The intellectual culture of Puritan women, 1558-1680

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Paul Fussell

In this classic work, Paul Fussell illuminates the British experience on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918, focusing primarily on the literary means by which The Great War has been remembered, conventionalized, and mythologized. Drawing on the work of important wartime poets such as David Jones and Wilfred Owen, on the memoirs of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, and Edmund Blunden, and on numerous other personal records housed in the Imperial War Museum, this award-winning volume provides an intimate and intensely poetic account of the event that revolutionized the way we see the world. It has been hailed as "humanly wise and compassionate" (Saturday Review), "original and brilliant" (Lionel Trilling), "bright and sensitive" (The New Yorker), and "probing, sympathetic, and illuminating" (The New Republic). It is an undisputed classic of cultural criticism. (from Amazon)

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Andrew Hadfield

"This 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." "Short biographical essays on 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, Dr. Faustus, The Faerie Queene, Othello, The Tragedy of Miriam, The Unfortunate Traveller and Utopia." "The volume charts the intricacies of English Renaissance literature, taking in such themes as women, gender and the question of homosexuality; the stage; printing and censorship; and humanism, education and rhetoric. Attention is also drawn to current debates in Renaissance criticism, such as New Historicism and Cultural Materialism. Thus the book provides students with an unparalleled foundation for further study." "Fully cross-referenced, with a useful chronology, glossary and suggestions for further reading, this much-needed guide conveys the excitement of reading Renaissance literature."--Jacket.

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Diana B. Altegoer

"Using the tools of rhetorical and poetic analysis, this study of Baconian science reveals how the construction of scientific and philosophical discourse in early-modern England cannot be separated from literary-rhetorical production and political partisanship. By calling into question the usual way of dividing disciplines into logic, rhetoric, and poetics, Bacon suggested the constructed nature of these disciplines, and of traditional forms of knowledge. Bacon did not call into being a fissure of science and the arts; rather he conceptualized a unique relationship between the two by creating an experimental (and rhetoricized) "logic" that allowed nature to shape and fashion the perceiving mind of the witness in order to advance the political fortunes of Elizabethan and Stuart England."--BOOK JACKET.

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Polly Alison Morrice

A guide to reading "A Tale of Two Cities" with a critical and appreciative mind. Includes background on the author's life and times, sample tests, term paper suggestions, and a reading list.