. Introduction. A History of the English Renaissance. Political and Religious Developments. The British Isles. Exploration, Discovery, and Colonisation in the Americas. Writers. Roger Ascham (1515-68). Francis Bacon (1561-1626). John Bale (1495-1563). Alexander Barclay (1475?-1552). Thomas Campion (1567-1620). Elizabeth Cary (1585-1639). George Chapman (c.1560-1634). Samuel Daniel (1562/3- 1619). Sir John Davies (1569-1626). Thomas Dekker (c.1570-1632). John Donne (1572-1631). Michael Drayton (1563-1631). John Fletcher (1579-1625). John Florio (1553-1625). George Gascoigne (c.1534-77). Barnaby Googe (1540-94). Robert Greene (c.1558-92). Sir Fulke Greville, First Baron Brooke (1554-1628). Joseph Hall (1574-1656). Gabriel Harvey (1550?-1631). Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517?-47). Ben Jonson (1572-1637). Thomas Kyd (1558-94). Aemilia Lanyer (1569-1645). John Lyly (1554?-1606). Christopher Marlowe (1564-93). John Marston (1576-1634). Thomas Middleton (c.1580-1627). Thomas More (1477-1535). Thomas Nashe (1567-1601). Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618). William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621). Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86). John Skelton (1460?-1529). Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599). William Tyndale (1494?-1536). John Webster (c.1580-c.1634). Isabella Whitney (fl. 1567-73). Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?-42). Key Texts. Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry and George Puttenham (?), The Art of English Poetry. Sir Philip Sidney, The Arcadia. Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella. Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus. John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour. Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene. Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, Gorboduc, or Ferrex and Porrex. Ben Jonson, Poetry. A Mirror for Magistrates. William Shakespeare, Othello. William Shakespeare, Richard II. Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's Holiday. John Donne, Songs and Sonnets and Divine Poems. William Shakespeare, Sonnets. Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy. Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great, parts one and two. William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Miriam. Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller. Thomas More, Utopia. Topics. Humanism, Education, Rhetoric, Genre Theory. Printing, Manuscript Circulation, and Censorship. Attitudes to Other Nations and Cultures. Women, Gender, and Queer Reading. The Stage. Current Issues in the criticism of Renaissance literature. Guide to Further Reading. Glossary. Index.

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Book SynopsisArthur Kinney introduces students to Shakespeare's plays in the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. He focuses on the material conditions of playing and of playgoing in order to show how they both inspired and restricted Shakespeare's art. A core of 22 plays is considered in total.Trade Review"Shakespeare by Stages is highly suited to use in the classroom, providing students as well as scholars with a diversity of sources and a complex estimation of Shakespeare's theater." English Studies "...an excellent analysis and should prove an invaluable introduction to undergraduates wishing to learn about Shakespeare's stage." Modern Language ReviewTable of ContentsList of Figures. Preface. Acknowledgements. List of Illustrations. 1. Stages. 2. Players. 3. Playgoers. 4. Equipment. 5. Reactions. Notes. Bibliography. Index

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Book SynopsisIn this engaging text, Arthur Kinney introduces students to Shakespeare's plays in the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean theater. * Introduces students to Shakespeare's plays in the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean theater. * Focuses on the material conditions of playing and of playgoing.Trade Review"Shakespeare by Stages is highly suited to use in the classroom, providing students as well as scholars with a diversity of sources and a complex estimation of Shakespeare's theater." English Studies "...an excellent analysis and should prove an invaluable introduction to undergraduates wishing to learn about Shakespeare's stage." Modern Language ReviewTable of ContentsList of Figures. Preface. Acknowledgements. List of Illustrations. 1. Stages. 2. Players. 3. Playgoers. 4. Equipment. 5. Reactions. Notes. Bibliography. Index

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Book SynopsisThis four-volume Companion to Shakespeare''s Works, compiled as a single entity, offers a uniquely comprehensive snapshot of current Shakespeare criticism. Brings together new essays from a mixture of younger and more established scholars from around the world - Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Examines each of Shakespeare's plays and major poems, using all the resources of contemporary criticism, from performance studies to feminist, historicist, and textual analysis. Volumes are organized in relation to generic categories: namely the histories, the tragedies, the romantic comedies, and the late plays, problem plays and poems. Each volume contains individual essays on all texts in the relevant category, as well as more general essays looking at critical issues and approaches more widely relevant to the genre. Offers a provocative roadmap to Shakespeare studies at the dawTable of ContentsNotes on Contributors vii Introduction 1 1 “A rarity most beloved”: Shakespeare and the Idea of Tragedy 4 David Scott Kastan 2 The Tragedies of Shakespeare’s Contemporaries 23 Martin Coyle 3 Minds in Company: Shakespearean Tragic Emotions 47 Katherine Rowe 4 The Divided Tragic Hero 73 Catherine Belsey 5 Disjointed Times and Half-Remembered Truths in Shakespearean Tragedy 95 Philippa Berry 6 Reading Shakespeare’s Tragedies of Love: Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Antony and Cleopatra in Early Modern England 108 Sasha Roberts 7 Hamlet Productions Starring Beale, Hawke, and Darling From the Perspective of Performance History 134 Bernice W. Kliman 8 Text and Tragedy 158 Graham Holderness 9 Shakespearean Tragedy and Religious Identity 178 Richard C. McCoy 10 Shakespeare’s Roman Tragedies 199 Gordon Braden 11 Tragedy and Geography 219 Jerry Brotton 12 Classic Film Versions of Shakespeare’s Tragedies: A Mirror for the Times 241 Kenneth S. Rothwell 13 Contemporary Film Versions of the Tragedies 262 Mark Thornton Burnett 14 Titus Andronicus: A Time for Race and Revenge 284 Ian Smith 15 “There is no world without Verona walls”: The City in Romeo and Juliet 303 Naomi Conn Liebler 16 “He that thou knowest thine”: Friendship and Service in Hamlet 319 Michael Neill 17 Julius Caesar 339 Rebecca W. Bushnell 18 Othello and the Problem of Blackness 357 Kim F. Hall 19 King Lear 375 Kiernan Ryan 20 Macbeth, the Present, and the Past 393 Kathleen McLuskie 21 The Politics of Empathy in Antony and Cleopatra: A View from Below 411 Jyotsna G. Singh 22 Timon of Athens: The Dialectic of Usury, Nihilism, and Art 430 Hugh Grady 23 Coriolanus and the Politics of Theatrical Pleasure 452 Cynthia Marshall Index 473

