The Broadview Anthology of British Literature Volume 2: The Renaissance and the Early Seventeenth Century - Third Edition

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554812909 ISBN 13: 9781554812905

Publisher: Broadview Press, 2016

In all six of its volumes The Broadview Anthology of British Literature presents British literature in a truly distinctive light. Fully grounded in sound literary and historical scholarship, the anthology takes a fresh approach to many canonical authors, and includes a wide selection of work by lesser-known writers. The anthology also provides wide-ranging coverage of the worldwide connections of British literature, and it pays attention throughout to issues of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. It includes comprehensive introductions to each period, providing in each case an overview of the historical and cultural as well as the literary background. It features accessible and engaging headnotes for all authors, extensive explanatory annotations, and an unparalleled number of illustrations and contextual materials. Innovative, authoritative and comprehensive, The Broadview Anthology of British Literature has established itself as a leader in the field.

The full anthology comprises six bound volumes, together with an extensive website component; the latter has been edited, annotated, and designed according to the same high standards as the bound book component of the anthology, and is accessible by using the passcode obtained with the purchase of one or more of the bound volumes.

For the third edition of this volume a considerable number of changes have been made. Newly prepared, for example, is a substantial selection from Baldassare Castiglione’s The Courtier, presented in Thomas Hoby’s influential early modern English translation. Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy is another major addition. Also new to the anthology are excerpts from Thomas Dekker’s plague pamphlets. We have considerably expanded our representation of Elizabeth I’s writings and speeches, as well as providing several more cantos from Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene and adding selections from Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia. We have broadened our coverage, too, to include substantial selections of Irish, Gaelic Scottish, and Welsh literature. (Perhaps most notable of the numerous authors in this section are two extraordinary Welsh poets, Dafydd ap Gwilym and Gwerful Mechain.) Mary Sidney Herbert’s writings now appear in the bound book instead of on the companion website. Margaret Cavendish, previously included in volume 3 of the full anthology, will now also be included in this volume; we have added a number of her poems, with an emphasis on those with scientific themes.

The edition features two new Contexts sections: a sampling of “Tudor and Stuart Humor,” and a section on “Levellers, Diggers, Ranters, and Covenanters.” New materials on emblem books and on manuscript culture have also been added to the “Culture: A Portfolio” contexts section.

There are many additions the website component as well―including Thomas Deloney’s Jack of Newbury also published as a stand-alone BABL edition). We are also expanding our online selection of transatlantic material, with the inclusion of writings by John Smith, William Bradford, and Anne Bradstreet.

About the Author:

Of the ten general editors, Joseph Black and Anne Lake Prescott have focused on volume 2 particularly; they are professors at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and at Barnard College, respectively.

Our Editorial Team:

Joseph Black, University of Massachusetts
Leonard Conolly, Trent University
Kate Flint, University of Southern California
Isobel Grundy, University of Alberta
Roy Liuzza, University of Tennessee
Jerome McGann, University of Virginia
Anne Prescott, Barnard College
Barry Qualls, Rutgers University
Claire Waters, University of California, Davis

Review:

Comments on the Broadview Anthology of Literature:

“... an exciting achievement. It sets a new standard by which all other anthologies of British Literature will now have to be measured.” ― Graham Hammill, State University of New York, Buffalo

“With the publication of The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, teachers and students in survey and upper-level undergraduate courses have a compelling alternative to the established anthologies by Norton and Longman.... This is a very real intellectual, as well as pedagogical, achievement.” ― Nicholas Watson, Harvard University

“Forty-five years [after publication], the Norton remains the 800 lb. gorilla in the classroom. But it faces vigorous and growing competition from other anthologies, notably The Longman Anthology of British Literature and The Broadview Anthology of British Literature.... The most recent entry in the field, the Broadview, [is distinguished by its] selections, longer introductions, more visual material, and ... Web component.” ― The Chronicle of Higher Education

“... I have been using The Broadview Anthology of British Literature for three years now. I love it―and so do my students!” ― Martha Stoddard-Holmes, California State University, San Marcos