English Books and Readers 1558-1603: Volume 2 by H S Bennett

English Books and Readers 1558-1603: Volume 2 by H S Bennett

In this second volume of his classic English Books and Readers, first published in 1965, H. S. Bennett continues the story down to the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. His purpose is to give an account of the total output of books and pamphlets in this period, irrespective of their qualities as literature. He reveals a picture of astonishing variety and fertility. The part of it which concerns the production of imaginative, philosophical and religious books is fairly well known; but by far the larger proportion of the output of the printing presses consisted of such diverse products as histories and geographies, moral treatises, translations from the Classics, legal and medical text-books, writings on sports and pastimes, seamanship, primers of instruction in languages and music, the great and famous corpus of travel books, volumes of ballads and verses, and cheap and sensational pamphlets on such topics as monstrous births, strange creatures, the evil practices of witches and the diabolical objectives of traitors. Besides showing how the printers, booksellers and their allies made this enormously diverse mass of material readily available to the Elizabethan reading public, the author examines as well the relations between writers and readers.

Review of the hardback: 'Though much has been written on these subjects, by bibliographers and others, and though Mr Bennett is generous in acknowledging the work of others, his is a peculiarly original and fruitful achievement because of the questions he asks and the special knowledge he contributes.. The many long and splendid quotations not only testify to an enviable range of reading, but also positively advance understanding of the problems discussed. In a field where scholarly competence and worthy labours are common enough, this book, itself the product of scholarship and hard work, stands out because it is also the product of a civilized mind.' G. R. Elton, The Listener

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780521379892
ISBN 10	052137989X
Title	English Books and Readers 1558-1603: Volume 2
Author	H S Bennett
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	1990-02-08
Number of pages	340
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable