David Womersley – författare

Spanning thirteen centuries from the age of Trajan to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, DECLINE & FALL is one of the greatest narratives in European Literature. David Womersley's masterly selection and bridging commentary enables the readerto acquire a general sense of the progress and argument of the whole work and displays the full variety of Gibbon's achievement.

Edward Gibbon's six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88) is among the most magnificent and ambitious narratives in European literature. Its subject is the fate of one of the world's greatest civilizations over thirteen centuries - its rulers, wars and society, and the events that led to its disastrous collapse. Here, in volumes one and two, Gibbon charts the vast extent and constitution of the Empire from the reign of Augustus to 395 ad. And in a controversial critique, he examines the early Church, with fascinating accounts of the first Christian and last pagan emperors, Constantine and Julian.

Edmund Burke was one of the foremost philosophers of the eighteenth century and wrote widely on aesthetics, politics and society. In this landmark work, he propounds his theory that the sublime and the beautiful should be regarded as distinct and wholly separate states - the first, an experience inspired by fear and awe, the second an expression of pleasure and serenity. Eloquent and profound, A Philosophical Enquiry is an involving account of our sensory, imaginative and judgmental processes and their relation to artistic appreciation. Burke's work was hugely influential on his contemporaries and also admired by later writers such as Matthew Arnold and William Wordsworth. This volume also contains several of his early political works on subjects including natural society, government and the American colonies, which illustrate his liberal, humane views.

Edward Gibbon's six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88) is among the most magnificent and ambitious narratives in European literature. Its subject is the fate of one of the world's greatest civilizations over thirteen centuries - its rulers, wars and society, and the events that led to its disastrous collapse. Here, in volumes three and four, Gibbon vividly recounts the waves of barbarian invaders under commanders such as Alaric and Attila, who overran and eventually destroyed the West. He then turns his gaze to events in the East, where even the achievements of the Byzantine emperor Justinian and the campaigns of the brilliant military leader Belisarius could not conceal the fundamental weaknesses of their empire.

Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire compresses thirteen turbulent centuries into an epic narrative shot through with insight, irony and incisive character analysis. Sceptical about Christianity, sympathetic to the barbarian invaders and the Byzantine Empire, constantly aware of how political leaders often achieve the exact opposite of what they intend, Gibbon was both alert to the broad pattern of events and significant revealing details.

This volume contains a generous selection from the essays Johnson published twice weekly as 'The Rambler' in the early 1750s. It was here that he first created the literary character and forged the distinctive prose style that established him as a public figure. Also included here is the best of Johnson's later journalism, including essays from the periodicals 'The Adventurer' and 'The Idler'.

Gibbon was unabashed in acknowledging that his career as an historian was fuelled by a desire for fame, and the success of The Decline and Fall indeed furnished him with 'a name, a rank, a character, in the World' to which he would not otherwise have been entitled. Eventually this public reputation was pleasing to him, and nourished his innocent vanity. Initially, however, it was a reputation he resented, and was determined to resist. In particular, the denunciation by the spokesmen for religious orthodoxy of Gibbon's treatment of Christianity was (so Gibbon contended) a vicious misrepresentation.The subject of this book is the story of the conflict between Gibbon and those he mockingly dubbed the 'Watchmen of the Holy City', and it explores the ramifications of an elusive aspect of authorship. By considering the sequence of interactions between the historian and his readership, Womersley makes possible a more intimate understanding of what might be called Gibbon's experience of himself. At the same time he deepens our knowledge of the conditions of English authorship during the later decades of the eighteenth and the early decades of the nineteenth centuries, from the opening of the war with the American colonies, down to the successful conclusion of the wars with revolutionary and Napoleonic France.

This volume in the 21st-Century Oxford Authors series offers students an authoritative, comprehensive selection of the work of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). Accompanied by full scholarly apparatus, the edition enables students to study Johnson's work in the order in which it was written, and, wherever possible, using the text of the first published version. The volume presents a selection of Johnson's most important writings, drawn from all periods of his life. It reflects almost completely the range of literary forms in which Johnson wrote, including poetic translation, biographical sketches, literary criticism, and letters. It includes a broad selection from The Rambler (17501752) and The Idler (17581760), along with the travel narrative A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775), and a selection from The Lives of the Poets (1781). David Womersleys introduction explores how Johnsons mastery of style enabled him to adopt various personae, sometimes simultaneously, in order to communicate through many different genres and registers. Johnson is shown to be an active participant in the philosophical and social currents of his time. This selection reveals an author driven by deeply-held principles, concerned with how the ethical, political, and affective dimensions of language go beyond vocabulary and reach into the lives of its users. Explanatory notes and commentary are included to enhance the study, understanding, and enjoyment of these works, and the edition includes an Introduction to the life of Johnson, and a Chronology.

