An Outline History Of English Literature To Dryden

An Outline History of English Literature takes a look at English literature, from the pre-Chaucerian period (500?1340 A.D.) down to the present age. It not only keeps a sequential account of various English Literature works but also of great writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, John Milton, John Dryden, William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson and T.S. Eliot who were the backbone of English Literature. This book is a must read for students, researchers and literature buffs.

The book has a wide coverage and studies all the famous writers of English literature in the field of poetry, fiction, essay etc. The writers covered, among others, include Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Samuel John Milton, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, William Wordsworth and Alfred Tennyson. A special feature of the book is that studies writers and their contributions not in isolation but in the context of surroundings and various elements of civilisation of the age of the writer. Thus it suggests a vital relationship between English literature and English life. The book is written in a simple and lucid style. It will be found of great interest by the students of English Literature, researchers and the general readers.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

The History of the English Literature was an epoch-changing book of its time, as it invested in presenting a scientific analysis and a complete structure overview of this subject. The book starts with the prehistorical notes on the conditions of the British Isles that favored the early development of literary art. A reader gets a systematic account of the Saxon and Norman literature, the Renaissance developments, the life and influence of Shakespeare. The second volume gives an insight into the literature of the early protestant era, featuring such personalities as John Bunyan and Milton. Further, a reader finds an account of the Classic age with Dryden, Sir William Temple, Sir John Denham, Addison, Swift, and numerous novel writers William Hogarth, Samuel Richardson, and others. The third volume deals with the representatives of what was later called the beginning of the Golden Age of British Literature. The author analyzes the works of Byron, Thackeray, Macaulay, and Carlyle._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_

All for Love or, The World Well Lost is John Dryden's 1677 adaptation of the tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra into a neo-classical quintet with supporting voices: After Cleopatra's desertion of Antony at the battle of Actium, not only his wife Octavia but also his general Ventidius and his friend Dolabella strive to win him over to their side. Antony, torn between the claims of duty, friendship, dignity and love, despairs when he hears the rumour of Cleopatra's death, which is not, as in Shakespeare's version, spread by the queen herself but by her deceitful eunuch. This edition includes Dryden's dedication of the play to the Earl of Danby and his preface, in which he defends against French neo-classicist strictures the liberties he took with his sources; it further discusses the play's austere power in the theatre, which is unjustly considered to be inferior to Shakespeare's quite distinct version of the story.