Mock-heroic is the exemplary genre of the English Augustan era: it is one of the few genres that the Augustans invented themselves, and it stands in a symbolic relation to a culture still reverential of the grandeurs of the classical past and uneasy about its ability to emulate them. Mock-Heroic from Butler to Cowper shows the protean nature of mock-epic at this time. It recounts the rise of mock-heroic, discusses the properties of the form, and explores its relation both to classical epic and to contemporary genres such as the poetic travesty and the novel. It also tracks the relation of mock-heroic to the concept to the sublime, especially to the low sublime unwittingly perfected by Richard Blackmore. Terry goes beyond previous commentators in arguing that mock-heroic was not merely a conventional genre, but also provided a supple discourse through which writers could represent a range of personal and social issues. He identifies mock-heroic properties in the Mandevillian discourse of economics and in the rhetoric of male gallantry towards women, in which women were simultaneously elevated and put down. He also sees mock-heroic as informing the idea of divine grace in the poetry and letters of William Cowper. Mixing a historical approach with incisive close readings, Terry provides a powerful re-evaluation of the form.

"For anyone who has ever wondered about the differences between metaphor and metonym or a trochee and a dactyl, this compact, well-organized handbook promises to be useful."
--"Library Journal"

Poetry: An Introduction is an accessible and clearly written introduction to the structural and methodological principles underpinning poetry and its study. It aims to equip the student, researcher, and general reader with a body of technical information that will sharpen and deepen their engagement with individual poems.

Strachan and Terry provide a lively map through what might on first experience seem the most daunting aspects of poetry: poetic sound effects, rhythm and meter, the typographic display of poems on the page, the language of poetry, and the use made by poets of techniques of comparison and association. The book's discussion of poetic terminology is allied throughout to illustrative readings that show the usefulness of the terminology in approaching particular poems; its emphasis is always a practical one, demonstrating how poems actually work.

Beginning with an historical overview of the development of English poetry from its earliest origins and finishing with an authoritative dictionary of poetical terms, Poetry: An Introduction is an indispensable guide to the understanding of poetry.

Concentrating on the period 1660-1781, this book explores how the English literary past was made. It charts how antiquarians unearthed the raw materials of the English (or more widely) British tradition; how scholars drafted narratives about the development of native literature; and how critics assigned the leading writers to canons of literary greatness. The author claims that the opening up and ordering of the English literary past occurs earlier than is generally supposed.

Quickly equips readers with the strategies to understand and deepen their engagement with individual poems Praise for the first edition: 'Wide-ranging, provocative, and thorough, Strachan and Terry provide the student with all the tools necessary for the study of poetry. I can think of no other volume that offers the reader so much in so few pages. This is the text of choice for all students and teachers of the subject.' Duncan Wu, University of Glasgow Based on their extensive teaching experience, the authors provide a lively route map through the main aspects of poetry such as sound effects, rhythm and metre, the typographic display of poems on the page and the language of poetry using practical examples throughout. o Packed full of examples, from the work of Shakespeare to Edwin Morgan and from Sylvia Plath to John Agard o Detailed index of poets, works, terms, forms & concepts o Full glossary of poetic terms, from /acatalectic/ to /wrenched accent/, with cross-references and page references of examples New for this edition: o End-of-chapter exercises and follow-up research tasks o New readings of modern women's poetry o Section on How to Write Poetry with exercises o Suggestions for further reading -- both books and websites

John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure has been described as the first erotic novel in English and is perhaps the greatest example of the genre. From the outset it was mired in disrepute. Cleland penned the novel to liberate himself from debtors' prison, and the book's manifestly lewd content led to its legal suppression within a year of publication. Though versions of the novel, nearly always abridged in some form, continued to find a way into print, the Memoirs remained an underground text until the 1960s. Only as that decade ushered in a culture less socially deferential and more sexually permissive was the moment opportune for the obscenity ban to be successfully challenged. Cleland's novel is a triumph of literary style, resting on his invention of an entirely new, vividly metaphoric, terminology for describing sexual pleasure.

Do you enjoy books which read like movies? If so, you will be amazed by the four interconnected stories actually lived by the novelist as an inner city teacher who overcame racism in a most unique way while also becoming a nationally collected visionary artist whose communication with the dead, experiences as a detective chasing perhaps the first 20th Century female killer, and One-Mind telepathic experiences are vividly presented in a hilariously serious manner as clearly as in a movie.

Richard Terry started work at the Oriental Club in 1851 and ten years later wrote this charming little book. The club had been founded in 1824 by officers of the East India Company who were not eligible for the military clubs of Pall Mall. Then as now, the Oriental Club's membership was composed of men who had lived or worked in the East, and it was for such men that Richard Terry wrote, no doubt to give them an authentic reminder of the dishes then enjoyed by the British Raj. Here you will find Perriwinkle Curry, Bullachong and Cuthree, Palantee and Bird Room Stew. As well as the 60 recipes there are fascinating advertisements from Oriental suppliers for such items as Tipparee Jam and Tapp Sauce, as well as from firms selling triturating and comminuting machines.