A scholarly edition of works by Christopher Marlowe. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

This book seeks to isolate the special factors that generate Wordsworth's greatness as a poet. Setting out from a dissatisfaction with the current trend towards New Historicism in Wordsworthian criticism, it endeavours to qualify the social and political bias of that criticism by a renewed assertion of the poetic primacy of the personal and the qualitative. Taking Marjorie Levinson's reading of `Tintern Abbey' as the book's starting point, McFarland sets forth a different way of approaching the poem, and then identifies `intensity' as the secret of Wordsworth's power. The permutations of that quality are illustrated by careful examinations of `Ruth', of the `spots of time', and of `Home at Grasmere', which is revealed as containing the incandescent centre of Wordsworth's values. There follow chapters on Wordsworth's dessication, which is seen as precisely the absence of intensity; and on the aspiration of The Recluse, which is seen to fail largely because the personal intensity necessary to complete the venture had been used up in the opening of `Home at Grasmere'. McFarland then discusses the special way in which Wordsworth assumed the prophetic stance which was essential to his poetic vision and was adopted in the intense personal confidence that he possessed the truth. The book concludes with a reading of The Borderers, not as a successful play but as a disposal chamber for the dark matter of Wordsworth's cosmos; the writing of the play is seen as necessary to clear the way for the purified current of Wordsworthian intensity to flow towards supreme poetic achievement.

A scholarly edition of letters by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of letters by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

An enhanced exam section: expert guidance on approaching exam questions, writing high-quality responses and using critical interpretations, plus practice tasks and annotated sample answer extracts. Key skills covered: focused tasks to develop analysis and understanding, plus regular study tips, revision questions and progress checks to help students track their learning. The most in-depth analysis: detailed text summaries and extract analysis to in-depth discussion of characters, themes, language, contexts and criticism, all helping students to reach their potential.

A scholarly edition of works by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of letters by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

The poetry of Michelangelo offers an insight into one of the greatest artists of all time, and is a notable literary achievement in its own right. This text lays out the broad chronological evolution of the poems and clarifies both their meaning and the verbal artistry that shaped their construction. The poetry is always quoted in Italian and in translation.

A scholarly edition of the poems of Thomas Gray. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of poems by Sir Philip Sidney. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of journals and letters by Fanny Burney. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of journals and letters by Fanny Burney. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of journals and letters by Fanny Burney. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of an essay by Sir Thomas Browne. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

Presents eight essays on translations and reinterpretations of Old Norse myth and saga from the eighteenth century.

William Blake's The Four Zoas is one of the most challenging poems in the English language, and one of the most profound. It is also one of the least read of the major poetic narratives of the Romantic period. Spiritual History presents a much-needed introduction to the poem, although it will also be of great interest to those already familiar with it. This is the first full-length study to examine in detail Blake's numerous manuscript revisions of the poem. It offers a staged reading, one that moves, as Blake himself moved, from simpler to more complex forms of writing. Andrew Lincoln reads the poem in the light of two competing views of history: the biblical, which places history within the framework of Fall and Judgement, and that of the Enlightenment, which sees history as progress from primitive life to civil order. In so doing, he offers an account of the narrative that is more coherent - and accessible - than much previous criticism of the work, and Blake's much misunderstood poem emerges as the most extraordinary product of the eighteenth-century tradition of philosophical history.

This book examines Diderot's and d'Holbach's views on determinism to illuminate some of the most important debates taking place in eighteenth-century Europe. Insisting on aspects of Diderot's and d'Holbach's thought that, to date, have been given scant, if any, scholarly attention, it proposes to restore both thinkers to their rightful position in the history of philosophy. The book problematises Diderot's and d'Holbach's atheism by showing their philosophy to be deeply rooted in the Christian tradition and offers a more nuanced and historicised interpretation of the so-called "Radical Enlightenment", challenging the notions that this movement can be taken to be a perfectly coherent set of ideas and that it represents a complete break with "the old". By examining Diderot's and d'Holbach's works in tandem and without post-romantic assumptions about originality and single authorship, it argues that the two philosophers' texts should be taken as the product of a fascinating collaborative form of philosophical enquiry that perfectly reflects the sociable nature of intellectual production during the Enlightenment. The book further proposes a fresh interpretation of such crucial texts as the Systeme de la nature and Jacques le fataliste et son maitre and unveils a key web of concepts that will help researchers to better understand Enlightenment philosophy and literature as a whole.

George Lillo's domestic tragedies provided the impetus for the development of new forms of serious drama during and after the eighteenth century, on the Continent as well as in the English-speaking theatre. This edition makes available for the first time all of the plays known or thought to have been written by the playwright, in reliable old-spelling texts following modern bibliographical principles. Some have not been reprinted since 1810. Even the much-studied London Merchant has not previously been published in an edition that recognizes the errors contained in the first edition and the authorial revisions introduced in early reprints. The introduction to each play treats its sources, histories of publication and reception in the theatre, and textual problems. The apparatus criticus and historical collations provide full bibliographical detail. Commentary notes discuss the author's use or adaptation of sources and furnish information about links among his own plays, topical background, and literary allusions. Steffensen edition makes possible an informed awareness of Lillo's lesser-known plays in a variety of genres, as an enlightening context for further study of these influential domestic dramas.