First published in 1968. By selective study of certain of the comedies, tragedies and sonnets, Philip Edwards views Shakespeare's work as a whole and explains why his art developed as it did. The work which the author sees Shakespeare striving to create is the perfect fusion of comedy and tragedy and he suggests that we are watching the progress of a mind as acutely conscious as anyone today of the disorder and lack of meaning in the world. Nevertheless, it remains faithful to the possibility that within the imaginable forms of drama there exists that play which will satisfy the basic human need for reassurance, order and control.

The third edition of Hamlet offers a completely new introduction to this rich, mysterious play, examining Shakespeare's transformation of an ancient Nordic legend into a drama whose philosophical, psychological, political, and spiritual complexities have captivated audiences world-wide for over 400 years. Focusing on the ways in which Shakespeare re-imagined the revenge plot and its capacity to investigate the human experiences of love, grief, obligation, and memory, Heather Hirschfeld explores the play's cultural and theatrical contexts, its intricate textual issues, its vibrant critical traditions and controversies, and its history of performance and adaptation by celebrated directors, actors, and authors. Supplemented by an updated reading list, extensive illustrations and helpful appendices, this edition also features revised commentary notes explicitly designed for the student reader, offering the very best in contemporary criticism of this great tragedy.

First published in 1968.
By selective study of certain of the comedies, tragedies and sonnets, Philip Edwards views Shakespeare's work as a whole and explains why his art developed as it did. The work which the author sees Shakespeare striving to create is the perfect fusion of comedy and tragedy and he suggests that we are watching the progress of a mind as acutely conscious as anyone today of the disorder and lack of meaning in the world. Nevertheless, it remains faithful to the possibility that within the imaginable forms of drama there exists that play which will satisfy the basic human need for reassurance, order and control.

First published in 1997, this volume challenges the belief that possessive individualists need states to restrain them from trespassing on the natural rights of others or from harming themselves and questions whether anarchy can be sustained to accommodate the long-term self-interests of possessive individualists. Issues discussed include Hobbes' response to the Foole, Libertarian Anarchism and the inevitability of a minimal state in anarchist society, along with tactics to avoid large wealth differentials.

First published in 1997, this volume challenges the belief that possessive individualists need states to restrain them from trespassing on the natural rights of others or from harming themselves and questions whether anarchy can be sustained to accommodate the long-term self-interests of possessive individualists. Issues discussed include Hobbes' response to the Foole, Libertarian Anarchism and the inevitability of a minimal state in anarchist society, along with tactics to avoid large wealth differentials.

The third edition of Hamlet offers a completely new introduction to this rich, mysterious play, examining Shakespeare's transformation of an ancient Nordic legend into a drama whose philosophical, psychological, political, and spiritual complexities have captivated audiences world-wide for over 400 years. Focusing on the ways in which Shakespeare re-imagined the revenge plot and its capacity to investigate the human experiences of love, grief, obligation, and memory, Heather Hirschfeld explores the play's cultural and theatrical contexts, its intricate textual issues, its vibrant critical traditions and controversies, and its history of performance and adaptation by celebrated directors, actors, and authors. Supplemented by an updated reading list, extensive illustrations and helpful appendices, this edition also features revised commentary notes explicitly designed for the student reader, offering the very best in contemporary criticism of this great tragedy.

This collection of fifteen original essays and one original poem explores the theme of "place" in the life, works, and afterlife of Edgar A. Poe (1809-1849). Poe and Place argues that "place" is an important critical category through which to understand this classic American author in new and interesting ways. The geographical "places" examined include the cities in which Poe lived and worked, specific locales included in his fictional works, imaginary places featured in his writings, physical and imaginary places and spaces from which he departed and those to which he sought to return, places he claimed to have gone, and places that have embraced him as their own. The geo-critical and geo-spatial perspectives in the collection offer fresh readings of Poe and provide readers new vantage points from which to approach Poe's life, literary works, aesthetic concerns, and cultural afterlife.

This collection of fifteen original essays and one original poem explores the theme of "place" in the life, works, and afterlife of Edgar A. Poe (1809-1849). Poe and Place argues that "place" is an important critical category through which to understand this classic American author in new and interesting ways. The geographical "places" examined include the cities in which Poe lived and worked, specific locales included in his fictional works, imaginary places featured in his writings, physical and imaginary places and spaces from which he departed and those to which he sought to return, places he claimed to have gone, and places that have embraced him as their own. The geo-critical and geo-spatial perspectives in the collection offer fresh readings of Poe and provide readers new vantage points from which to approach Poe's life, literary works, aesthetic concerns, and cultural afterlife.

Greek Cinema and Migration provides a response to urgent calls to comprehend the cultural impact of immigration in Greece, and to determine the capacity of contemporary Greek cinema to challenge the logic of Fortress Europe. Placing contemporary Greek cinema within the context of European film production and transnational cinema, the book explores the fascination of Greek filmmakers with migration, mobility, borders and identity, between 1991 and 2016. With case studies of films such as The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991), The Way to the West (2003), Man at Sea (2011) and many more, this ground-breaking book provides an in-depth understanding of contemporary Greek cinema and its direct correlation to the country's ongoing struggles to implement European modernity.