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Book SynopsisThis four-volume Companion to Shakespeare''s Works, compiled as a single entity, offers a uniquely comprehensive snapshot of current Shakespeare criticism. Brings together new essays from a mixture of younger and more established scholars from around the world - Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Examines each of Shakespeare's plays and major poems, using all the resources of contemporary criticism, from performance studies to feminist, historicist, and textual analysis. Volumes are organized in relation to generic categories: namely the histories, the tragedies, the romantic comedies, and the late plays, problem plays and poems. Each volume contains individual essays on all texts in the relevant category, as well as more general essays looking at critical issues and approaches more widely relevant to the genre. Offers a provocative roadmap to Shakespeare studies at the dawTable of ContentsNotes on Contributors. Introduction. 1. The Writing of History in Shakespeare s England: Ivo Kamps. 2. Shakespeare and Contemporary Dramatists of History: Richard Helgerson. 3. Censorship and the Problems with History in Shakespeares England: Cyndia Susan Clegg. 4. Nation Formation and the English History Plays: Patricia A. Cahill. 5. The Irish Text and Subtext of Shakespeare s English Histories: Willy Maley. 6. Theories of Kingship in Shakespeare s England: William C. Carroll. 7. To beguile the time, Look like the time: Contemporary Film. Versions of Shakespeare s Histories: Peter J. Smith. 8. The Elizabethan History Play: A True Genre? Paulina Kewes. 9. Damned Commotion: Riot and Rebellion in Shakespeares Histories: James Holstun. 10. Manliness Before Individualism: Masculinity, Effeminacy, and Homoerotics in Shakespeare s History Plays: Rebecca Ann Bach. 11. French Marriages and the Protestant Nation in Shakespeares: History Plays: Linda Gregerson. 12. The First Tetralogy in Performance: Ric Knowles. 13. The Second Tetralogy: Performance as Interpretation: Lois Potter. 14. 1 Henry VI: David Bevington. 15. Suffolk and the Pirates: Disordered Relations in Shakespeare’s Henry VI: Thomas Cartelli. 16. Vexed Relations: Family, State, and the Uses of Women in 3 Henry VI: Kathryn Schwarz. 17. The power of hope An Early Modern Reader of Richard III: James Siemon. 18. King John: Virginia Mason Vaughan. 19. The Kings Melting Body: Richard II: Lisa Hopkins. 20. 1 Henry IV: James Knowles. 21. Henry IV, Part 2: A Critical History: Jonathan Crewe. 22. Henry V: Andrew Hadfield. Index.

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Book SynopsisThis four-volume Companion to Shakespeare''s Works, compiled as a single entity, offers a uniquely comprehensive snapshot of current Shakespeare criticism. Brings together new essays from a mixture of younger and more established scholars from around the world - Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Examines each of Shakespeare''s plays and major poems, using all the resources of contemporary criticism, from performance studies to feminist, historicist, and textual analysis. Volumes are organized in relation to generic categories: namely the histories, the tragedies, the romantic comedies, and the late plays, problem plays and poems. Each volume contains individual essays on all texts in the relevant category, as well as more general essays looking at critical issues and approaches more widely relevant to the genre. Offers a provocative roadmap to Shakespeare studies at the daTable of ContentsNotes on Contributors. Introduction. 1. Shakespeare and the Traditions of English Stage Comedy: Janette Dillon. 2. Shakespeare’s Festive Comedies: François Laroque. 3. The Humor of It: Bodies, Fluids, and Social Discipline in Shakespearean Comedy: Gail Kern Paster. 4. Class X: Shakespeare, Class, and the Comedies: Peter Holbrook. 5. The Social Relations of Shakespeare’s Comic Households: Mario DiGangi. 6. Shakespeare’s Crossdressing Comedies: Phyllis Rackin. 7. The Homoerotics of Shakespeare’s Elizabethan Comedies: Julie Crawford. 8. Shakespearean Comedy and Material Life: Lena Cowen Orlin. 9. Shakespeare’s Comic Geographies: Garrett A. Sullivan, Jr. 10. Rhetoric and Comic Personation in Shakespeare’s Comedies: Lloyd Davis. 11. Fat Knight, or What You Will: Unimitable Falstaff: Ian Frederick Moulton. 12. Wooing and Winning (Or Not): Film/Shakespeare/Comedy and the Syntax of Genre: Barbara Hodgdon. 13. The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Jeffrey Masten. 14. ‘Fie, what a foolish duty call you this?’ The Taming of the Shrew, Women’s Jest, and the Divided Audience: Pamela Allen Brown. 15. The Comedy of Errors and the Calumny of Apelles: An Exercise in Source Study: Richard Dutton. 16. Love’s Labour’s Lost: John Michael Archer. 17. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Helen Hackett. 18. Rubbing at Whitewash: Intolerance in The Merchant of Venice: Marion Wynne-Davies. 19. The Merry Wives of Windsor: Unhusbanding Desires in Windsor: Wendy Wall. 20. Much Ado About Nothing: Alison Findlay. 21. As You Like It : Juliet Dusinberre. 22. Twelfth Night: ‘The Babbling Gossip of the Air’: Penny Gay. Index.

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Book SynopsisThis four-volume Companion to Shakespeare''s Works, compiled as a single entity, offers a uniquely comprehensive snapshot of current Shakespeare criticism. Brings together new essays from a mixture of younger and more established scholars from around the world - Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Examines each of Shakespeare's plays and major poems, using all the resources of contemporary criticism, from performance studies to feminist, historicist, and textual analysis. Volumes are organized in relation to generic categories: namely the histories, the tragedies, the romantic comedies, and the late plays, problem plays and poems. Each volume contains individual essays on all texts in the relevant category, as well as more general essays looking at critical issues and approaches more widely relevant to the genre. Offers a provocative roadmap to Shakespeare studies at the dawning ofTable of ContentsNotes on Contributors. Introduction. 1. Shakespeare s Sonnets and the History of Sexuality: A Reception Hisotry: Bruce R. Smith. 2. The Book of Changes in a Time of Change: Ovid s Metamorphoses in Post-Reformation England and Venus and Adonis: Dympna Callaghan. 3. Shakespeare s Problem Plays and the Drama of His Time: Troilus and Cressida, Alls Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure: Paul Yachnin. 4. The Privy and Its Double: Scatology and Satire in Shakespeares Theatre: Bruce Boehrer. 5. Hymeneal Blood, Interchangeable Women, and the Early Modern Marriage Economy in Measure for Measure and Alls Well That Ends Well: Theodora A. Jankowski. 6. Varieties of Collaboration in Shakespeares Problem Plays and Late Plays: John Jowett. 7. What s in a Name? Tragicomedy, Romance, or Late Comedy: Barbara A. Mowat. 8. Fashion: Shakespeare and Beaumont and Fletcher: Russ McDonald. 9. Place and Space in Three Late Plays: John Gillies. 10. The Politics and Technology of Spectacle in the Late Plays: David M. Bergeron. 11. The Tempest in Performance: Diana E. Henderson. 12. What It Feels Like For a Boy: Shakespeare s Venus and Adonis: Richard Rambuss. 13. Publishing Shame: The Rape of Lucrece: Copplia Kahn. 14. The Sonnets: Sequence, Sexuality, and Shakespeares Two Loves: Valerie Traub. 15. The Two-Party System in Troilus and Cressida: Linda Charnes. 16. Opening Doubts Upon the Law: Measure for Measure: Karen Cunningham. 17. Doctor She. Healing and Sex in All s Well That Ends Well: Barbara Howard Traister. 18. You not your child well loving . Text and Family Structure in Pericles: Suzanne Gossett. 19. Imagine Me, Gentle Spectators . Iconomachy and The Winters Tale: Marion O Connor. 20. Cymbeline: Patriotism and Performance: Valerie Wayne. 21. Meaner Ministers : Mastery, Bondage, and Theatrical Labor in The Tempest: Daniel Vitkus. 22. Queens and the Structure of History in Henry VIII: Susan Frye. 23. Mixed Messages: The Aesthetics of The Two Noble Kinsmen: Julie Sanders. Index.

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Book SynopsisThis engaging book draws on all of Shakespeare''s plays to show they can still be used as a guide to life. Introduces beginning students and general readers to Shakespeare''s plays by highlighting the connections between the issues addressed by the plays and those of our own time. Focuses on the characters, situations and stories in Shakespeare which are still familiar today. Shows how Shakespeare''s plays illustrate some of life''s most familiar stories - love and obsession, parents and children, sex and politics, suffering and revenge Makes Shakespeare's plays accessible to the widest possible audience. Trade Review"This brilliant and inspirational book offers new insight into the work and world of William Shakespeare and offers fresh demonstration of his relevance for our own lives and troubles. At once immensely erudite and extraordinarily accessible, Maguire shows how broken-hearts, dysfunctional families, domestic violence, and other personal and social problems, was all grist for Shakespeare's theatrical imagination. Alongside unflinching criticism of a world-gone-wrong, Shakespeare also offered his audiences solace and hope. The top book on Shakespeare this year, Studying Shakespeare should be on everyone's bookshelf and on The Times Best Seller list." Dypmna Callaghan "Maguire's book is fiesty, informative and stimulating." AtlantisTable of ContentsAcknowledgements. Conventions. List Of Illustrations. 1. Private Life: Shakespeare And Selfhood:. The Divided Self. Comedy Of Errors; As You Like It. Naming The Self. Troilus And Cressida; Romeo And Juliet; Taming Of The Shrew. The Self And Language. Measure For Measure; Troilus And Cressida. The National Self. Othello; King Lear. The Self At Play. Love’s Labour’s Lost; Taming Of The Shrew. 2. Marital Life: Shakespeare And Romance:. Love And Hazard. Merchant Of Venice. Love And Friendship. Two Gentlemen Of Verona; Winter’s Tale; Two Noble Kinsmen. Love And Madness. Midsummer Night’s Dream; Cymbeline; All’s Well; Measure For Measure; Troilus And Cressida. Marriage And Identity. Comedy Of Errors; All’s Well; Taming Of The Shrew. Love And Abuse. The Taming Of The Shrew; Merry Wives Of Windsor; Othello; Troilus And Cressida. 3. Political Life: Shakespeare And Government:. Acting Politics. 3 Henry 6; Richard 3; 1 Henry 4; 2 Henry 4; Henry 5; Coriolanus; Julius Caesar. Surviving Politics. Richard 2; Macbeth. The Personal Versus The Political. Richard 2; Henry 4; Henry 5. 4. Public Life: Shakespeare And Social Structures:. Money. Macbeth; Merchant Of Venice; Romeo And Juliet; Merry Wives Of Windsor; Timon Of Athens. Women And Public Life. Antony And Cleopatra; King John; Measure For Measure. Language. Titus Andronicus; Much Ado About Nothing; All’s Well. 5.Real Life: Shakespeare And Suffering:. Mingled Yarns. Twelfth Night; King Lear; Much Ado. Mourning. Hamlet; Twelfth Night. The Family. King Lear; Macbeth. Anger And Revenge. Titus Andronicus. Forgiveness. Cymbeline; Pericles; Winter’s Tale; Tempest; Henry 8; Two Noble Kinsmen. Index.

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Book SynopsisThe 18th-century Chinese novel Rulin waishi (The Unofficial History of the Scholars), Wu Jingzi’s (1701-54) ironic portrait of literati life, challenges the reader to come to grips with the mid-Qing debates over ritual and ritualism, and the construction of history, narrative, and lyricism.

