The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Volume 2 : The Renaissance and the Early Seventeenth Century

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 second edition of this volume a considerable number of changes have been made. William P. Weaver has provided us with a superbly revised and updated translation of More’s Utopia. We have added several additional sonnets from Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella, and we now include Spenser’s letter to Ralegh along with the selections from The Faeirie Queene. Isabella Whitney, who has been included in the website component of the anthology, is now included as part of the bound volume. Perhaps the most significant change for the new edition is the inclusion of more Milton. Samson Agonistes, which has been part of the website component, is now included in the bound book, and we now include more from Paradise Lost; Book 4 and Book 10 now appear in their entirety.

There have been a range of other additions to the website component of this volume of the anthology since the first edition was published―selections from Thomas Campion and Spenser’s The Shepheardes Calender, for example, are both now included in the website component. So too is Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, in a fine edition prepared by David Swain. Twelfth Night is one of several works from the anthology that we are also making available in a stand-alone Broadview Anthology of British Literature Edition; those wishing to teach the play will thus have the option of including it in bound book form as part of a specially-priced shrink-wrapped package, together with this volume of the anthology.

General Editors:

Joseph Black, University of Massachusetts
Leonard Conolly, Trent University
Kate Flint, University of Southern California
Isobel Grundy, University of Alberta
Don LePan, Broadview Press
Roy Liuzza, University of Tennessee
Jerome J. McGann, University of Virginia
Anne Lake Prescott, Barnard College
Barry V. Qualls, Rutgers University
Claire Waters, University of Virginia