English Prose of the Seventeenth Century, 1590-1700 (Longman Literature in English Series)

The multi-volume Longman Literature in English Series provides students of literature with a critical introduction to the major genres in their historical and cultural context. Each volume gives a coherent account of a clearly defined area, and the series, when complete will offer a practical and comprehensive guide to literature written in English from Anglo-Saxon times to the present. The aim of the series as whole is to show that the most valuable and stimulating approach to the study of literature is that based upon an awareness of the relations between literary forms and their historical contexts. Thus the areas covered by most of the separate volumes are defined by period and genre. Each volume offers new and informed ways of reading literary works, and provides guidance for further reading in an extensive reference section. As well as studies on all periods of English and American literature, the series includes books on criticism and literary theory, and on the intellectual and cultural context.