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Book SynopsisIn the final ten years of his life, the author tackled the largest project any critic in English can take on - writing a preface to each of Shakespeare's plays. This title collects these prefaces. It introduces some of the most significant scholarship on Shakespeare to show the reader how certain critics frame large issues in a useful way.Trade ReviewTony Tanner's introductory essays take us deeply into the fierce, strange life of words, thought, and character in Shakespeare's plays. This is generous and authoritative criticism. The vividness of Tanner's own critical voice, often evoking Shakespeare's craft as writer, is remarkable. -- Kenneth Gross, author of Shakespeare's Noise and Shylock is Shakespeare.To read English at Cambridge in the late Fifties was to have the last opportunity to read the whole cannon of English literature. Tanner has a strong claim to be the best reader ever produced by this particular formation and this is the underlying force of all his work. His greatest triumphs were reserved for last. Venice Desired (Harvard 1992) looked at that fabled city through its literary representations...It might have seemed difficult to surpass this superb interweaving of literature and history but Tanner's next task was his magnum opus -- to provide prefaces to every one of Shakespeare's plays. All of Tanner's life and education had prepared him for this task and the results are magnificent – both accessible and learned. -- Colin McCabe, The IndependentTony Tanner was probably the most versatile and ingenious English critic of his time. His prose was exemplary, full of life and humor, and his literary range was extraordinary. The acknowledged leader of British Americanists, he was also admired for his books on Jane Austen, and he broke new ground in Adultery in the Novel and Venice Desired (Harvard 1992). But in his own opinion the Shakespeare Prefaces were his finest work, and it would be difficult to disagree. The essays cover the entire range of the plays, treating them with characteristic brio in that very personal style that accommodates new insights, based on expert close reading, with an easy command of historical and linguistic contexts. I would recommend this book above all others to an interested young person, provided he or she was both intelligent and capable of delight in the poetry of the plays as Tanner makes it manifest. -- Sir Frank KermodeI do hope every teacher and professor can love and illuminate the plays as well as Tanner does in these insightful, elegant, and witty essays. -- Arthur Phillips * Barnes and Noble Review *Prefaces to Shakespeare is a collection of the essays that the Cambridge professor Tony Tanner wrote to accompany the plays for the Everyman's Library series. Tanner, who died in 1998, maintains an easy, book-club tone, at once gentle and generous. Though some essays probe more deeply than others (he's sharpest on the comedies), he's always sensitive to how the themes of change and regeneration recur. And at almost every juncture, he resists the temptation to speculate out of hand. -- Jeremy McCarter * New York Times Book Review *To read this collection of introductions to Shakespeare's plays, more than ten years after Tanner's death, is to be reintroduced to his conversation. For in this, his final and finest critical work, Tanner's writing is at its most brilliant: he can summarize with the utmost economy; he can describe sources with the deftest of touches; he can, in sentences bristling with parentheses and boiling with quotations, develop the most complex of arguments, his own language engaging with Shakespeare's in a graceful dance...It is an impressive introduction not only to the plays, but also to the whole tradition of Shakespeare criticism from Dryden to Stanley Cavell, from Johnson to Kermode, with Coleridge an especial favourite. There is very little repetition and almost every page contains illumination, from the critical tradition, from the historical context, from contemporary debate...If you ever go to the theatre to see Shakespeare, or even just read the plays at home, Tanner's introductions are an indispensable guide. -- Colin MacCabe * New Statesman *It is tempting to devour this superb book in one long session, though at 3 lbs. and 800-plus pages there is a serious physical challenge. Our attention is constantly provoked by dazzling insights and informative zest, but the writing also promotes long thought and deep reflection...There have been few books on Shakespeare's art as good as this. -- Tom Deveson * Around the Globe *As an extended introduction, especially for students and other readers looking to become more familiar with the plays, it is a very good one indeed. -- William H. Pritchard * Hudson Review *Terrific. -- James Boyle * Sunday Herald *One is drawn in by Tanner's Kermode-like attention to language. There is something exhilarating about watching a mind--an open and attentive one--engage with vocabulary, etymology, repetition, syntax...At his best, Tanner thinks and writes like an Elizabethan. He loves copia. He relishes vocabulary...This love of words is at its most engaging when he admits interpretative defeat. The chapter on All's Well that Ends Well is a tour de force in this respect: time and again, Tanner's acute ear and eye lead him to point out phrases and sentences that simply don't make sense. -- Laurie Maguire * Times Literary Supplement *Table of Contents* Foreword by Stephen Heath Comedies * The Comedy of Errors * The Taming of the Shrew * The Two Gentlemen of Verona * Love's Labor's Lost * Romeo and Juliet * A Midsummer Night's Dream * The Merchant of Venice * The Merry Wives of Windsor * Much Ado About Nothing * As You Like It * Twelfth Night * All's Well That Ends Well * Measure for Measure Histories * Henry VI, Part One * Henry VI, Part Two * Henry VI, Part Three * Richard III * King John * Richard II * Henry IV, Part One * Henry IV, Part Two * Henry V * Henry VIII Major Tragedies * Hamlet * Othello * King Lear * Macbeth Greek and Roman Plays * Titus Andronicus * Troilus and Cressida * Julius Caesar * Antony and Cleopatra * Timon of Athens * Coriolanus Romances * Pericles * Cymbeline * The Winter's Tale * The Tempest * About the Author

