Description
The Oxford Handbook of English Prose1500-1640 is the only current overview of early modern English prose writing. The aim of the volume is to make prose more visible as a subject and as a mode of writing. It covers a vast range of material vital for the understanding of the period: from jestbooks, newsbooks, and popular romance to the translation of the classics and the pioneering collections of scientific writing and travel writing; from diaries, tracts on witchcraft, and domestic conduct books to rhetorical treatises designed for a courtly audience; from little known works such as William Baldwin's Beware the Cat, probably the first novel in English, to The Bible, The Book of Common Prayer and Richard Hooker's eloquent statement of Anglican belief, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. The work not only deals with the range and variety of the substance and types of English prose, but also analyses the forms and styles of writing adopted in the early modern period, ranging from the Euphuistic nature of prose fiction inaugurated by John Lyly's mannered novel, to the aggressive polemic of the Marprelate controversy; from the scatological humour of comic writing to the careful modulations of the most significant sermons of the age; and from the pithy and concise English essays of Francis Bacon to the ornate and meandering style of John Florio's translation of Montaigne's famous collection. Each essay provides an overview as well as comment on key passages, and a select guide to further reading. Review: This volume presents a landmark contribution to our understanding of early modern prose and its multitude of themes, subjects and authors ... a scholarly triumph. Patrick J. Murray, Journal of the Northern Renaissance This is a sturdy tome, expansive and comprehensive given the period it covers is one of no little interest. There is a 46 page bibliography as befits the width of the subject matter and a twelve page index. Without doubt an academic tome, it will sit well on any academic, public or specialist library's shelves and should be expected to meet a good cross-section of borrowers' needs. Stuart Bentley, Reference Reviews
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