History of English Literature, Volume 2

Franco Marucci is a former Professor of English at the Universities of Siena, Florence and Venice Ca’ Foscari. His publications include Il senso interrotto. Autonomia e codificazione nella poesia di Dylan Thomas (1976), The Fine Delight that Fathers Thought: Rhetoric and Medievalism in Gerard Manley Hopkins (1994), L’inchiostro del mago. Saggi di letteratura inglese dell’Ottocento (2009) and Joyce (2013). His Storia della letteratura inglese in eight volumes was published by Le Lettere / Editoriale Srl, 2003–2018. As a creative writer he is the author of Pentapoli (2011), followed by Il Michelin del sacro (2012). He runs the blog , with comments and features on literature and music, and a weekly sports page.

«Franco Marucci’s History of English Literature is unique in its field. There is no other book that combines such erudition and authority in such a compact format. An indispensable work of reference.» (J.B. Bullen, Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College, Oxford)Praise for the Italian edition:«Franco Marucci’s Italian-language History of English Literature comes from one of the major Italian scholars in the field, and displays a quite extraordinary range and diversity. Here is information in depth for almost every taste and theoretical viewpoint, with ample guidance for any Italian seeking to find a path through the complexities of a literature in the process of turning itself from national debates into a world-wide culture. An extraordinary achievement!» (Stephen Prickett, Regius Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Glasgow, and an Honorary Professor of the University of Kent, at Canterbury)«Professor Marucci’s achievement is a beautiful and most useful one. After affording a store-house of historical and bibliographical information concerning XIXth century English literature, he now – [like] a new Virgil! – guides us through modern times and even the unexplored bushes of contemporary literary production. Not only Italian-speaking scholars, but as well most of «Romanist» readers will be able to derive advantage from his interpretation of our nearest culture.» (Dominique Millet-Gérard, Professeur de Littérature français et comparée á l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne)«The History of English Literature Franco Marucci is completing in Italian is a unique enterprise. A massive seven-volume work, it is the opus of a single scholar of renown in his country and at home with everything English, and a splendidly argued narrative of the long journey of literature in the English language in all its main thoroughfares and byroads from the times of Beowulf to the end of the second millennium. It contains new canons and quite a few surprises, and I would have no hesitation in recommending it to my British and American colleagues.» (Piero Boitani, FBA, Professor at Sapienza University of Rome)

• CONTENTS: Getting oriented in Shakespeare - Shakespeare and his critics - Organizing the dramatic canon - Biography - The Poems and the Sonnets - The narrative poems - The sonnets - Norm and anti-norm - Irradiation - The History Plays - The history plays - Henry VI - King Richard III - King Richard II - King John - Henry IV Part 1 - Henry IV Part 2 - Henry V - Henry VIII - The Euphuistic Comedies - The euphuistic comedies - The Comedy of Errors - The Taming of the Shrew - The Two Gentlemen of Verona - Love’s Labour’s Lost - A Midsummer Night’s Dream - The Roman Plays - The Roman plays - Titus Andronicus - Julius Caesar - Troilus and Cressida - Antony and Cleopatra - Coriolanus - The Tragedies and the Tragicomedies - The tragedies and the tragicomedies - Romeo and Juliet - The Merchant of Venice - Hamlet - Measure for Measure - Othello - Macbeth - King Lear - Timon of Athens - The Romantic and Dark Comedies - The romantic and dark comedies - Much Ado About Nothing - As You Like It - Twelfth Night - The Merry Wives of Windsor - All’s Well that Ends Well - The Romances and the Apocryphal Plays - The romances and the apocryphal plays - Pericles - Cymbeline - The Winter’s Tale - The Tempest - Apocrypha and plays in collaboration.