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Book SynopsisGuido Ruggiero brings readers back to Renaissance Florence, capturing how the Decameron sounded to fourteenth-century ears. Giovanni Boccaccio’s masterpiece of love, sex, loyalty, and betrayal resonated amid the Black Death and the era’s convulsive political change, reimagining truth and virtue in a moment both desperate and full of potential.Trade ReviewPaints a sweeping portrait of Florentine cultural life during the origins of the Renaissance…Shows how The Decameron illuminates the key social development through which Boccaccio (1313–1375) lived…Ruggiero expertly elaborates the theme of virtù in The Decameron, with results that are insightful and engaging. -- Andrew Stark * Wall Street Journal *Ruggiero’s invitation, evident on every page of his well-researched volume, is to fully appreciate the historical and theological context that shaped these stories, and in turn how they prompted new ways of imagining the world. -- Dan Turello * Los Angeles Review of Books *An insightful and provocative analysis of how love and sex were actually ‘lived’ in the Rinascimento. Ruggiero is not only a leading historian, but also a literary critic at the top of his game. His book is well-timed, eerily current in fact. Almost seven centuries after Boccaccio wrote of the horrors a pandemic inflicted on Florence, individual responses remain, in fact, fairly identical: fear of the neighbor, anxiety about the future, escape to the countryside, dread from physical touch, and searches for pleasant, escapist ways to fill the day. -- Valeria Finucci, author of The Prince’s Body: Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renaissance MedicineA dazzling new contribution to the history of emotions. Desire, passion, love, sex and all their perils come to life in Ruggiero’s analysis of Boccaccio’s celebrated Decameron, giving us an imaginative reconstruction of the complex cultural world of courtship, honor, and marriage in fourteenth-century Tuscany. -- Joanne M. Ferraro, author of Venice: History of the Floating CityGuido Ruggiero, leading cultural historian of the Italian ‘Rinascimento’ and pioneer in the study of sexuality in the early modern period, now offers us an extraordinarily valuable reading of Boccaccio’s Decameron. From his rich and innovative perspective, the ‘hundred novelle’ unfold in the shadow of the devastating Black Plague of 1348 and in a longer-term transition in Florence from medieval feudalism to economically-driven republicanism. Students and scholars of Boccaccio’s masterwork may or may not finally agree with all of Ruggiero’s bold conclusions, but anyone who comes to grips with them will be the wiser for it. -- Albert Russell Ascoli, author of A Local Habitation and a Name: Imagining Histories in the Italian RenaissanceQuite fascinating for its reading of the Decameron, but beyond that also offers considerable insight into the place and times—and tells a good story of both the beginnings of the Renaissance and attitudes towards love and sex. An enjoyable and interesting read. * Complete Review *Ruggiero, in this exemplar of microstoria, demonstrates the prominent place in the history of modern notions of love, sex, marriage, and power of the Italian Renaissance. -- Dean T. Ferguson * International Social Science Review *This energetic book offers a historian’s take on the Decameron, exploring its mold-breaking character. -- Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin * Speculum *Ruggiero provides scholars and students with a concrete study of how the stories of the Decameron might have been understood at the time they were written. In so doing he has created an extremely helpful framework within which to compare how modern readers and medieval readers processed not only sex and love…but also violence, deception, trauma, and grief. -- Mary Watt * Renaissance and Reformation *Timely…Ruggiero’s imaginative retelling of Decameron novelle makes Boccaccio’s masterwork newly accessible to modern audiences and Ruggiero’s monograph a great pedagogical addition to the Renaissance history classroom as well as a welcome addition to the field. -- Katherine McKenna * Medieval History Journal *A successful attempt to contextualize and therefore to interpret properly what Boccaccio intended his Decameron to convey to its then-contemporary audience…Highly recommended. -- William Landon * Journal of Modern History *

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Book SynopsisMany of the West's best writers fought in duels or wrote about them, seduced by glamour or risk or recklessness. A gift as a plot device, the duel also offered a way to discover how we face fears of humiliation, pain, and death. John Leigh's literary history of the duel illuminates these and other tensions attending the birth of the modern world.Trade ReviewAn intriguing book… Ranging over two dozen examples of novels, poems and plays, Leigh describes how this ‘medieval anomaly’ continued to preoccupy writers, even as they dismissed dueling as an old-fashioned folly… The strength of Leigh’s book is that it makes sense of such an anachronistic act… Some of the most striking moments are when he invokes potential modern parallels to duels—American Westerns, Olympic fencing… His entertaining study will remind readers why this archaic form of male combat can still be compelling, and how it could live on. * The Economist *[Leigh] has produced a surprisingly long list of plays and fictions in a variety of languages in which [duels] feature. He uses his haul to trace attitudes to dueling, often made clearer in literature than by the historical record, through a series of close readings of texts where duels are not merely a plot device but reveal something about human nature and the evolution of social values… His elegantly written, free-ranging encounter with the literature of dueling shows why the duelist became and stayed a hero. -- David Coward * Times Literary Supplement *Touché is keen, clever, thorough, crisply humorous and impressive in its sources. -- Richard Davenport-Hines * The Spectator *Throughout Touché, Leigh shows himself a master of the neatly turned observation… An excellent [book]. -- Michael Dirda * Washington Post *Erudite, enjoyable and wide ranging, taking in authorities as disparate as St. Augustine and Jerome K Jerome. Leigh has the knack of the well-minted phrase. -- Richard Hopton * The Field *Fascinating. -- Brooke Allen * Hudson Review *A duel always carried with it some improvisatory aspect, what Leigh calls ‘a sort of joyous death-defying creativity, an ingenuity which almost excuses the fatalities that followed.’ Touché itself has something of this quality. The depth and scope of Leigh’s reading are never in doubt, but it is the idiosyncratic willfulness of his enthusiasm that frees this book from the dead hand of cultural studies under which it might otherwise have languished… Urbane and elegantly penned. -- Jonathan Keates * Literary Review *It is the extraordinary prevalence of duels in literature that John Leigh explores in a study that ranges from the early 17th century to the early 20th century, and that moves confidently across the continent of European literature… Leigh has a remarkable range of reading to hand and is easy with the different proprieties of various European languages. He wears his learning lightly—with a nonchalance, one might think, that matches many of the duelists we encounter in his book. -- John Mullan * New Statesman *With a [book] like Touché, the temptation to linger on anecdotes must be strong, but Leigh stays admirably focused: he wants to understand why the duel was so pervasive in stories, and to uncover the meanings writers found or placed in it. It soon becomes clear that, in a variety of ways, the practice of dueling was wrapped up in writing about it. -- James Guida * New Yorker *Insightful. -- Henrik Bering * Wall Street Journal *Touché demonstrates how some of the greatest writers of the modern era used the duel in their works (and sometimes literally in their own lives) to help their readers come to grips with the emerging modern world. -- M. A. Byron * Choice *This is an excellent study of the strange survival of the duel into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and its imaginative appeal in literature. The author’s unexpected and illuminating insights come across in a pleasing, infectious way. -- Ritchie Robertson, University of OxfordTouché is remarkable. Through the insightful analysis of classic works in English, French, German, Russian, and Italian literature from the past three centuries, the book generates a vivid history of dueling. It is brilliantly written, filled with apt allusions to contemporary art and music—a pleasure to read. -- Theodore Ziolkowski, Princeton University

