Description
Book SynopsisTHE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE HANDBOOK
Never a dull read, Marshall Grossman's elegant volume bristles with sharp ideas to inform, stimulate and challenge his audience.
Thomas Corns, Bangor University
The seventeenth century was a dramatic period in British history, witnessing two revolutions, huge constitutional change, the widening of the political and literary classes, and the gradual acceptance of women as authors. This easy-to-use Handbook offers readers a succinct overview of this complex period, guiding them through the principal literary works, figures and innovations of the time. Focusing on studying texts in context, Marshall Grossman explores the ways in which major works, including Hamlet, Paradise Lost and The Pilgrim's Progress, both reflected and helped to shape the history of the time, while concise sections on topics such as the Gunpowder Plot and the Pamphlet Wars allow the reader to engage more fully with the central themes an
Trade Review
“This project captures the generosity and elegance of Marshall Grossman’s teaching and scholarship and reminds us of why he will continue to be so much missed.” (Milton Quarterly, 16 October 2014)
"Written with a beginner audience in mind. Grossman provides an overview of seventeenth-century historical, literary, and cultural shifts, along with short essays on notable early seventeenth-century texts. The Seventeenth-Century Literature Handbook will be of particular interest to teachers of seventeenth-century literature courses, as the text would be appropriate to assign at the undergraduate level." (The Year's Work in English Studies, 2013)
Table of ContentsPreface xi
Chronology xv
Part 1 Texts and Contexts: An Overview 1
Reading the Historical Landscape 3
Renaissance and/or Reformation: From Elizabeth to James 5
New Science Leaves All in Doubt 14
Business and Trade 34
Breaking the State 59
The Restoration 86
The Short Reign of James II and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 97
The Production of Culture in the Seventeenth Century 104
Part 2 Topics in Seventeenth-Century Literature 125
Aemilia Lanyer and the Gendering of Genre 127
Changing Conventions: Hamlet and The Alchemist 141
Pamphlet Wars: To Kill a King! 149
Everything Happens Twice 166
Part 3 Some Key Texts 189
The Winter’s Tale 191
Areopagitica 203
Paradise Lost 212
The Pilgrim’s Progress 220
Part 4 Writers of the Seventeenth Century 225
Astell, Mary (1666–1731) 227
Bacon, Francis (1561–1626) 229
Baxter, Richard (1615–1691) 236
Beaumont, Francis (1584–1616) 240
Behn, Aphra (1640?–1689) 243
Boyle, Robert (1627–1691) 247
Browne, Sir Thomas (1605–1682) 250
Bunyan, John (1628–1688) 253
Burton, Robert (1577–1640) 257
Carew, Thomas (1594/5–1640) 259
Cavendish, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle (1623–1673) 261
Cowley, Abraham (1618–1667) 263
Crashaw, Richard (1613–1648) 265
Davenant, Sir William (1606–1668) 267
Donne, John (1572–1631) 270
Dryden, John (1631–1700) 278
Filmer, Sir Robert (1588–1653) 283
Fletcher, John (1579–1625) 285
Fox, George (1624–1691) 287
Hartlib, Samuel (1600–1662) 290
Herbert, George (1593–1633) 293
Herrick, Robert (1591–1674) 297
Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679) 299
Hutchinson, Lucy (1620–1681) 303
Hyde, Edward, First Earl of Clarendon (1609–1674) 306
Jonson, Ben (1572–1637) 309
Lanyer, Aemilia (1569–1645) 314
Locke, John (1632–1704) 316
Lovelace, Richard (1617–1657) 322
Marvell, Andrew (1621–1678) 325
Middleton, Thomas (1580–1627) 330
Milton, John (1608–1674) 333
Otway, Thomas (1652–1685) 342
Pepys, Samuel (1633–1703) 345
Philips, Katherine (1632–1664) 347
Shadwell, Thomas (1640–1692) 350
Shakespeare, William (1564–1616) 353
Suckling, Sir John (1609–1641) 358
Traherne, Thomas (1637–1674) 360
Vaughan, Henry (1621–1695) 364
Webster, John (1578?–1638?) 367
Wilmot, John, Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) 370
Wroth, Lady Mary (1587–1653?) 373
Works Cited 375
Index 387
