Anne Barton's essays on Shakespeare and his contemporaries are characterized by their combination of intelligence, humanity and elegance. In this linked but wide-ranging collection, addressing such topics as Shakespeare's trust--and mistrust--of language, "hidden kings" in the Tudor and Stuart history play, and comedy and the city, Barton looks at both major and neglected plays of the period and the ongoing dialogue between them.

The Shakespearean Forest, Anne Barton's final book, uncovers the pervasive presence of woodland in early modern drama, revealing its persistent imaginative power. The collection is representative of the startling breadth of Barton's scholarship: ranging across plays by Shakespeare (including Titus Andronicus, As You Like It, Macbeth, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Timon of Athens) and his contemporaries (including Jonson, Dekker, Lyly, Massinger and Greene), it also considers court pageants, treatises on forestry and chronicle history. Barton's incisive literary analysis characteristically pays careful attention to the practicalities of performance, and is supplemented by numerous illustrations and a bibliographical essay exploring recent scholarship in the field. Prepared for publication by Hester Lees-Jeffries, featuring a Foreword by Adrian Poole and an Afterword by Peter Holland, the book explores the forest as a source of cultural and psychological fascination, embracing and illuminating its mysteriousness.

The Shakespearean Forest, Anne Barton's final book, uncovers the pervasive presence of woodland in early modern drama, revealing its persistent imaginative power. The collection is representative of the startling breadth of Barton's scholarship: ranging across plays by Shakespeare (including Titus Andronicus, As You Like It, Macbeth, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Timon of Athens) and his contemporaries (including Jonson, Dekker, Lyly, Massinger and Greene), it also considers court pageants, treatises on forestry and chronicle history. Barton's incisive literary analysis characteristically pays careful attention to the practicalities of performance, and is supplemented by numerous illustrations and a bibliographical essay exploring recent scholarship in the field. Prepared for publication by Hester Lees-Jeffries, featuring a Foreword by Adrian Poole and an Afterword by Peter Holland, the book explores the forest as a source of cultural and psychological fascination, embracing and illuminating its mysteriousness.

In her introduction to this brilliant and outrageous literary landmark, Anne Barton places Don Juan within the context of Byron's life and reading, and offers an interpretation of the poem which demonstrates its underlying coherence and artistic integrity, despite Byron's mischievous protestations to the contrary. A long chapter on the reception of the poem considers some of the attempts to imitate or continue it, using them to define what is fundamental to Byron's own handling of the Don Juan legend.

Anne Barton's essays on Shakespeare and his contemporaries are characterized by their combination of intelligence, humanity and elegance. In this linked but wide-ranging collection she addresses such diverse issues as Shakespeare's trust (and mistrust) of language, the puzzle of Falstaff's inability to survive in a genuinely comic world, the unconsummated marriage of Imogen and Posthumus in Cymbeline, Shakespeare's debt to Livy and Machiavelli in Coriolanus, 'hidden' kings in the Tudor and Stuart history play, comedy and the city, and deer-parks as places of liberation and danger in English drama up to and beyond the Restoration. Professor Barton looks at both major and neglected plays of the period and the ongoing dialogue between them. Taken together the essays reveal a remarkable range of reference and depth of insight, together with an increasing emphasis on historical and social contexts.

Since the Romantic period, Jonson has been an author more respected than read. Frequently compared with Shakespeare, he usually suffers unfairly from the comparison. In this book Anne Barton gives a reading of the plays which completely re-evaluates Jonson as a dramatist. Describing in detail his experimentation with different comic styles and his changing relationship to other Elizabethan and Jacobean poets, particularly Shakespeare, she brings us closer than ever before to Jonson as a man, and as a great artist in comedy. The book proceeds chronologically, play by play, examining such important topics as Jonson's treatment of women, trust among individuals, father and son relationships, and proper names. Anne Barton argues that, despite his espousal of classical principles of decorum and restraint, Jonson was always drawn temperamentally towards the irregular, romantic Elizabethan tradition.

The Angel Connection (Historical Fiction, Romance, Women's Fiction) Get swept away in this epic riveting love story. Set in mystical Bucks County Pennsylvania, birthplace of the Pennsylvania Impressionist movement, The Angel Connection reveals the story of two women in two worlds, hurtling through time toward the inevitable collision of their twin destinies. In the vein of The French Lieutenant's Woman and Outlander, The Angel Connection deftly combines historical and contemporary fiction to create a timeless love story told by two female protagonists born a century apart but mysteriously linked by long held secrets. In 1996 television journalist Morgan Reed is suddenly unemployed after a humiliating and very public divorce. Her estranged son Chad won't return calls. Escaping Philadelphia for the obscurity of a remote country village, she impulsively moves into the old Rectory. Soon unsettling paranormal events lead Morgan to believe that the house is haunted. When her charming but enigmatic neighbor Victor Cenzo invites her to collaborate on a documentary about the local painters of the Impressionist era, the two are drawn into a passionate but disquieting affair. Victor is a dance away lover. Soon her resentful son is back in the picture creating a tense triangle in which Morgan's loyalties are severely tested. With the start of filming, pieces of a century old mystery are illuminated and smoldering karmic embers ignite. And in a parallel universe ... In 1895 Evangeline Laury, the beautiful restless wife of a zealot preacher is torn between her role as obedient wife and mother and her birthright as a gifted artist. When she is drawn into a forbidden affair with a charismatic local Impressionist painter, unspeakable tragedy results, leaving her a virtual prisoner in the Rectory. Through courage and cunning she ultimately seizes the destiny that was hers from the beginning. Morgan and Evangeline, two women separated by a century, both struggle to fulfill their needs for creative expression, true love and familial duty. Bound together by universal forces beyond their control the two women's pasts meld into the present, fanning the fires of a shuddering retribution. Where does one story end and the other begin?

HOW FAR WILL TEMPTATION TAKE HIM . . .
Lady Olivia Sherbourne isn't shy about speaking her mind, except when it comes to James Averill. For ten long years he has been her brother's best friend and her heart's only desire. But when Olivia hears James will soon set sail for an expedition to Egypt, she knows the time has come to make her move. It's now or never . . .
James has always found Olivia bewitchingly attractive, but what kind of gentleman takes up with his best friend's sister? Not that he's thinking particularly gentlemanly thoughts when she appears on his exploratory trip-three hundred miles from home -and incites a tavern fight. No matter what the devil she's doing there, it's his duty to see her safely back to her family. But how safe will she be when every starlit night brings wicked temptation . . . ?

SOME RULES SIMPLY BEG TO BE BROKEN
A dressmaker in London's busiest shop, Miss Anabelle Honeycote overhears the ton's steamiest secrets-and (occasionally) uses them to her advantage. It isn't something she's proud of, but the reluctant blackmailer needs the money to care for her gravely ill mother. To make up for her misdeeds, Anabelle keeps to a firm set of rules:
Never request payment from someone who cannot afford it.
Never reveal the secrets of a paying client.
Never enter into any form of social interaction with a client.
Her list keeps her (somewhat) honest-until she encounters Owen Sherbourne, the Duke of Huntford.
Not only does Owen nip Anabelle's extortion plans in the bud, the devilishly handsome Duke soon has the sexy seamstress dreaming of more than silks and satins. With Owen Anabelle enjoys pleasures she never imagined. . . until a scandal from the past resurfaces. Now her rules could mean his family's ruin. Owen's searing kisses carry the promise of passion, but how will he react when Anabelle's most devastating secret is finally revealed?

The theme of the great Shakespearean tragedies is the fall from grace of a great man due to a flaw in his nature. Whether it is the ruthless ambition of Macbeth or the folly of Lear, the irresolution of Hamlet or the suspicion of Othello, the cause of the tragedy - even when it is the murder of a king - is trifling compared to the calamity that it unleashes. Despite his flawed nature, however, the tragic hero has a nobility that emphasizes the greatness of man. From this paradox the audience is brought to a greater understanding of - and sympathy with - suffering. The four tragedies in this collection are accompanied by notes and an introduction to each text, making this edition of particular value to students and theatre-goers.