The House of Death: Messages from the English Renaissance - Hardcover

Arnold Stein

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801832969 ISBN 13: 9780801832963

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986

Synopsis

Originally published in 1986. In The House of Death, Arnold Stein studies the ways in which English poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries imagined their own ends and wrote of the deaths of those they loved or wished to honor. Drawing on a wide range of texts in both poetry and prose, Stein examines the representations, images, and figurative meanings of death from antiquity to the Renaissance. A major premise of the book is that commonplaces, conventions, and the established rules for thinking about death did not prevent writers from discovering the distinctive in it. Eloquent readings of Raleigh, Donne, Herbert, and others capture the poets approaching their own death or confronting the death of others. Marvell's lines on the execution of Charles are paired with his treatment of the dead body of Cromwell; Henry King and John Donne both write of their late wives; Ben Jonson mourns the death of a first son and a first daughter. For purposes of comparison, the governing perspective of the final chapter is modern.

About this title

About the Author

Arnold Stein, formerly Sir William Osler Professor of English Literature at Johns Hopkins University, was professor emeritus of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Among his previous books are John Donne's Lyrics: The Eloquence of Action and The Art of Presence: The Poet and "Paradise Lost." His George Herbert's Lyrics is also from Johns Hopkins University Press.

Reviews

With great skill, Stein sets forth the ideas of death that were current during the Renaissance, in part by examining in detail the poems in which great poets (e.g., Donne and Herbert) contemplate their own deaths and by comparing poems on the deaths of others (e.g., Marvell on the execution of Charles I and on viewing Cromwell's corpse). The typical problems involved in writing about deathknowledge and mystery, memory and lack of awarenessare sensitively handled, as are the relevant images of time, sleep, and love. Stein's final chapter uses the Renaissance views he has explored to illuminate contemporary ideas, particularly ideas of the relationship between mind and body. Highly recommended for academic libraries. Carolyn M. Craft, English, Philosophy , & Modern Language Dept., Longwood Coll., Farmville, Va.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801832969
• ISBN 13: 9780801832963
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 300