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Book SynopsisRichard III, Troilus and Cressida, and Antony and Cleopatra were figures of intense signification long before Shakespeare gave them new life. When he did, Charnes argues, he used them to explore notorious identitya new kind of infamy based not on the moral and ethical use value of legend but on a commodification of identity itself.Trade ReviewAn impressive virtuoso performance on an important topic in Shakespearean cultural studies… The book’s strengths lie in its ability to conduct clever textual analyses…couched in skillfully maneuvered, diverse theoretical contexts;…its generally rich and sophisticated tissue of associate, interdisciplinary European post-modernist discourses…and popular culture topics;…and its occasional penetrating historical and cultural generalizations… This is a prodigious first attempt and it deserves praise for that reason. In subject and ambition, it should make for serious reading in post-modernist Shakespeare. -- Imtiaz Habib * South Carolina Review *A dazzling and challenging book. -- Catherine Belsey, University of Wales College of CardiffCharnes’s writing is witty, and the book as a whole is wonderfully fresh, not only in the originality of its analysis, but also in its irreverence toward received opinion. -- Michael D. Bristol, McGill UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Belaboring the Obvious Reading the Monstrous Body in King Richard 3 2. "So Unsecret to Ourselves" Notorious Identity and the Material Subject in Troilus and Cressida 3. Spies and Whispers Exceeding Reputation in Antony and Cleopatra Conclusion Epilogue Notes Index

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Book SynopsisOliver Goldsmith arrived in England a penniless Irishman and toiled for years in the anonymity of Grub Street. Norma Clarke tells how this destitute scribbler became one of literary London’s most celebrated authors, transmuting dark truths about the empire into fable and nostalgia whose undertow of Irish indignation remains just barely perceptible.Trade Review[Clarke] has created a colorful, canny, immensely readable book which rehearses, underlines and proclaims the importance, not only of Goldsmith himself, but also of his writerly world, of fraternal compatriots and infernal enemies, and of the ways that he and they found—or didn’t—to get by…She is a wizard at telling stories…You will get a helpful sense of the nature of all of Goldsmith’s lasting work from Brothers of the Quill…[A] rich volume. -- Min Wild * Times Literary Supplement *[Clarke’s] careful tracing of the networks of Irish affiliation in mid-18th-century London yields a completely new vision of both Goldsmith and the London he inhabited. Clarke concludes with a lament for the ‘taken-for-grantedness’ of the contributions of Irish writers to English literature in the 18th century. The braided, archipelagic histories of these islands have yet to be completed, but are certainly enhanced by this study of Goldsmith. -- Moyra Haslett * Times Higher Education *The book often reads like a collection of interconnected short stories. In this regard, Clarke joins several contemporary English writers whose works brilliantly mix group biography, history and literary criticism…[Brothers of the Quill] displays a comparable sprightliness and anecdotal abundance. -- Michael Dirda * Washington Post *Brothers of the Quill is a rich book about poor writers, the duckers, divers and hacks-for-hire scratching a living in Dr. Johnson’s London. It is also a forensic reconstruction of Grub Street at the dawn of literary journalism: the friendships, the rivalries, the reign of the publishers…Brothers of the Quill is part biography, part social history and part literary criticism. If you have not read Goldsmith already, you will find yourself wanting to do so. -- Frances Wilson * The Oldie *Brothers of the Quill elegantly topples conventional accounts of Goldsmith’s career. -- Aileen Douglas * Irish Times *In Brothers of the Quill Norma Clarke has made a significant and very readable contribution to 18th-century literary studies. -- Catherine Peters * Literary Review *Sir Joshua Reynolds described Oliver Goldsmith’s prose as ‘sprightly and animated.’ One could describe Norma Clarke’s similarly. Well-written, highly readable, and frequently witty, Brothers of the Quill offers a detailed account of Goldsmith’s milieu of improvident, mostly Irish authors, as they attempt to earn a living on Grub Street. Johnson, Boswell, Burke, and Reynolds, who receive their due elsewhere, appear aptly. Most significantly, Clarke makes the case for Goldsmith’s importance as a writer. -- Robert Folkenflik, University of California, IrvineWith its broad tableau and vividly drawn cast of characters, this book is a genuinely accessible and enlightening account of the working lives of Grub Street authors. -- Michael Griffin, University of LimerickNorma Clarke’s Brothers of the Quill follows Oliver Goldsmith’s rise from Irish hack to English national treasure. Goldsmith both cherished and reviled literary celebrity…Clarke say a great deal about the powerlessness of writers, and the growing authority of readers. -- Frances Wilson * Times Literary Supplement *Portrays an extraordinary period in literary history and captures the puzzling blend of principle and opportunism that defined Goldsmith’s career. -- Jonathan Wright * Catholic Herald *Clarke has made the literary life of the 18th century available and entertaining to the general reader. -- John Mullan * The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisFairy tales, often said to be timeless and fundamentally oral, have a long written history. This book argues that however a vital part of this history has fallen by the wayside. It refocuses the lens through which we look at fairy tales. It examines the evolution of the Anglo-American fairy tale and its place in this variegated history.Trade Review"In this elegant study the scholar Elizabeth Wanning Harries gives their due to the counteuses--the 17th century French ladies ... who entertained their salons with witty, sophisticated fantasies about imaginary princes and princesses... Harries suggests, with culture today fragmented into myriad products and market niches, fairy tales may be our only universal point of reference, the only cultural language we speak in common."--Amanda Heller, The Boston Globe "To read Harries's study is to have that all too rare experience of recognizing that this book needed to be written and is full of truths."--Choice "This is a highly readable work which engages with important questions in feminist literary criticism and fairy-tale research and offers a valuable and well-argued rereading of the history of the fairy tale."--Karen Seago, Marvels and TalesTable of ContentsLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii INTRODUCTION: Once, Not Long Ago 3 CHAPTER ONE: Fairy Tales about Fairy Tales: Notes on Canon Formation 19 CHAPTER TWO: Voices in Print: Oralities in the Fairy Tale 46 CHAPTER THREE: The Invention of the Fairy Tale in Britain 73 INTERLUDE: Once Again 99 CHAPTER FOUR: New Frames for Old Tales 104 CHAPTER FIVE: The Art of Transliteration 135 CONCLUSION: Twice-Told Tales 160 NOTES 165 BIBLIOGRAPHY 193 INDEX 211

