Cambridge Companion To John Donne, The

Description:
The Cambridge Companion to John Donne introduces students (undergraduate and graduate) to the range, brilliance, and complexity of John Donne. Sixteen new 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.

Review:
'... important ... the first comprehensive guide to Donne's work ...' Times Literary Supplement ' ... important... the first comprehensive guide to Donne's works ...' Contemporary Review '... libraries serving the humanities should have this book on their shelves as it is sure to be consulted by students and teachers - and general readers - who are eager to find out more about one of the most rewarding of our poets.' Reference Reviews 'The volume is refreshing in its inclusion of a sociolinguistic exploration of the works, as well as an electrifying final piece by A. S. Byatt ... This companion more than deserves to be on our libraries' shelves, enjoying pride of place next to its older siblings on Jonson, Marlowe, Shakespeare and Spenser'. English Studies

Table of Contents:
Chronology; 1. Donne's life: a sketch Jonathan F. S. Post; 2. The text of Donne's writings Ted-Larry Pebworth; 3. The social context and nature of Donne's writing: occasional verse and letters Arthur F. Marotti; 4. Literary contexts: predecessors and contemporaries Andrew Hadfield; 5. Donne's religious world Alison Shell and Arnold Hunt; 6. Donne's political world Tom Cain; 7. Reading and rereading Donne's poetry Judith Herz; 8. Satirical writing: Donne in shadows Annabel Patterson; 9. Erotic poetry Achsah Guibbory; 10. Devotional writing Helen Wilcox; 11. Donne as preacher Peter McCullough; 12. Donne's language: the conditions of communication Lynne Magnusson; 13. Gender matters: the women in Donne's poems Ilona Bell; 14. Facing death Ramie Targoff; 15. Donne's afterlife Dayton Haskin; 16. Feeling thought: Donne and the embodied mind A. S. Byatt; 17. Select bibliography L. E. Semler.

Author Biography:
Achsah Guibbory is Professor of English at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of The Map of Time: Seventeenth-Century English Literature and Ideas of Pattern in History (1986), Ceremony and Community from Herbert to Milton: Literature, Religion, and Cultural Conflict in Seventeenth-Century England (1998), and has written numerous articles on seventeenth-century English literature and culture, and on John Donne. Her essay on Donne's Elegies, published in ELH (1990), was winner of the award from the John Donne Society for distinguished publication.