In 1589 the Privy Council encouraged the Archbishop of Canterbury to take steps to control the theatres, which had offended authority by putting on plays which addressed 'certen matters of Divinytie and of State unfitt to be suffred'. How had questions of divinity and state become entangled? The Reformation had invested the English Crown with supremacy over the Church, and religious belief had thus been transformed into a political statement. In the plentiful chronicle literature of the sixteenth-century, questions of monarchical legitimacy and religious orthodoxy became intertwined as a consequence of that demand for a usable national past created by the high political developments of the 1530s.Divinity and State explores the consequences of these events in the English historiography and historical drama of the sixteenth century. It is divided into four parts. In the first, the impact of reformed religion on narratives of the national past is measured and described. Part II examines how the entanglement of the national past and reformed religion was reflected in historical drama from Bale to the early years of James I, and focuses on two paradigmatic characters: the sanctified monarch and the martyred subject. Part III considers Shakespeare's history plays in the light of the preceding discussion, and finds that Shakespeare's career as a historical dramatist shows him eventually re-shaping the history play with great audacity. Part IV corroborates this reading of Shakespeare's later history plays by reference to the dramatic ripostes they provoked.

A superb new edition of the essays of one of the greatest prose writers in EnglishDavid Hume reshaped, redirected, and re-energised the English essay. His sceptical, rational, self-questioning persona created what amounted to a new intellectual arena, in which it was possible to think afresh about the world and the self. When he famously wrote that ‘the life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster’, something had changed.David Womersley has spent a lifetime studying the literature of the eighteenth century. This definitive new two-volume edition of the essays follows Hume’s division of his essays into two parts, and allows the modern reader to enjoy this extraordinary writer in all his moods, from benign optimism to gloomy foreboding. The editorial apparatus supplies indispensable intellectual and bibliographical context for these rewarding, humane, and yet also subtly provocative writings.Volume 1 is published simultaneously.

A superb new edition of the essays of one of the greatest prose writers in EnglishDavid Hume reshaped, redirected, and re-energised the English essay. His sceptical, rational, self-questioning persona created what amounted to a new intellectual arena, in which it was possible to think afresh about the world and the self. When he famously wrote that ‘the life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster’, something had changed.David Womersley has spent a lifetime studying the literature of the eighteenth century. This definitive new two-volume edition of the essays follows Hume’s division of his essays into two parts, and allows the modern reader to enjoy this extraordinary writer in all his moods, from benign optimism to gloomy foreboding. The editorial apparatus supplies indispensable intellectual and bibliographical context for these rewarding, humane, and yet also subtly provocative writings.Volume 2 is published simultaneously.

David Womersley's book investigates Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as both a work of literature and a work of history, examining its style and irony, tracing its classical and French sources, and highlighting the importance of its composition in three instalments over a period of twenty years. Dr Womersley discusses each of these instalments in detail, plotting the work's transformation from conception to completion, and relating this to the achievements and limitations of the philosophic historiography which Gibbon inherited from Montesquieu and Hume, but finally discarded. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire emerges from this study as a work more flexible in its sympathies and surprising in its judgements than has hitherto been granted, while the magnitude of Gibbon's achievement as a stylist, historian and thinker is brought into sharper focus.

Gulliver's Travels is one of the few works of English literature which is also a landmark in world literature. Jonathan Swift's account of Lemuel Gulliver's adventures in the fantastical societies of 'remote nations' was an instant best-seller on publication in 1726 and has remained in the public imagination ever since, as both a satiric fantasy and an analysis of the human condition. This scholarly edition offers an authoritative text, based on the widest possible historical collation of the many editions published in Swift's lifetime; a detailed introduction and textual apparatus; and appendices and illustrations presenting important ancillary material with new clarity. Extensive notes and commentary open out the many layers of meaning and allusion in the text, identify new sources and parallels and offer wide-ranging historical background information. An important addition to the Cambridge Swift Edition, this volume will be indispensable for scholars and students of eighteenth-century literature and ideas.

This new anthology provides seventeen key plays by twelve dramatists of the Restoration period in an anthology designed specifically for course use, with annotations and judiciously modernized texts. It offers a representative sampling of the types of play of the period, including plays by both men and women - sex comedy, moral comedy, heroic drama, Shakespearean adaptation and political history.

This new anthology provides seventeen key plays by twelve dramatists of the Restoration period in an anthology designed specifically for course use, with annotations and judiciously modernized texts. It offers a representative sampling of the types of play of the period, including plays by both men and women - sex comedy, moral comedy, heroic drama, Shakespearean adaptation and political history.