In this original and wide-ranging book, Philip Edwards examines the theme of pilgrimage in the works of a variety of major writers, including Shakespeare, Conrad, T. S. Eliot, Yeats, and Heaney. Edwards considers the original and early uses of the terms 'pilgrim' and 'pilgrimage' in life and literature, and demonstrates the importance, vitality and flexibility of pilgrimage as a literary theme over the centuries. The emphasis is almost wholly on post-reformation writers, analysing the theme of pilgrimage in major works where previously it has not been thought to exist, and marking an important departure from traditional studies of the pilgrim and pilgrimage in literature. With the character of Hamlet central to the discussion, Edwards argues the emergence in Shakespeare of a new tragic vision of pilgrimage, which perhaps had its beginnings in ancient Irish literature. This is a groundbreaking and unusual study, which encompasses centuries under a common, and vital, theme.

Although Shakespeare is acknowledged to be one of the greatest masters of language the world has known, there are very few books among the thousands devoted to his work which attempt to deal directly with how he uses language. No single book could deal with the 'infinite variety' of tone, diction, imagery, rhythm, and so on which together make up Shakespeare's different styles. But the editors of this book asked a number of distinguished Shakespearian scholars to give an account of what seemed to him or her some particularly interesting and important feature of Shakespeare's use of language. Using a quotation from Shakespeare as a starting point, some authors have focussed their discussion on individual plays; others have ranged more widely under general headings, such as bombast, rhetoric or paradox. The cumulative effect will enable readers, students and theatre-goers to come to a greater awareness of the richness and subtlety of 'Shakespeare's styles'. The three editors are senior Shakespeare critics and scholars and they have all been close associates of Professor Kenneth Muir. It was to honour the life-long devotion of Kenneth Muir to the study of Shakespeare, and to pay a tribute to the inspiration and help which he has given to those who have worked with him, that his new book was devised.

This is the first full study of one of the most popular and extensive forms of eighteenth-century literature, the voyage narrative. It illustrates the wide variety of published and unpublished material in this field, from self-satisfied official accounts to the little-known narratives of victims of the press-gang. It includes a survey of writings about the Pacific - including Cook's voyages and Bligh and The Bounty; there is a major new study of William Dampier, studies of writings about the slave-trade, and accounts of seamen and passengers, including Fielding and Mary Wollstonecraft. This is a book about writing, rather than exploration and adventure, dealing with the devious routes from the actuality of experience to the production of self-serving narratives. These are narratives of energy, vitality and interest, set within the context of British competitive sea-going imperialism.

Greek Cinema and Migration provides a response to urgent calls to comprehend the cultural impact of immigration in Greece, and to determine the capacity of contemporary Greek cinema to challenge the logic of Fortress Europe. Placing contemporary Greek cinema within the context of European film production and transnational cinema, the book explores the fascination of Greek filmmakers with migration, mobility, borders and identity, between 1991 and 2016. With case studies of films such as The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991), The Way to the West (2003), Man at Sea (2011) and many more, this ground-breaking book provides an in-depth understanding of contemporary Greek cinema and its direct correlation to the country's ongoing struggles to implement European modernity.

This imprint is established to publish in paperback for an individual readership the Press's most outstanding original monographs. These are titles which would normally appear in specialist hardback editions only, but whose quality and general academic importance justify their special promotion in this prestige imprint. The series will include both new and recent titles drawn from the whole range of the Press's very substantial publishing programmes in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and therefore represents some of the best current scholarship in the English language.

Aspects of Othello, with its companion volume, Aspects of Macbeth, brings together authoritative articles by distinguished Shakespeare scholars. In making their selections from the entire range of Shakespeare Survey volumes, Professors Kenneth Muir and Philip Edwards have borne the interest of general readers in mind as well as the needs of teachers and students. In each volume the plate section includes both the articles' original illustrations and new material and there are specially written prefaces by the editors.

Aspects of Macbeth, with its companion volume, Aspects of Othello, brings together authoritative articles by distinguished Shakespeare scholars. In making their selections from the entire range of Shakespeare Survey volumes, Professors Kenneth Muir and Philip Edwards have borne the interests of general readers in mind as well as the needs of teachers and students. In each volume the plate section includes both the articles' original illustrations and new material and there are specially written prefaces by the editors.

Vernacular Traditions of Boethius's "De consolatione philosophiae" provides an overview of the widespread reception and influence of Boethius's masterpiece in England and Germany, as well as in the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Catalonia, and Byzantium. As this work demonstrates, Boethius is not only a significant Roman author but also a significant translator and adaptor of works written originally in Greek, placing him firmly as an important figure at the moment of transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. As the two introductory articles in this collection affirm, Boethius is recognized as "the last of the Romans" and the "first of the Scholastics." Attested by the articles and the edition in this volume, Boethius's modern influence is global in its importance, not only through the dissemination of his theological and scholalry works, but through the many vernacularizations of his final testament to the world, his Consolatio.

Captain Cook's Journals provide his own vivid first-hand account of three extraordinary expeditions. These charted the entire coast of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia, and brought back detailed descriptions of Tahiti, Tonga, and a host of until then unknown islands in the Pacific. The journals amply reveal the determination, courage and skill which enabled Cook to wrestle with the continuous dangers of uncharted seas and the problems of achieving a working relationship with the peoples whose unannounced guest he became.

This edition, abridged from the definitive four-volume collection published by the Hakluyt Society, makes Cook's inimitable personal account of his nine years of voyaging widely accessible for the first time. The selection preserves the spirit and rhythm of the full narrative, as well as Cook's idiosyncratic spelling. Philip Edwards gives an introduction to each voyage together with maps, a glossary of unusual words and indexes of people and places. A postscript offers a full assessment of the continuing controversies surrounding Cook's death.