The widespread opinion is that Northrop Frye’s influence reached its zenith in the 1960s and 1970s, after which point he became obsolete, his work buried in obscurity. This almost universal opinion is summed up in Terry Eagleton’s 1983 rhetorical question, "Who now reads Frye?" In The Reception of Northrop Frye, Robert D. Denham catalogues what has been written about Frye – books, articles, translations, dissertations and theses, and reviews – in order to demonstrate that the attention Frye’s work has received from the beginning has progressed at a geomantic rate. Denham also explores what we can discover once we have a fairly complete record of Frye’s reception in front of us – such as Hayden White’s theory of emplotments applied to historical writing and Byron Almén’s theory of musical narrative. The sheer quantity of what has been written about Frye reveals that the only valid response to Eagleton’s rhetorical question is "a very large and growing number," the growth being not incremental but exponential.

Lyric Address in Dutch Literature, 1250-1800 provides accessible and comprehensive readings of ten Dutch lyrical poems, discussing each poem's historical context, revealing its political or ideological framing, religious elements, or the self-representational interests of the poet. The book focuses on how the use of the speaker's "I" creates distance or proximity to the social context of the time. Close, detailed analysis of rhetorical techniques, such as the use of the apostrophe, illuminates the ways in which poetry reveals tensions in society.

"Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687) was one of the Dutch nation's principal contributions to the transformation of European culture in the early-modern period. As a poet, diplomat, scholar and statesman, he had far-reaching influence on the cultural, scholarly and political life of his time. This collection introduces Huygens' poetry to English-speaking readers and presents a literary counterpart to the much better-known visual arts of the Dutch Golden Age. The poems have been selected to demonstrate the breadth of his interests, his pivotal role in European culture and his mastery of a variety of literary genres and styles. As a poet, Huygens wrote not only in his native Dutch, but also in Latin, French, Italian, German and English, and he made translations from these and other languages." "All poems are presented in both Dutch (or Latin) and English, the translations facing the original, and are provided with headnotes. The concise biographical and cultural introduction, the three extensive appendices and the bibliography and index will present ample suggestions for further investigation of the many areas of possible interest presented in the book, such as architecture, garden design, painting, music, science and politics."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Cambridge Companion to John Donne introduces students (undergraduate and graduate) to the range, brilliance, and complexity of John Donne. Sixteen essays, written by an international array of leading scholars and critics, cover Donne's poetry (erotic, satirical, devotional) and his prose (including his Sermons and occasional letters). Providing readings of his texts and also fully situating them in the historical and cultural context of early modern England, these essays offer the most up-to-date scholarship and introduce students to the current thinking and debates about Donne, while providing tools for students to read Donne with greater understanding and enjoyment. Special features include a chronology; a short biography; essays on political and religious contexts; an essay on the experience of reading his lyrics; a meditation on Donne by the contemporary novelist A. S. Byatt; and an extensive bibliography of editions and criticism.