From Tottel's Miscellany (1557) to the last twentieth-century Oxford Book of English Verse (1999), anthologies have been a prime institution for the preservation and mediation of poetry. The importance of anthologies for creating and re-creating the canon of English poetry, for introducing ‘new' programmes of poetry, as a record of changing poetic fashions, audience tastes and reading practices, or as a profitable literary commodity has often been asserted. Despite its impact, however, the poetry anthology in itself has attracted surprisingly little critical interest in Britain or elsewhere in the English-speaking world. This volume is the first publication to explore the largely unmapped field of poetry anthologies in Britain. Essays written from a wide range of perspectives in literary and cultural studies, and the point of view of poets, editors, publishers and cultural institutions, aim to do justice to the typological, functional and historical variety with which this form of publication has manifested itself - from early modern print culture to the postmodern age of the world wide web.

"Shaped by sound literary and historical scholarship, The Broadview Anthology of British Literature takes a fresh approach to many canonical authors and includes a broad selection of work by lesser-known writers. The anthology also provides wide-ranging coverage of the worldwide connections of British literature, and it pays attention throughout to matters such as race, gender, class, and sexual orientation ... Highlights of Volume 5: The Victorian Era include the complete texts of In Memoriam A.H.H., The Importance of Being Earnest, Carmilla, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as well as Contexts sections on "Work and Poverty," "Women in Society," "Sexuality in the Victorian Era," "Nature and the Environment," "The New Woman," and "Britain, Empire, and a Wider World." The third edition also offers expanded representation of writers of color, including Mary Prince, Mary Seacole, Toru Dutt, and Rabindranath Tagore."--Provided by publisher.

From Anglo-Saxon runes to postcolonial rap, this undergraduate textbook covers the social and historical contexts of the whole of the English literature.

British Literature 1640-1789: An Anthology covers the period between the British Civil War and the French Revolution. It includes the works of a great many authors and provides an invitingly wide variety of genres, forms, opinions, viewpoints, and styles. Canonical literary works are extensively represented and most texts are reprinted in their entirety including, for example, Aphra Behn's Oronooko and John Milton's Paradise Lost from first editions, or in the earliest recoverable versions. Other major works include: Daniel Defoe's The Shortest Way with Dissenters, Oliver Goldsmith's The Deserted Village, Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad, Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub and A Modest Proposal, Samuel Johnson's The History of Rasselas. Selections from contemporary documents (such as court reports) are used to illuminate important cultural and social issues at particular points of history. A central aim has been to represent the period in a way that would have been more recognizable to people who lived at the time than the more conventional collection of great works of literature might do. By including the literature of private life and public life - letters, political ballads, broadsides, mock-epic poetry - DeMaria helps us to revise our sense of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature.

Shaped by sound literary and historical scholarship, The Broadview Anthology of British Literature takes a fresh approach to many canonical authors and includes a broad selection of work by lesser-known writers. The anthology also provides wide-ranging coverage of the worldwide connections of British literature, and it pays attention throughout to matters such as race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. The full anthology comprises six bound volumes, together with an extensive website component; a passcode to access the latter is included with the purchase of one or more of the bound volumes. A two-volume Concise Edition and a one-volume Compact Edition are also available. Highlights of Volume 5: The Victorian Era include the complete texts of In Memoriam A.H.H., The Importance of Being Earnest, Carmilla, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as well as Contexts sections on “Work and Poverty,” “Women in Society,” “Sexuality in the Victorian Era,” “Nature and the Environment,” “The New Woman,” and “Britain, Empire, and a Wider World.” The third edition also offers expanded representation of writers of color, including Mary Prince, Mary Seacole, Toru Dutt, and Rabindranath Tagore.