History of English Literature is a comprehensive, eight-volume survey of English literature from the Middle Ages to the early twenty-first century. This reference work provides insightful and often revisionary readings of core texts in the English literary canon. Richly informative analyses are framed by the biographical, historical and intellectual context for each author.
Volume 2 offers a general assessment of all of Shakespeare's works, summarizes the critical reception since its onset, traces a tentative biography of the playwright, discusses the youthful poems and the sonnets, and analyses the plays one by one. The plays are divided into the traditional thematic and chronological subsets - such as historical dramas, comedies, tragedies and romances - but they are further assessed in terms of their «experimental» or «mature» characteristics.
Volume 2 offers a general assessment of all of Shakespeare's works, summarizes the critical reception since its onset, traces a tentative biography of the playwright, discusses the youthful poems and the sonnets, and analyses the plays one by one. The plays are divided into the traditional thematic and chronological subsets - such as historical dramas, comedies, tragedies and romances - but they are further assessed in terms of their «experimental» or «mature» characteristics.
«Franco Marucci's History of English Literature is unique in its field. There is no other book that combines such erudition and authority in such a compact format. An indispensable work of reference.» (J.B. Bullen, Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College, Oxford)
Praise for the Italian edition: «Franco Marucci's Italian-language History of English Literature comes from one of the major Italian scholars in the field, and displays a quite extraordinary range and diversity. Here is information in depth for almost every taste and theoretical viewpoint, with ample guidance for any Italian seeking to find a path through the complexities of a literature in the process of turning itself from national debates into a world-wide culture. An extraordinary achievement!» (Stephen Prickett, Regius Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Glasgow, and an Honorary Professor of the University of Kent, at Canterbury)
«Professor Marucci's achievement is a beautiful and most useful one. After affording a store-house of historical and bibliographical information concerning XIXth century English literature, he now - [like] a new Virgil! - guides us through modern times and even the unexplored bushes of contemporary literary production. Not only Italian-speaking scholars, but as well most of «Romanist» readers will be able to derive advantage from his interpretation of our nearest culture.» (Dominique Millet-Gérard, Professeur de Littérature français et comparée á l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne)
«The History of English Literature Franco Marucci is completing in Italian is a unique enterprise. A massive seven-volume work, it is the opus of a single scholar of renown in his country and at home with everything English, and a splendidly argued narrative of the long journey of literature in the English language in all its main thoroughfares and byroads from the times of Beowulf to the end of the second millennium. It contains new canons and quite a few surprises, and I would have no hesitation in recommending it to my British and American colleagues.» (Piero Boitani, FBA, Professor at Sapienza University of Rome)
Praise for the Italian edition: «Franco Marucci's Italian-language History of English Literature comes from one of the major Italian scholars in the field, and displays a quite extraordinary range and diversity. Here is information in depth for almost every taste and theoretical viewpoint, with ample guidance for any Italian seeking to find a path through the complexities of a literature in the process of turning itself from national debates into a world-wide culture. An extraordinary achievement!» (Stephen Prickett, Regius Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Glasgow, and an Honorary Professor of the University of Kent, at Canterbury)
«Professor Marucci's achievement is a beautiful and most useful one. After affording a store-house of historical and bibliographical information concerning XIXth century English literature, he now - [like] a new Virgil! - guides us through modern times and even the unexplored bushes of contemporary literary production. Not only Italian-speaking scholars, but as well most of «Romanist» readers will be able to derive advantage from his interpretation of our nearest culture.» (Dominique Millet-Gérard, Professeur de Littérature français et comparée á l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne)
«The History of English Literature Franco Marucci is completing in Italian is a unique enterprise. A massive seven-volume work, it is the opus of a single scholar of renown in his country and at home with everything English, and a splendidly argued narrative of the long journey of literature in the English language in all its main thoroughfares and byroads from the times of Beowulf to the end of the second millennium. It contains new canons and quite a few surprises, and I would have no hesitation in recommending it to my British and American colleagues.» (Piero Boitani, FBA, Professor at Sapienza University of Rome)