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Book SynopsisOn the night of September 22, 1912, Franz Kafka wrote his story "The Judgment," which came out of him "like a regular birth." This act of creation struck him as an unmistakable sign of his literary destiny. This title traces the implications of Kafka's literary breakthrough.Trade Review"One of the most compelling and instructive books on Kafka to appear in recent years."--Choice "Readers of Lambent Traces will find themselves enraptured by Corngold's masterful explication of Kafka writing in ecstasy. This provocative work will constitute an exhilarating reading for literary scholars in general and Kafka scholars in particular."--David D. Kim, Focus on German StudiesTable of ContentsPreface xi Abbreviations for Kafka Citations xvii Introduction: Beginnings 1 Chapter 1 In the Circle of "The Judgment" 13 Chapter 2 The Trial: The Guilt of an Unredeemed Literary Promise 37 Segue I On Cultural Immortality 45 Chapter 3 Medial Interferences in The Trial 51 Or, res in Media Chapter 4 Allotria and Excreta in "In the Penal Colony" 67 Segue II Death and the Medium 81 Chapter 5 Nietzsche, Kafka, and Literary Paternity 94 Chapter 6 Something to Do with the Truth 111 Kafka's Later Stories Chapter 7 "A Faith Like a Guillotine" 126 Kafka on Skepticism Chapter 8 Kafka and the Dialect of Minor Literature 142 Chapter 9 Adorno's "Notes on Kafka" 158 A Critical Reconstruction Chapter 10 On Translation Mistakes, with Special Attention to Kafka in Amerika 176 Chapter 11 The Trouble with Cultural Studies 194 Notes 205 Acknowledgments 253 Index 255

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Book Synopsis"This book grew from the inaugural E. H. Gombrich Lectures in the Classical Tradition that I delivered in the autumn of 2013 at the Warburg Institute of the University of London, under the title, "Ancient Strength: Shakespeare and the Classical Tradition"--Preface, page ix.Trade Review"[In this] amazingly erudite new study . . . Jonathan Bate shows that this process of repurposing old stories has always been the point of Shakespeare."---Daniel Swift, The Spectator"[How the Classics Made Shakespeare is] frequently exquisite."---Elizabeth Winkler, Wall Street Journal"How the Classics Made Shakespeare deserves an accolade too seldom awarded to academic works: Besides being eminently readable, it proffers illuminating observations and facts on every page."---Michael Dirda, Washington Post"Jonathan Bate does not disappoint. . . . An absolute tour de force, a scholar non pareil, in every regard."---Ian Lipke, Queensland Reviewers Collective"His scholarship is impeccable, his writing clear and vibrant. The study is a real delight, never ponderous, wonderfully insightful."---Alan Dent, Penniless Press"Bate well reminds us that the survival of the classical world he has explored is under an even greater threat, as its literature and history recede from our educational curricula. We have even smaller Latin and even less Greek."---Paul Dean, The New Criterion"At his best, Bate is utterly enthralling . . . . [How the Classics Made Shakespeare] is a wonderful, enlightening read."---Chris Tudor, Argo"Bate is excellent at discussing text and context, Shakespeare and his contemporaries as well as the classics. Bate’s style is elegant, his learning informative, and his book rich beyond what a review can tell."---Jonathan Locke Hart, Renaissance & Reformation"Discussions of classical influence on Shakespeare have generally looked at specific quotes, references, and allusions. By contrast, in this thorough study notable Shakespeare scholar Jonathan Bate takes a different approach: he considers the influence of classical works on the Elizabethan mindset, arguing that one must consider the indirect, as well as the direct, influences of the classics on Shakespeare’s work and on its reception by an Elizabethan audience. The author ably demonstrates that looking at the indirect influences enables one to appreciate the profound influence of the classical tradition (particularly Ovid) not only on Shakespeare but on the broader Elizabethan understanding of the world. Having detailed the influence of the classical on Shakespeare, Bate then traces a similar dynamic for Shakespeare’s influence on contemporary readers. Smoothly paced—thanks to compact, well-focused chapters—this fascinating work is eminently readable. It offers new readings of Shakespeare’s works and new ways of thinking about the influence of literary tradition, and it provides deep contextualization with broad and well-supported references to classical and early modern works."---L. S. Stanavage, Choice Reviews"In a book as vigorous and often delightful as How the Classics Made Shakespeare, this should make any scholar – or perhaps just the ‘original’ ones – raise an eyebrow."---Micha Lazarus, Translations and Literature"How the Classics Made Shakespeare is the most comprehensive, detailed, and eloquent treatment of the topic by a single author we have . . . no one . . . has revealed so much about Shakespeare and the classics altogether as Bate . . . . [A] charming book."---Scott F. Crider, Moreana"Jonathan Bate’s luminous study presents Shakespeare anew as a Renaissance writer. . . . The classics, Bate argues, made Shakespeare sexy . . . Shakespeareans of every kind will read this book with profit and pleasure."---David Quint, Renaissance Quarterly

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewHonorable Mention for the 2013 Barbara and George Perkins Prize, The International Society for the Study of Narrative Honorable Mention for the 2011 Oscar Kenshur Book Prize, The Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies at Indiana University "[A]stonishing."--ChoiceTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Prologue xi Part One: Property, Personification, and Idols 1 Chapter 1: Owning Things 3 Chapter 2: The Crying of Lost Things 35 Chapter 3: Making Babies in the South Seas 55 Chapter 4: The Growth of Idols 78 Chapter 5: The Rape of the Lock as Still Life 98 Part Two: Persons and Fictions 127 Chapter 6: Locke's Wild Fancies 129 Chapter 7: Fictionality and the Representation of Persons 151 Part Three: Authors and Nonpersons 173 Chapter 8: 'Me and My Ink' 175 Chapter 9: Things as Authors 201 Chapter 10: Authors Owning Nothing 230 Bibliography 253 Index 267

