Chapter and Verse

A Reader's History of English Literature

AvPeter Brown

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

Del i serien *Wiley-Blackwell

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Beskrivning

Presents a personal and thematic journey through English literature from Chaucer to the present Chapter and Verse: A Reader's History of English Literature offers a compelling reimagining of literary history—one that places the reader's experience at the heart of the narrative. Unlike traditional surveys of English literature that prioritize chronology and critical consensus, Peter Brown's approach emphasizes the subjective, evolving relationship between reader and text. This unique perspective addresses a long-standing gap in the field, emphasizing the emotional and intellectual engagements that shape how literature is received, remembered, and reinterpreted across a lifetime. Structured around thematic chapters—such as “Performance,” “Fragments,” and “Home”— Chapter and Verse spans the medieval to the contemporary, exploring Chaucer, Shakespeare, Eliot, and other canonical figures alongside neglected or overlooked authors such as Charlotte Dacre and Abdulrazak Gurnah. Each chapter blends literary analysis with personal narrative, beginning with formative reading experiences and culminating in a scholarly vantage point honed over decades of teaching. The result is both intimate and instructive, offering detailed engagements with texts and authors contextualized within broader literary movements. Uniquely integrating personal memoir with a thematic and chronological overview of English literature, Chapter and Verse: Explores literature's emotional and transformative power through lived reading experiencesReflects decades of university-level teaching across the full span of English literary historyProvides accessible entry points into complex literary periods through thematic framingIncludes notes and recommended readings at the end of each chapter to encourage further explorationOffers a fresh pedagogical approach that highlights how personal engagement can enhance critical analysisChapter and Verse: A Reader's History of English Literature is a must-read for advanced secondary students, undergraduates, and postgraduates studying English literature, as well as general readers seeking a more personal connection to the history of English literature.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2026-02-04
Mått:152 x 229 x 16 mm
Vikt:425 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:*Wiley-Blackwell
Antal sidor:288
Förlag:John Wiley and Sons Ltd
ISBN:9780631219743

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PETER BROWN is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Kent and former Academic Director of its Paris School of Arts and Culture. A Fulbright Scholar and founding editor-in-chief of Literature Compass, he also serves as general editor of the Blackwell Histories of Literature series. His teaching portfolio spans the full breadth of English literary history in both the UK and the US.

Innehållsförteckning

Timeline xiPrologue xivAcknowledgements xix1 ‘In the Beginning’: How Religion Fostered Poetry, Narrative and Drama 1Initiation 1The Book of Common Prayer 5Drama of the Liturgy 8Mystery Plays 9The Canterbury Crucifixion 12Continuity and Change 16Notes 172 ‘… Was the Word’: On Being Taught ‘English Literature’ 19A Bookish Man 19Hanley High School 21Encountering Geoffrey Chaucer 23Revolt 32Notes 353 Romance: Love Stories from Ancient Troy and the Court of King Arthur 38Carmountside 38Romance 40Chaucer Revisited 42Embraces 47The Gawain Poet 49Thomas Malory 55Notes 614 Translations: Inspirations from Other Cultures 63Translating and Adapting 63Radical Shifts 65William Langland 68Allegory 73Edmund Spenser 75Philip Sidney 78The Sonnet Craze 80Notes 835 Performance: Playacting on Stage and in Everyday Life 85Roleplay 85Shakespeare’s Theatre 89John Donne 94Lancelot Andrewes 97George Herbert 98Silent Actors 99John Milton 101Aphra Behn 104Notes 1066 Difference: The Age of Satire and the Birth of the Novel 109A Mistake 109John Dryden 112Alexander Pope 114Jonathan Swift 116Daniel Defoe 118Henry Fielding 120Laurence Sterne 122In the Archives 123New Perspectives 125Notes 1287 Margins: Breaking the Frame 131Relevance 131William Blake 134William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge 136John Clare 140Lord Byron 142John Keats 145Percy Bysshe Shelley 147Mary Shelley 149Charlotte Dacre 153Jane Austen 154Notes 1578 Identity: Work in Progress 160Sink or Swim 160Charlotte Brontë 165Emily Brontë 167Anne Brontë 169W M Thackeray 171Charles Dickens 173George Eliot 176Anthony Trollope 181Robert Browning 183Elizabeth Barrett 184Notes 1869 Fragments: The World Upended 188Garbutt’s Ark 188Thomas Hardy 191Joseph Conrad 195D H Lawrence 199Poetry of the First World War 202Early T S Eliot 210Notes 21210 Home: Sanctuary and Exile 214The Sewing Kit 214James Joyce 217Virginia Woolf 222George Orwell 226Later Eliot 228W H Auden 229John Osborne 231Samuel Beckett 232Seamus Heaney 233Abdulrazak Gurnah 234Notes 238Epilogue 240Index 245