The Oxford Handbook of English Prose 1500-1640

The casual observer might be forgiven for believing that the literary output of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was predominantly in verse form, and predominantly drama. However, that same casual observer will be thoroughly disabused of the notion by the time they have made their way through the seven hundred plus pages of this addition to the Oxford Handbook series. In fact, English literature bloomed generally during the period, with pamphlets passing between courtiers on myriad subjects from religion, through politics, through rhetoric. This was the period that prose fiction, which would form the basis of the mass market for...