Renaissance and reformations : an introduction to early modern English literature /

Hattaway (Univ. of Sheffield, UK) provides an elegantly written guide not only to English Renaissance literature but also to the multiple early modern discourses that impinged on it. Early chapters examine the rhetorical training, heavy on imitation, received by students; the reception, publication, and staging of literary texts; and the interplay between ancient example and Renaissance invention in the development of English genres. The remaining chapters consider the ways English writers constructed a sense of national identity from their explorations of the past and present, their development of fictional people and places, and their confrontations with sectarianism and religious skepticism. The virtues of this book include its concision (a remarkable accomplishment considering the scope of the study) and its emphasis on the importance of language to all levels of Renaissance thought. Undergraduates who wish to read a complete introduction to this subject may prefer this volume to Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature, ed. by David Loewenstein and Janel Mueller (CH, Oct'03, 41-0771), which is outstanding but daunting at 1,038 pages. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. All readers; all levels. A. L. Ellis Western Michigan University