Description
Book SynopsisAddressing early modern scholars, classicists, historians, literary critics and scholars of imitation and adaptation of all levels, this book reveals how the work of Ovid, poet-philosopher of literary innovation and the liberty of speech, catalysed the extraordinary rise of new and audacious poetic forms during the English Renaissance.
Trade Review'This is a truly excellent study. I am not sure there is anyone else who has Heather James's particular combination of critical gifts: here we see reading and writing with great purpose and freshness, clear and flexible thinking shedding new light on well-known texts and connections, and a strong and original argument that proceeds so smoothly and generously that it changes your mind decisively almost without you realising it.' Raphael Lyne, University of Cambridge
'An erudite, pathbreaking achievement … Highly recommended.' N. Lukacher, Choice Connect
Table of Contents1. Flower power: political discontents in Spenser's flowerbeds; 2. Loving Ovid: Marlowe and the liberties of erotic elegy; 3. Shakespeare's Juliet: the Ovidian girlhood of the boy actor; 4. In pursuit of change: the Metamorphoses in A Midsummer Night's Dream; 5. The trial of Ovid: Jonson's defense of poetic liberty.
