English Prose of the Seventeenth Century 1590-1700 (Longman Literature In English Series)

This is the first book-length history of the range of seventeenth-century English prose writing. Roger Pooley's study begins with narrative, ranging from the fiction of Bunyan and Aphra Behn to the biographical and autobiographical work of Aubrey and Pepys. Further sections consider religious prose from the hugely influential Authorised Version to Donne's sermons, the political writing of figures as diverse as Milton, Hobbes, Locke and Marvell, cornucopian texts and the writings of the new scientists from Bacon to Newton. At a time when the boundaries of the `canon' are being increasingly revised, this is not only a major survey of a series of great works of literature, but also a fascinating social history and a guide to understanding the literature of the period as a whole. Cover English Prose of the Seventeenth Century Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Longman Literature in English Series Editors' Preface Author's Preface Introduction: Reading Seventeenth-Century Prose Part One: Narrative 1 Elizabethan Fiction 2 Restoration Fiction 3 History 4 Biography 5 Autobiography Part Two: Religious Prose 6 The English Bible 7 The Sermon Lancelot Andrewes John Donne Puritan preaching Restoration preaching 8 Devotions and Meditations 9 Politicised Religion 'Martin Marprelate' Richard Hooker: Of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity John Milton Radical religion Part Three: Essays and Cornucopian Texts 10 The Essay Florio's Montaigne The essays of Francis Bacon Cowley and Temple 11 The Cornucopian Text Nashe: Pierce Penniless his Supplication to the Devil and Nashe's Lenten Stuff Burton: The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621-41) Browne: Pseudodoxia Epidemica, The Garden of Cyrus and Hydriotaphia Part Four: The Discourse of Modernity: New Idioms in Science and Politics 12 The Great Instauration and the Royal Society Francis Bacon Thomas Sprat and John Wilkins William Harvey, Robert Boyle and John Evelyn Isaac Newton 13 Power and Idiom in Politics Thomas Hobbes Filmer and Locke Harrington's Oceana Banter and balance: Marvell and Halifax Chronology General Bibliographies (i) Historical and contextual studies (ii) General studies of the prose (iii) Other relevant literary criticism (iv) Anthologies (v) The English Bible Individual Authors Notes on biography, editions and further reading Index The multi-volume Longman Literature in English Series provides students of literature with a critical introduction to the major genres in their historical and cultural context. Each volume gives a coherent account of a clearly defined area, and the series, when complete will offer a practical and comprehensive guide to literature written in English from Anglo-Saxon times to the present. The aim of the series as whole is to show that the most valuable and stimulating approach to the study of literature is that based upon an awareness of the relations between literary forms and their historical contexts. Thus the areas covered by most of the separate volumes are defined by period and genre. Each volume offers new and informed ways of reading literary works, and provides guidance for further reading in an extensive reference section. As well as studies on all periods of English and American literature, the series includes books on criticism and literary theory, and on the intellectual and cultural context. Part of the Longman Literature in English series which aims to provide students of literature with a critical introduction to the major genres in their historical and cultural context. This volume considers English prose during the 17th-century.