This definitive Companion provides a critical overview of literary culture in the period from John Milton to William Blake. Its broad chronological range responds to recent reshapings of the canon and identifies new directions of study. The Companion is composed of over fifty contributions from leading scholars in the field, its essays offer students a comprehensive and accessible survey of the field from a wide range of perspectives. It also, however, gives researchers and faculty the opportunity to update their acquaintance with new critical and scholarly work. The volume meets the needs of an intellectual world increasingly given over to inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary study by covering philosophical, political, cultural and historical writing, as well as literary writing. Unlike other similar volumes, the main body of the Companion consists of readings of individual texts, both those commonly and less commonly studied.

The two plays presented in full in this volume – Wycherley's The Country Wife and Congreve's The Way of the World – illustrate the evolution of Restoration comedy between 1675 and 1700. Includes full texts of Wycherley's The Country Wife and Congreve's The Way of the World. Demonstrates how Restoration comedy evolved between 1675 and 1700. Introduces general readers or students to the genre. An editorial introduction guides readers through the plays and the period.

The two plays presented in full in this volume – Wycherley's The Country Wife and Congreve's The Way of the World – illustrate the evolution of Restoration comedy between 1675 and 1700. Includes full texts of Wycherley's The Country Wife and Congreve's The Way of the World. Demonstrates how Restoration comedy evolved between 1675 and 1700. Introduces general readers or students to the genre. An editorial introduction guides readers through the plays and the period.

How Shakespeare’s exploration of central human questions—about identity, politics, religion and right and wrong—explains his lasting power, popularity and relevanceIn the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson famously argued that Shakespeare is enduringly popular because he “is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life.” Johnson’s view largely prevailed until the late twentieth century, when it was challenged by a growing scepticism about the existence of a general human nature. In Thinking Through Shakespeare, eminent literary critic David Womersley pushes back against this change by exploring how Shakespeare’s plays think through—and invite us to think through—deep human questions of lasting importance.Thinking Through Shakespeare explores four perennial human problems: personal identity, the distinction between civilization and barbarism, the relation between political power and religious authority and the tension between means and ends. It examines the history of these problems, from antiquity to today, and traces how Shakespeare engages with them in the great tragedies—Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear—but also in his other plays. Without arguing that human nature is universal or unchanging, or that Shakespeare has some special access to timeless wisdom, the book makes the case that his drama is powerful because it serves as a forensic tool, probing rival perspectives on questions that have preoccupied many people in many societies over many centuries.By revealing in new ways how Shakespeare’s plays are animated and driven by central human problems, and why he should again be viewed as the great poet of human nature, Thinking Through Shakespeare opens up a richer understanding and appreciation of his work.

In the summer of 1994, on the occasion of the bicentenary of Gibbon’s death, a group of scholars gathered in Oxford to commemorate and explore his achievement, producing this volume of essays. Eighteen years earlier, in 1976, there were similar gatherings for the bicentenary of the publication of the first volume of The Decline and fall, likewise producing published collections of essays. Comparing the present volume with its predecessors, how has scholarship devoted to Gibbon changed in the intervening years?The dominant theme of Gibbon studies during this recent period has been ‘disaggregation’, and this can be understood in two senses. Firstly, there has been textual disaggregation. Works which earlier scholars were content to treat as ‘un ensemble’ are today scrupulously delaminated: manuscripts are compared, different editions collated, separate instalments discriminated, successive drafts juxtaposed. It seems safe to say that no modern study of Gibbon could gain a hearing unless its author was evidently a master of the relevant textual bibliography. The result of this renewed interest in bibliography has been a much sharper awareness of the complexity of Gibbon’s writings as literary artefacts. Secondly, disaggregation has also occurred in the contexts, both English and European, within which Gibbon’s work demand to be read. The Enlightenment itself is now apprehended as a congeries of movements and events that attracted men of divergent aims and beliefs. In this freshly complicated setting, Gibbon’s life and work emerge as key points, through which swirled many of the most important intellectual currents of the day. The essays collected in this volume exemplify and extend these trends in Gibbon scholarship.

Gulliver's Travels is one of the few works of English literature which is also a landmark in world literature. Jonathan Swift's account of Lemuel Gulliver's adventures in the fantastical societies of 'remote nations' was an instant best-seller on publication in 1726 and has remained in the public imagination ever since, as both a satiric fantasy and an analysis of the human condition. This scholarly edition offers an authoritative text, based on the widest possible historical collation of the many editions published in Swift's lifetime; a detailed introduction and textual apparatus; and appendices and illustrations presenting important ancillary material with new clarity. Extensive notes and commentary open out the many layers of meaning and allusion in the text, identify new sources and parallels and offer wide-ranging historical background information. An important addition to the Cambridge Swift Edition, this volume will be indispensable for scholars and students of eighteenth-century literature and ideas.