Robert C. Evans is Professor of English at Auburn University Montgomery, USA. He is the author or editor of approximately twenty books (more than half on the seventeenth century) and has won a number of teaching awards. Eric J. Sterling is Distinguished Research Professor at Auburn University Montgomery, USA. He has won several national awards for teaching, scholarship and pedagogy.

‘At once intellectually stimulating and genuinely useful, The Seventeenth-Century Literature Handbook is an invaluable resource: a faithful and accessible guide to the period's significant texts and literary approaches. Meticulously edited and thoughtfully organized, the Handbook is suitable for beginning and advanced students alike, offering both an introduction to the study of seventeenth-century English literature and a sophisticated survey of key concepts and contexts.' - Claude J. Summers, William E. Stirton Professor Emeritus, Humanities University of Michigan-Dearborn, USA

• Series Introduction; 1. Introduction: overview with timeline - Eric J. Sterling, Auburn University Montgomery, USA; Timeline - Deborah Cosier Solomon, Auburn University Montgomery, USA; 2. Historical Context - Richard Harp, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA; 3. Literary and Cultural Contexts: Major Figures, Institutions, Topics, Events, Movements - Brian Backley, North Carolina State University and Lara Crowley, Texas Tech University, USA; 4. Case Studies in Reading 1: Key Primary Literary Texts - Matthew Steggle, Sheffield-Hallam University, UK; 5. Case Studies in Reading 2: Key Theoretical and Critical Texts - James Hirsch, Georgia State University, USA; 6. Key Critical Concepts and Topics; 7. Changes in Critical Responses and Approaches - Robert C. Evans, Auburn University Montgomery, USA; 8. Changes in the Canon - Bruce Boehrer, Florida State University, USA; 9. Issues of Sexuality, Gender and Ethnicity - Raymond-Jean Frontain, University of Central Arkansas, USA; 10. Mapping the Current Critical Landscape - Albert C. Labriola, Duquesne University, USA; Glossary of critical and theoretical terminology; Annotated Bibliography; Appendix: Teaching, Curriculum and Learning; Index.