James Sambrook – författare

This is the first full-scale biography of the poet and playwright for forty years. On the personal side it places him in his social and cultural setting: as a welcome member of the disparate circles that surrounded Alexander Pope, Richard Savage, Aaron Hill, James Quin, George Bubb Dodington, George Lyttelton, Lady Hertford, and Frederick, Prince of Wales. More significantly, for the first time Thomson's involvement in politics is thoroughly explored. The analysis of his Scottish Whiggism and his role as the poet of Britannia and Liberty places the poetry in a clear ideological light, which at once deepens our understanding of Thomson the man, and illuminates the political groupings of the period.Drawing on his deep understanding of Thomson's poetry, which he edited for the Oxford English Texts series, James Sambrook also supplies a full critical analysis of the whole body of Thomson's writings that is unrivalled in its depth. This new Life maintains an even balance between biography, history, and literary criticism, and forms both an impressive study of the man and a companion to the highly praised Oxford English Texts edition of the poems.

A scholarly edition of a work by James Thomson. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of poems by James Thompson. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

Having previously suffered neglect as a result of Pope's dominance of the period, William Cowper (1731-1800) has now become a far more important figure in eighteenth-century literature. Following the successful format of the series, Professor Sambrook's edition consists of a comprehensive, contextual editor's introduction together with substantial annotation on the page. The Task (1785) is the principal text discussed together with a selection of Cowper's other poems which cover a wide range of his subjects, moods and styles.

This is an impressive and lucid survey of eighteenth-century intellectual life. It reflects on some of the dominant themes of the period, arguing against such labels as 'Augustan Age', 'Age of Enlightenment' and ' Age of Reason', which have been attached to the eighteenth-century by critics and historians.

Cobbett is best known today as the author of Rural Rides, but in his lifetime, he was an enormously productive political and economic journalist and writer of books in many fields, and he is important to students in a number of disciplines, ranging from literature, through politics and economics, to social and political history. Originally published in 1973 this book presents an account of Cobbett’s life and works, placing him in a wide cultural context and setting him above all in a literary tradition. The author investigates the sources, literary, social and political, for that complex of ‘country’ attitudes and the myth of a rural ‘Merry England’ which so dominated Cobbett’s writings. Due regard is paid to Cobbett’s historical significance as a political agitator, but the main emphasis is upon his literary qualities.

This is an impressive and lucid survey of eighteenth-century intellectual life, providing a real sense of the complexity of the age and of the cultural and intellectual climate in which imaginative literature flourished. It reflects on some of the dominant themes of the period, arguing against such labels as 'Augustan Age', 'Age of Enlightenment' and 'Age of Reason', which have been attached to the eighteenth-century by critics and historians.