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Artese’s anthology reinforces and opens the mind to another way to meet those audience needs, starting with the stories of the people. . . . A wonderful companion for any scholar or practitioner of classical theater, and it embraces the crossroads of study."---Kerry Kaleba, Journal of American Folklore

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Book SynopsisContemporary with the Romantic generation, peer of Keats, Holderlin, and Goethe, and forerunner of Valery and Pound, Ugo Foscolo is nevertheless little known outside Italy. In an endeavor to "discover" this exemplary European poet for English-speaking readers, and to "rediscover" him for Italian readers, Glauco Cambon examines both textually and coTable of Contents*FrontMatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. vii*Acknowledgments, pg. ix*Chapter I. Introduction: The Poetry of Exile, pg. 1*Chapter II. The Demon of Suicide and the Demon of Fiction, pg. 27*Chapter III. Vatic Exorcism: The Lyrics and the Sepulchers, pg. 117*Chapter IV. Vatic Conjuring: The Graces, pg. 182*Chapter V. The Act of Writing, pg. 300*Appendix. Sample Translations, pg. 333*Works Consulted, pg. 345*Index, pg. 351

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Book SynopsisSurprisingly little has been written in Western languages about the eighteenth- century Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber, perhaps the supreme masterpiece of its entire tradition. In this study, Andrew H. Plaks has used the conceptual tools of comparative literature to focus on the novel''s allegorical elements and narrative structure. He thereby succeeds in accounting for the work''s greatness in terms that do justice to its own narrative tradition and as well to recent advances in general literary theory.A close textual reading of the novel leads to discussion of a wide range of topics: ancient Chinese mythology, Chinese garden aesthetics, and the logic of alternation and recurrence. The detailed study of European allegorical texts clarifies the directions taken by comparable works of Chinese literature, and the critical tool of the literary archetype helps to locate the novel within the Chinese narrative tradition from ancient mythology to the more recent noveTable of Contents*Frontmatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. v*Preface, pg. vii*Introduction, pg. 1*I. Archetype and Mythology in Chinese Literature, pg. 11*II. The Marriage of Nii-kua and Fu-hsi, pg. 27*III. Complementary Bipolarity and Multiple Periodicity, pg. 43*IV. The Archetypal Structure of Dream of the Red Chamber, pg. 54*V. Allegory in Chinese and Western Literature, pg. 84*VI. Western Allegorical Gardens, pg. 127*VII. The Chinese Literary Garden, pg. 146*VIII. A Garden of Total Vision: The Allegory of the Ta-kuan Yiian, pg. 178*IX. Endings and Conclusions, pg. 212*Source Notes, pg. 225*Appendices, pg. 237*Bibliography, pg. 247*Index, pg. 261

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsJerry L. Curtis, La Providence: vicissitudes du dieu Voltairien Introduction I. La Période de l'optimisme cosmique II. La Saison du doute III. La Grande crise IV. L'Evolution vers l'absurde Conclusion David Berry, The Technique of literary digression in the fiction of Diderot Introduction Chapter I. The Philosophical works: literary antecedents of the digression in Diderot's work with reference to certain 'œuvres-clés' Chapter II. Les Bijoux indiscrets Chapter III. La Religieuse Chapter IV. Le Neveu de Rameau Chapter V. Jacques le fataliste Conclusion

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter I. The Contes en vers General remarks Critical reception Chapter II. The Satires General remarks Critical reception Chapter III. The Epîtres General remarks Epicurean epistles Autobiographical epistles Semi-autobiographical epistles Epistles to madame Du Châtelet Epistles revealing Voltaire's attitude towards women Epistles and stances to Frederick Royal epistles Miscellaneous epistles Critical reception Chapter IV. The Pièces fugitives General remarks Critical reception List of works consulted Index

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Book SynopsisIf Mme de Riccoboni’s novels were widely known to the reading public of the eighteenth century, her best and most original productions were reserved for the privileged few who received her letters.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction List of Letters Abbreviations and short titles The letters Index

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsSteve Larkin, Voltaire and Prévost: a reappraisal Theodore E. D. Braun and Gerald R. Culley, Aeschylus, Voltaire, and Le Franc de Pompignan's Prométhée: a critical edition

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsListe des illustrations I. TYPOGRAPHIE i. L'édition encadrée de Genève ii. Une contrefaçon encadrée Les pages de titre La pagination Caractères et éléments typographiques La répartition des textes Les errata Le tome quarante-unième iii. Conclusions II. TEXTOLOGIE i. Les cartons Recueils de cartons Editions avec feuillets supplémentaires Les avis au relieur ii. Tableau cumulatif iii. La bibliographie, auxiliaire indispensable Philosophie de l'écriture voltarienne Histoire de la genèse des éditions Index des titres Index thématique

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPreface Preface to second edition Chapter I. Voltaire: man and artist - basic interrelationships Chapter II. Candide and the genre of the philosophic tale Chapter III. Candide in its social setting Chapter IV. Theme: Candide's garden Chapter V. Theme: Eldorado Chapter VI. Character Chapter VII. Structure Chapter VIII. Style Chapter IX. Evaluation List of works mentioned in the text Index

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsChapter I. Nature and extent of the evidence Chapter II. Brief account of Mercier and his work Chapter III. Physionomie des Alpes Chapter IV. Physionomie de Paris Chapter V. Physionomie gothique des antiquités Chapter VI. 'Lèze-majesté racinienne' Chapter VII. Linguistic high treason Chapter VIII. Ecce Paris, ecce homo Chapter IX. Facts, figures and incidents Chapter X. Principles and methods Chapter XI. Visionary stylistics Chapter XII. Apocalyptic visions Chapter XIII. Elements of philosophy: sage and mage Conclusion Appendixes Bibliographical data Index of 'new' expressions and images

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapitre I. 'The literary inquisition' Chapitre II. Printers and readers Chapitre III. The theatre Chapitre IV. The Comédiens français Chapitre V. The writers (I) Chapitre VI. The writers (II) Chapitre VII. 'La Pauvre Académie française' Chapitre VIII. Other learned societies Chapitre IX. The Court (1728-1743) Chapitre X. The Court (1743-1750) Conclusion List of sources mentioned in the text Index

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